 Former world champion, Veslin Topolov cruised to victory in round one of the Gibraltar Masters against India's young talent, Sankal Gupta. Veslin joins us in our studio to tell us where the Indian went wrong. Veslin, a good start today against a promising youngster from India. Pleased with the way the game went? Well, what happened is that I kind of prepared this line and I've already been played like this in the past until the 11th move, but then I believe B6 is kind of better and this is what my opponent played six years ago in Tromso. But, well, this is kind of more or less almost forced until now and my laptop was claiming white is better after Rd5. So this was all part of your preparation until Rd5? It has been played for sure until F5 and then there's some other moves except taking, but taking is critical. And now, of course, black has two moves, but I believe that also knight g4 is losing a pawn and white claims to be better. I don't know what is better for black now, but certainly this position is better for white because I believe B5 was well, B5 was supposed to be not the best move. I'm not sure about what I did, but I only remember that my laptop was claiming that best for black was to play like this. Bishop to B4. And then once I take, okay, white is still better, but apparently it was better for black than the move B5. And here I don't know. F4, the thing is that, for example, what I planned here was that if bishop d8, I was planning to go like this. Let me just get it for you. Bishop to c5. Rook e8, yeah. And then my original idea was, I think, to put my, I believe here. But then rook c, and he has to go rook c8 here. Now if he takes, well, sorry. No, he can take, right? Because this is a nice line because if you, it's not really hanging. And now B4 is also a possibility, for example. Yes. But, and I'm kind of attacking. But maybe what I missed was that in, for example, if white plays bishop d6 here instead of, in this position, if I go bishop d6. Ah, just rook here. Here. Then, I don't know, rook a7. And then maybe take take. And I was thinking that maybe I go with a knight to e4 to dominate, but maybe this position is not that clear. Black has some chances made. Well, but anyway, this was probably the critical move because after rook b8, somehow it looks like white is dominating because he has the move knight d4. And I believed that the best option for black was here to take, to return the exchange and take the pawn, but I thought it was still much, much better for white. Yeah. So, background problems so you can't take on b6. My idea was to save, to keep the other bishop also. Yeah. And I think black is pawn up for the moment, but the knight on h1 is much, much, very much in trouble and I believe this is an advantage. What happened, well, final position still it's not so easy, I believe, but it's a huge advantage for white because not only that I have two pieces for a rook, but also I believe also positional advantage. So, it was more or less an advantage out of the opening. I'm not sure about the move bishop d3 here. This was over the board, bishop d3. Yes. I also considered something else like, but it looked to me that rook d1 and then f4 and bishop moving to g1. I also considered other moves, but I thought that this was like, finally. Okay, of course, white can play g3 and then bishop g2, but I didn't want my opponent to exchange the rooks and of course I do want to give him the pawn, so I played for the maximum. And the problem for black from after taking the exchange was this knight on h1 from the start is just stuck in the position. Of course, of course, yeah, otherwise, but it all depends on 1-10p, you know. So, well, you know, this is modern chess, both we have computers, but of course from my perspective, even if somehow black holds, it looks to me that it doesn't make sense to go to this position straight out of the opening. Talking about the opening, were you aware that when you went queen after, Sam had actually played this position earlier in 2019 against Cori, and he had gone h4? Had you seen this game? Yeah, but it's somehow, I believe that black's plan is to play b5, b4, and then plays the knight on e4. And of course, if I, for example, after b5, I think if I go now, queen f2, then I believe that, for example, b4 is not a good move because black takes on d5, but I believe there are some games with the move knight a4. And there's, well, it is maybe still possible, but somehow I believe that what I did was better. Right, and it worked out well for you in the end now. I remember when the pairings came out yesterday, you were slightly worried about who you were playing because it's always difficult to play these youngsters. Oh yeah, definitely. The times with these first rounds in opens are over, so even now we... And okay, it's also true that Gibraltar is extremely strong open, and it's normal in a way, but of course I've been playing many, many years ago, opens in the beginning of the 90s, and it was nothing compared to what is now, and the general level is really high now. Also of players who are 2300, 2400, they're putting up a real fight? Oh yeah, I mean, then when I was playing these kind of players, they were like, at least they were very much inferior in the opening preparation, I believe, and now it's almost level. And for a player of your level going into an open first round, what is the approach to the preparation for the first round? Well, obviously I've been looking at my opponent's games, I just had to choose whether I should go D4 as first or E4, and finally I believe that this line was giving me more chances to get an opening advantage, and that was it. And Vesselin, before the tournament started, you had a seminar with Elizabeth Patz for the players here. Tell us a little bit about that experience. Well, it's the first time I'm teaching, first time. I've never given any kind of lessons, not to kids, you know? So in a way, she was really well prepared, she's done it many times, she knows what kind of position to show exactly, but for me it was a bit more intuitive because while she was showing some position I could remember important games, so I was also intervening. But I'm kind of satisfied because after the seminar two of our guys played three of our students and two made draw. So very satisfied with the way the training went then. I believe it was very useful for them. And how is it to come back to Gibraltar for you? No, it's good, but of course I'm a bit worried because again it's such a high rating, it's a risk obviously, you know, because really I still remember what happened to Vishy some years ago when he lost so many points and one has to be really concentrated, again from the first round, but it's also that it's different type of chess compared to the events I normally play. I mean, for example last year I've played several knockout events and mainly against Maxime, but preparation is different. You know, when we placed some top guy we were very, very happy with just getting a slight plus out of the opening and maybe play without risk. That's like the perfect situation, but in open it's different. The risk is high, but it also must be interesting to come when you don't know who you're going to play against, the novelty and the unpredictability of the open. Yeah, exactly. And what I like is actually that somehow for sure I'll play many people, many opponents for the first time in my life. So for me it's a change and also a challenge. Well, a challenge, but this was a good start. We wish you all the best for tomorrow. Get some rest. Thank you. Thank you, Wesselin.