Veselin Topalov has officially thrown down the gauntlet to the world champion Vladimir Kramnik and challenged him to rematch in his home city of Sofia.

The Bulgarian was defeated by Kramnik in a match held at Elista which unified the world title that had been split since Nigel Short and Garry Kasparov broke away from Fide in 1993.

Topalov’s manager Silvio Danailov is using the recently introduced regulation, a ludicrous one, that enables any of the top players to issue a challenge provided they could come up with 1 million Euros in prize money.

The prize fund offered is 1.5 million dollars and Danailov proposes the match take place in March so as to leave a six month gap before the next World Championship event in Mexico City.

Needless to say Kramnik is invited to play in Bulgaria and there is not the slightest chance he will particularly as both Danailov and Topalov continue to make the most ludicrous allegations about the match at Elista.

The most recent comments from Topalov, in an interview with a Spanish newspaper would end him up in court were he domiciled in the UK or, if made in a properly regulated sport, a large fine from the governing body.

It is really rather sad to see how a man who was a chess hero and who threatened to take over Kasparov’s mantle can reduce himself so rapidly to a complete laughing stock. I do not wish to give Topalov’s comments an airing in detail here but the following gives you a good general idea: “The Kremlin won't admit they killed that Russian spy or that Kramnik cheated."

Its time for Topalov to put and shut up particularly as Kramnik has agreed put his title on the line at Mexico City in September. Topalov agreed that the loser at Elista be excluded from that contest but that was his own arrogant miscalculation, he did not consider the possibility of defeat.

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