You might’ve never heard of “Veselin Topalov”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veselin_Topalov, but he dominated the field of eight of the best chess players in the world at the “FIDE World Chess Championship”:http://www.ajedrezcampeonatomundial2005.com/home.asp?lang=en.

The term “*World Chess Champion*” is …, well, it’s complicated. As if the Chess world has been “split-root” for years, several different people have claims to the title, including Topalov from Bulgaria and also Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (for defeating Garry Kasparov way back in 200). Neither is the highest “rated”:http://www.fide.com/ratings/top.phtml?list=men player, with the top two spots being held by Kasparov from Russia and Viswanathan (everyone calls him “Vishy”) Anand from India.

Speaking of Kasparov, he retired from professional chess in March of 2005 to pursue a career in Russian politics. Since then, the media seemed to lose any interest in chess, and he’s still the only chess player whose name most people would recognize.

However, the realm of world-class chess competition has become more interesting, not less. For coverage, the “Chessbase”:http://www.chessbase.com/ site is the best. New articles appear at least once each weekday, and the journalism is well-written and complete (though they do post an occasional “article” when they release a new product).

Back to the “World Championship”:http://www.ajedrezcampeonatomundial2005.com/home.asp?lang=en, which took place in San Luis, Argentina at the Hotel Potrero de los Funes, from September 27 to October 16, 2005.

Early favorites were Anand, Topalov, and Peter Leko of Hungary, and the speculation as to “who would win”:http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2643 were ripe.

During the actual tournament, commentary was provided by Nigel Short of England, from “Round 1”:http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2655 to “Round 14”:http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2683. Let’s just say his comments are _saucy,_ or perhaps just _tart,_ at least for your average grandmaster.