The World Chess Championship 2012 between the defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand and the challenger from the Candidates Matches Boris Gelfand will take place in May 2012 in Moscow, Russia.
In an official press release distributed by FIDE we read: “The Federation Internationale des Echecs is pleased to announce that following the evaluation of the bids for the World Chess Championship Match 2012 and the recommendations by the World Championship and Olympiad Commission, it has awarded the organization of the match to the Russian Chess Federation. The match will be held in May 2012 in Moscow, Russia and offers the World Champion Vishwanthanan Anand from India, and the Challenger Boris Gelfand from Israel, a prize fund of 2,550,000 US dollars.”
The news about the possibility the World Chess Championship 2012 to be in Moscow first broke on the pages of Chessdom in the end of June. It was accompanied by a possible interest by India and Israel. The interest of India materialized as half a month later India made a strong bid to host the event, while Israel remained only as rumor. However, India’s bid quickly lost pace after the deadline announced by FIDE, and after evaluation of the bids Russia and Moscow remained as the chosen venue for the WCC 2012.
As confirmed by FIDE, the prize fund of both bids was above the required 1 million. Thus, the driving force behind choosing Russia and Moscow to host Anand – Gelfand has been the further organization details proposed by the bidders for the WCC.
The news for the winning bid of Moscow coincides with the start of the Russian Super Final in the city. The last world championships organized in Moscow were the 1985 match between Kasparov and Karpov, and the 2002 knockout World Championship won by Ponomariov.
Full press release published below and more information to follow, stay tuned with www.indianchess.org
