The World Chess Championship 2012 was a chess match between the defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the 2011 Candidates Tournament. After sixteen games, including four rapid games, Anand retained his title. The match, held under the auspices of the World Chess Federation FIDE, took place between 10 and 31 May 2012 in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. The prize fund was US$2.55 million.
Anand was the defending champion, having gained the title in 2007 and defended it in 2008 (against Vladimir Kramnik) and in 2010 (against Veselin Topalov). Boris Gelfand became the challenger after winning the eight-player Candidates Tournament in May 2011. Anand's subsequent victory, therefore, was his third consecutive title defence.
The match conditions called for twelve games to be played with classical time control. If a player scored at least 6½ points, he would be declared the winner and the match ended. By the end of the twelve games, however, the match was tied at 6 points each, so four rapid games were played in order to produce a result. Anand won the rapid-game playoff with a win in the second game and draws in the other three games.
Candidates tournament The process for selecting the challenger underwent 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 June 2009, FIDE indicated that the format would be in the form of matches.FIDE Regulations, released on FIDE web site on 22 June 2009
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.FIDE Candidates Tournament split between two venues, Chessbase, 18 October 2009 The venue was changed to Kazan, Russia in July 2010. The Azerbaijani nominee Shakhriyar Mamedyarov still remained in the tournament despite the tournament not being held in Azerbaijan.
In November 2010, then world No. 2 Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Candidates Tournament citing the selection process as not sufficiently modern and fair. He was replaced by Alexander Grischuk.
Seed Place QualifierAgeJan 2010 RatingJan 2010 World RankMay 2011 World Rank1Runner up of the World Chess Championship 2010 match36280527 n/aThe next highest rated player in the world (average of July 2009Top 100 Players July 2009 , FIDE online and January 2010Top 100 Players January 2010 , FIDE online ratings) (withdrew)20281012 2The second-next highest rated player in the world(average of July 2009 and January 2010 ratings)352788443Winner of the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010282781534Winner of the Chess World Cup 20094227616165Tournament organisers' nominee 2627411196Third place at the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 (replacement for Carlsen)27273615127Runner-up at the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–201024273316138Runner up of the 2009 Challenger Match3626934018
Pairings and schedule According to FIDE, the loser of the World Chess Championship 2010 (Veselin Topalov) was seeded no. 1 and the rest were seeded according to FIDE rating as of January 2010. FIDE confirmed the matches on 7 February 2011. Games of the matches were played in Kazan, Russia, from 5 to 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 italics where needed.
Championship match The Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand was held from 10 to 30 May 2012 in Moscow, Russia, under the auspices of FIDE.
Host selection
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 2011, it was announced that Moscow had submitted a bid to host the 2012 World Chess Championship.
On 13 July 2011, 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 2011, 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 the Tamil language and he claimed it had not been translated into 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 2011, 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 2011, FIDE announced that the Russian Chess Federation had won the bid and would host the match in Moscow in May 2012. The prize fund will be 2.55 million US dollars. Skolkovo, the Innovation project near Moscow, was named as a possible venue.
On 20 February 2012, an agreement between the Russian Chess Federation and the Tretyakov Gallery was signed to stage there the World Championship Match. Andrey Filatov, the sponsor of the match, believes that bringing chess and art together can open a new page in chess history.
Match conditions The match format was the best of 12 games. Players scored one point for a win and half a point for a draw. The match ended once either player scored a minimum of 6½ points. Time control was 120 minutes, with 60 minutes added after move 40, 15 minutes added after move 60, and 30 additional seconds per move starting from move 61.
In case of a tie at the end of 12 games, there would be a series of tie breaks: Colors would be drawn and four rapid games would be played. The time control for these games would be 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If the score was tied after the four rapid tie break games, colors would be drawn and two blitz games (5 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per move) would be played. If the score was tied after two blitz games, another two-game blitz match would be played, under the same terms. The process would repeat, if necessary, until five blitz matches have been played. If the score was tied after ten blitz games, a single sudden-death "Armageddon game" would determine the champion. The winner of a draw of lots would get to choose the colour to play, with white given 5 minutes and Black 4 minutes. Beginning with move 61, a three-second increment would be added following each move. If the game was drawn, then the player of the Black pieces would be declared champion.
Seconds Anand had the same group of seconds who helped his preparation in World Chess Championship 2008 and World Chess Championship 2010: Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Radosław Wojtaszek.
Gelfand's seconds for the match included Alexander Huzman, Pavel Eljanov, and Maxim Rodshtein.
In a post-game press conference, Gelfand confirmed the media speculation that he had additional seconds, who were not revealed. After the match Gelfand revealed that the other seconds were Evgeny Tomashevsky and Michael Roiz. Gelfand also said that Garry Kasparov had offered to be his second for the match and help in preparation but Gelfand refused, saying "I was really shocked. ... For me it was unthinkable to receive help from somebody who has access to secrets of my colleagues."
Previous head-to-head record
Before the 2012 match Anand and Gelfand played 35 games against each other at classical time control, with Anand winning 6 games and Gelfand winning 5 games. Gelfand had scored his last win in 1993.
Head-to-head recordAnand winsDrawsGelfand winsTotalClassicalAnand (white) – Gelfand (black)510015Gelfand (white) – Anand (black)114520Total624535Rapid chess819128Blitz chess3407Total1747670
Schedule and results
Regular schedule
Game Day, Date Anand Gelfand Standing1Friday, 11 May ½ ½ Match tied ½ – ½ 2 Saturday, 12 May ½ ½ Match tied 1 – 13 Monday, 14 May ½ ½ Match tied 1½ – 1½4 Tuesday, 15 May ½ ½ Match tied 2 – 25 Thursday, 17 May ½ ½ Match tied 2½ – 2½ 6 Friday, 18 May ½ ½ Match tied 3 – 3 7 Sunday, 20 May 0 1 Gelfand leads 4 – 38 Monday, 21 May 1 0 Match tied 4 – 4 9 Wednesday, 23 May ½ ½ Match tied 4½ – 4½10 Thursday, 24 May ½ ½ Match tied 5 – 511 Saturday, 26 May ½ ½ Match tied 5½ – 5½ 12 Monday, 28 May½ ½ Match tied 6 – 6Tie breakWednesday, 30 May 2½ 1½ Anand wins 8½ – 7½
Games 1–12 were scheduled to begin at 15:00 local time.
Tie-break schedule GameFormat Anand Gelfand Standing13 Rapid ½ ½ Tie break even ½ – ½14 1 0 Anand leading 1½ – ½15 ½ ½ Anand leading 2 – 116 ½ ½ Anand wins 2½ – 1½
Time control for rapid games: 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.
All tie-break games were scheduled to be played on Wednesday, 30 May, with Game 13 scheduled to begin at 12:00 local time.
Classical games
Game 1, Anand–Gelfand, ½–½
Grünfeld Defence, D85 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bb5+ Nc6 9.d5 Qa5 10.Rb1 a6 11.Bxc6+ bxc6 12.0-0 Qxa2 13.Rb2 Qa5 14.d6 Ra7 15.Bg5 exd6 16.Qxd6 Rd7 17.Qxc6 Qc7 18.Qxc7 Rxc7 19.Bf4 Rb7 20.Rc2 0-0 21.Bd6 Re8 22.Nd2 f5 23.f3 fxe4 24.Nxe4 Bf5 ½–½A draw by mutual agreement.
Game 2, Gelfand–Anand, ½–½