Veselin Topalov was born on March 15, 1975, in Rousse, Bulgaria. His father taught him his first chess lessons when Veselin was 8 years old, ever suspecting that one day his son will become the chess champion of the world. Veselin Topalov shows his great talent for first time in 1989 in Puerto Rico when he becomes chess champion of the world in the Under 14 World Championship. In 1990 he became second in the Under 16 World Championship in Singapore. After acquiring the title of Grandmaster in 1992, he became climbing the ladder on his way to the top achieved in 2005. The same year he defeated Gary Kasparov in his last official game in Linares and won Mtel Masters to make his ELO rating over 2800. Before that he became world champion on October 14 in San Luis, Argentina, with the incredible lead of 1.5 point before the second. On the same date Bulgaria became the strongest chess country in the world because both of the world champions were Bulgarians, Veselin Topalov for the men and Antoaneta Stefanova for the women. No other country has achieved such success after the fall of the Soviet Union.

A of October 15, 2007, Veselin Topalov is ranked fourth in the world with an ELO coefficient of 2769. Only a year ago he had the second biggest ELO of all time - 2813. During the World Chess Championship in September/October 2005, Veselin Topalov was phenomenal. Practically, he ensured himself the title half way through the tournament by winning 6 out his first 7 games. Veselin Topalov's ELO for the tournament was 2890 (40 points higher than Kasparov's best!), while the average ELO for the tournament was 2739.

After Topalov's victory, FIDE decided to unite the two awards FIDE World title and Classic Chess World title and organize a game between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik for the world's absolute chess champion. Kramnik won the title in the tie-break with 2.5-1.5 after the match was draw after the first twelve games. There has been a lot of controversy about this match between Kramnik and Topalov because Kramnik was going to the restroom 50 times per game and there was no surveillance in the restroom. The match title became known as "The restroom war" because Kramnik was directly accused by Veselin Topalov to have cheated in the match using a computer in the restroom. After Veselin Topalov lost his title, he wanted a re-match, but FIDE did not arrange one due to their rules and regulations. However, as former world chess champion, Topalov was granted special rights by FIDE and will have a chance to win the title again in the forthcoming years. Veselin Topalov has won 14 of the most important chess tournaments in the world so far.