Breaking news: World Championship 2012 in Chennai

7/13/2011 – There was a bid from Russia, but now the Tamil Nadu Government has placed a winning bid for the Chess World Championship match between reigning Champion Viswanathan Anand and Challenger Boris Gelfand. The match will take place in April or May of 2012, the total budget is Rs. 20 crores (= 3.2 million Euros or US $4.5 million). Press release.

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Press release

World Title Match At Chennai In 2012

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has accepted to stage the Anand versus Gelfand World Chess title match either in April or in May of 2012. The budget for the event which is Rs. 20 Crore will be sponsored by the Tamil Nadu Government. This followed a meeting FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister at Chennai this morning.

At a subsequent meet-the-press, held at the Russian Cultural Centre in Chennai on July 13, 2011, J.C.D. Prabhakar, President of the AICF announced the Chennai bid for the world title match which is likely to go through on July 31, 2011.

When this event happens, this will become the biggest chess event ever in India in terms of importance as well as prize money. Two World Championship semi-finals were held at Sanghinagar (near Hyderabad) in February 1995 and the two semi-finals were held in Delhi in December 2000. The finals has never taken place in Indian soil.

Viswanathan Anand is a four-time world champion and would be looking forward to defend and keep his title for a fifth time next summer.

In a Tamil Nadu Government Press Release No.444 dated July 13, 2011, the Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha had sanctioned the amount for this title match which has not been staged in India before.


FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in conversation with Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha. To his right is D.V. Sundar, Vice President of FIDE and to his left is J.C.D. Prabhakar, President, AICF.