India to host WC match?

CHENNAI: India would most probably host Viswanathan Anand’s world chess title match in 2012. India’s decision to join the fray came after London withdrew its bid to host the match last week.

Though the FIDE (world chess federation) had not confirmed the venue because the qualifying matches (Candidates phase) to identify the challenger to Anand were still in progress, the London organizers wanted an agreement to be reached by January 29, 2011.

FIDE had its presidential board meeting in Turkey last weekend which was attended by All India Chess Federation secretary DV Sundar. “The meeting did not discuss any bid in detail,” Sundar told TOI. “But we offered to host the match in India,” added Sundar, who is also the vice-president of FIDE.

London was projected as the city to host the match since 2009 but the sponsors found it difficult to finalize the deal with FIDE. At the moment, only Anand is the sure candidate for the match and his challenger would emerge from a series of Candidates matches to be held this year. “FIDE can’t finalize any venue before the Candidates matches are over in May because the venue should be acceptable to the challenger as well. So the bids would be finalized only in May. Unfortunately, London said they could not wait that long,” said Sundar.

This is not the first time that Anand’s world championship matches have run into problems. The last championship match between Anand and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria had sponsorship problems but then Bulgaria stood behind its candidate (Topalov) and offered the maximum bid to seal it.

But this time the Indian federation seems ready for the big match. The last time the country hosted a world championship match in 2000 in New Delhi, Anand went on to win the title for the first time, though the final was held in Tehran.

“London has been a probable venue for the world championships since 2009 and the sponsors had shown keen interest in staging the event. I have not been involved in the negotiations so I can’t comment on what has transpired. The world championships in 2012 would be one of the most closely-contested matches, personally for me it would be a very big challenge,” said Anand, who reached Chennai on Sunday after the Wijk aan Zee tournament.

Anand’s wife and manager Aruna said Anand would be happy to play the match in India but she was not sure about the Indian bid. “Anand has played three FIDE world championship matches in India and he has done well here. It would be a good challenge,” she told TOI.

If India finally gets the nod, Chennai is the city that looks likely to host the match. AICF has already decided to host the world junior chess championship this year here and the 2012 match could be the grand finale.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com