World Chess Championship 2012

Viswanathan Anand (IND)	Boris Gelfand (ISR)
Defending champion	Challenger
Winner of the 2010 World Chess Championship	Winner of the 2011 Candidates tournament
2799 (world No.4)	2727 (world No.22)

The World Chess Championship 2012 will be a match between the current world champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the Candidates tournament. The match will take place on 10–31 May 2012 in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia and will determine the World Chess Champion. The match will be held under the auspices of FIDE, the World Chess Federation. The prize fund is 2.55 million US Dollars. Previously, Skolkovo, the Innovation project near Moscow, was named as a possible venue.

The defending champion is Anand, having held the title since 2007. He last defended his title by winning the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov. The challenger is Gelfand, who won the tournament of eight-player Candidate Matches.

The process for selecting the challenger has undergone a number of changes. A major change was announced on 25 November 2008, when it was announced that a two-player Challenger Match would be replaced with an eight-player Candidates' Tournament. The change was criticised by a number of players and commentators, as well as by the Association of Chess Professionals. In November 2010, then world No. 2 Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Candidates' Tournament.

Venue

The 2012 FIDE World Chess Championship will be held in Moscow, Russia.

The Executive Board gave during its congress in fall 2009 in Halkidiki an option to London, United Kingdom to organise the World Chess Championship for 2012. They had until 15 February 2010 to exercise the option which had to include the offer of a prize fund similar to that for the World Chess Championship 2010 match. The London Chess Classic organising body "Chess Promotions Limited" confirmed that London were in negotiations to hold the World Chess Championships in 2012. However, after FIDE failed to agree to the terms of the contract within the time frame agreed upon, the option expired on 28 January 2011, and Chess Promotions Limited withdrew their bid to organise the event in London, citing the lack of time left to successfully organise the event.

As a result FIDE opened an application procedure for the hosting of the World Chess Championship match to be played from 10 April 2012 to 31 May 2012. Organisations interested in bidding to host the event had until 31 July 2011, 13:00 GMT to submit their documents including a bid fee.

On 28 June, it was announced that Moscow had submitted a bid to host the 2012 World Chess Championship.

On 13 July, the Tamil Nadu state government announced a bid of Rs 20 crore (Approx. 4.5 million $) for the match to be held in Chennai, India. Chennai is the home city of the World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

It was reported on 14 July 2011 that Minsk, Belarus was also interested in hosting this event

In an interview with the Russian newspaper "Kommersant", dated 29 July, Boris Gelfand expressed his concern about the offer made by Chennai. Gelfand said the offer from Moscow was the only transparent one, he was not sure of the existence of financial guarantees by the Indian side. The Chennai offer was in Tamil language and he claimed it had not been translated in English. In the past, matches, including those of Kasparov against Ponomaryov and against Kasimdzanov were cancelled due to lack of financial guarantees.

On 2 August, FIDE announced that it received bids from the Russian chess federation (Moscow) and a second one from the All India chess federation (Chennai). Both were well above the minimum required prize fund. FIDE announced they would contact the bidders and players, and declare the winner of the bid by 10 August 2011.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE's president, told the Russian newspaper "Sport Express" that the financial offer was not the only criterion. Other factors, including the possibility of the propagation of the "chess in school" programme, and popularisation of chess in a particular region will also be considered. He would also take into account the views of the champion and the challenger.

On 8 August, FIDE announced that the Russian Chess Federation had won the bid and will host the match in Moscow in May 2012. The prize fund will be 2.55 million US dollars.

Schedule

Game 1: Friday 11 May

Game 2: Saturday 12 May

Game 3: Monday 14 May

Game 4: Tuesday 15 May

Game 5: Thursday 17 May

Game 6: Friday 18 May

Game 7: Sunday 20 May

Game 8: Monday 21 May

Game 9: Wednesday 23 May

Game 10: Thursday 24 May

Game 11: Saturday 26 May

Game 12: Monday 28 May

Tiebreak if necessary: Wednesday 30 May.

Candidates tournament

The challenger will be Boris Gelfand of Israel. In June 2009, FIDE indicated that the format would be matches. Originally, the intended venue for the candidate matches was Baku, but Levon Aronian announced that he would not play in Azerbaijan and matches involving him were to be held in a different country yet to be determined. This was changed to Kazan, Russia in July 2010, but with the Azerbaijan nominee, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, remaining in the tournament.

Veselin Topalov has announced that he would not play in Russia against a Russian opponent, due to the unpleasant episodes which took place during the 2006 match against Vladimir Kramnik.

Seed	Place	Qualifier	Jan 2010 Rating	Jan 2010 World Rank	May 2011 World Rank
1	Loser of the World Chess Championship 2010 match	Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)	2805	2	7
n/a	The next highest rated player in the world (average of July 2009 and January 2010 ratings)	Magnus Carlsen (Norway) (withdrew)	2810	1	2
2	The second-next highest rated player in the world (average of July 2009 and January 2010 ratings)	Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)	2788	4	4
3	Winner of the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010	Levon Aronian (Armenia)	2781	5	3
4	Winner of the Chess World Cup 2009	Boris Gelfand (Israel)	2761	6	16
5	Tournament organisers' nominee	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan)	2741	11	9
6	Third place at the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010	Alexander Grischuk (Russia) (replacement for Carlsen)	2736	15	12
7	Runner-up at the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010	Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)	2733	16	13
8	Loser of the 2009 Challenger Match	Gata Kamsky (United States)	2693	40	18

Pairings and schedule

According to FIDE, the loser of the World Chess Championship 2010 (Veselin Topalov) is seed no. 1 and the rest are seeded according to FIDE January 2010 ratings. FIDE confirmed the matches on 7 February 2011. Games of the match were played from 5–25 May 2011. Tiebreaks were conducted using game in 25 minutes rapid play followed by blitz play and then armageddon games as necessary.

The schedule of the event was as follows:

• 5 May – Game 1, round 1
• 6 May – Game 2, round 1
• 7 May – Game 3, round 1
• 8 May – Game 4, round 1
• 9 May – Tiebreaks

• 12 May – Game 1, round 2
• 13 May – Game 2, round 2
• 14 May – Game 3, round 2
• 15 May – Game 4, round 2
• 16 May – Tiebreaks

• 19 May – Game 1, round 3
• 20 May – Game 2, round 3
• 21 May – Game 3, round 3
• 22 May – Free Day
• 23 May – Game 4, round 3
• 24 May – Game 5, round 3
• 25 May – Game 6, round 3
• 26 May – Tiebreaks / Closing Ceremony

Bracket

Tiebreaks are in parentheses where needed.

Quarterfinals (best of 4)

Semifinals (best of 4)

Final (best of 6)

1

Veselin Topalov

1½

8

Gata Kamsky

2½

Gata Kamsky

2(2)

Boris Gelfand

2(4)

4

Boris Gelfand

2½

5

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

1½

Boris Gelfand

3½

Alexander Grischuk

2½

3

Levon Aronian

2(1½)

6

Alexander Grischuk

2(2½)

Alexander Grischuk

2(3½)

Vladimir Kramnik

2(2½)

2

Vladimir Kramnik

2(4½)

7

Teimour Radjabov

2(3½)

Timeline of changes

The procedures for choosing the challenger and host have undergone a number of changes and controversies. A timeline is shown below:

• February 2007 – FIDE initially announces that the challenger will be the winner of the Chess World Cup ("Proposal A"). This leads to protests from a number leading grandmasters, so this proposal is soon scrapped.
• June 2007 – FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announces a structure culminating in a two-player Challenger Match:
  • The first stage is the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, a grand prix series of tournaments between twenty-one élite players, beginning in April 2008.
  • In late 2009, FIDE will stage the Chess World Cup 2009, a series of knockout mini-matches following a similar format to the Chess World Cup 2007 (128 players, seven rounds).
  • In 2010, an eight-game Challenger Match will be played between the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 winner and the Chess World Cup 2009 winner.
  • The winner of the challenger match will play the defending champion in a twelve-game match in September 2011.
  • Starting with this 2011 championship FIDE plans to hold future World Chess Championships on a two-year cycle in the same format.
• February 2008 – Alexander Morozevich announces he is boycotting the Grand Prix, saying the process is too long, unwieldy and disorganised. He claims that Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov are also boycotting.
• March 2008 – The line-up for the Grand Prix is announced. The top four rated players in the world at the time (Kramnik, Anand, Topalov, Morozevich) are not in the tournament; other eligible players not participating are Alexei Shirov and Judit Polgár. The Week in Chess reports that Kramnik and Topalov are not participating because the event had insufficient prize money.
• April–May 2008 – First Grand Prix tournament takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
• July–August 2008 – Second Grand Prix tournament takes place in Sochi, Russia.
• 23 November 2008 – Qatar, who was scheduled to hold the third Grand Prix beginning on 13 December, withdraws as a host nation, and is replaced by Elista, Russia.
• 25 November 2008 – Ilyumzhinov announces the new structure (the eight-player Candidates Tournament described above, instead if a two-player Challenger Match).
• 26 November 2008 – The changes are ratified the next day at the FIDE Congress.
• 5 December 2008 – Magnus Carlsen withdraws from the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 in protest at the changes partway through the cycle. He argues that the Grand Prix players have been disadvantaged, as the winner now qualifies for an eight-player tournament instead of a two-player Challenger Match.
• 6 December 2008 – Levon Aronian issues an open letter of protest, but does not withdraw from the Grand Prix.
• 11 December 2008 – Michael Adams withdraws from the Grand Prix for similar reasons to Carlsen.
• 13 December 2008 – The third Grand Prix tournament begins in Elista, Russia, with a number of changes to the playing list (see FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010).
• 15 December 2008 – Ilyumzhinov announces that both events will take place (the two-player Challenger Match and the eight-player Candidates Tournament), with a final decision on the structure in March 2009.
• 16 December 2008 – The Association of Chess Professionals objects to the change, saying, "The system of the World Championship cannot be changed once the cycle has started."
• 11 February 2009 – Universal Event Promotion (UEP), the company which organised the World Chess Championship 2008 match, submits a bid to host the Candidates Tournament as a series of matches.
• 9 March 2009 – FIDE accepts UEP's bid, confirming that an eight-player Candidates Tournament will take place. No mention is made of the Challenger Match. There is also a slight change to the qualification for the Candidates' tournament: two players (rather than one) are to be taken from the ratings list, and the winner of the World Chess Cup 2009 qualifies, but the runner-up does not.
• 22 June 2009 – FIDE announces regulations for the eight-player Candidates Tournament, indicating it will be organised as a series of short matches.
• October 2009 – it is reported that the Candidates matches will be organised by Azerbaijan, but that the matches involving Armenia's Levon Aronian will be played elsewhere; and that the matches will be played at the end of 2010 and start of 2011.
• 20 October 2009 – The FIDE Executive Board gave an option to London to organise the event and announced that it would only open the bidding procedure if London would not take the option.
• 20 April 2010 – London confirms holding an option to organise the 2012 World Chess Championship.
• 26 July 2010 – The FIDE Presidential Board in Tromso, Norway decides to move the Candidates matches from Azerbaijan to Kazan, Russia, with Mamedyarov's position intact. If Topalov refuses to play in Kazan, Alexander Grischuk, the third-place finisher in the FIDE Grand Prix, will take his place.
• 28 July 2010 – After learning of FIDE's intention of replacing him with Grischuk should he refuse to play, Topalov backs off of his previous statement refusing to play in Russia, and indicates that he will participate in Kazan.
• 29 July 2010 – Topalov (through his manager) indicates that he would still refuse to play a match against any Russian in Kazan; this could not theoretically happen until the Candidates final, since Kramnik and Grischuk are the only Russians in the Candidates tournament and play in the lower half of the bracket, while Topalov plays in the upper bracket; at the time of this statement, Kramnik was the only Russian in the field.
• 5 November 2010 – Magnus Carlsen decides not to take part in the planned Candidate Matches.
• 10 November 2010 – FIDE announces that Grischuk will replace Carlsen. Any other withdrawals will be replaced by Dmitry Jakovenko, the fourth-place finisher in the FIDE Grand Prix.
• 3 February 2011 – London withdraws its 2012 World Championship bid.
• 28 June 2011 – Moscow confirms bidding to host the 2012 World Championship.
• 13 July 2011 – Chennai bids to host the 2012 World Championship.

External links

• Website of the Championship Match 2012
• Gelfand won the Candidates match beating Grischuk