On Thursday, May 10th the World Championship match between reigning champion Vishy Anand and challenger Boris Gelfand was officially opened. At 18.30 a press conference took place in the press room, with Boris Gelfand, Vishy Anand, Mrs. Irina Lebedeva (Director of the Tretyakov Gallery), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (FIDE President), Arkadij Dvorkovich (Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Chess Federation) and Andrey Filatov (sponsor).

At 20.00 the opening ceremony started in the Vrubel hall of the Tretyakov Gallery. In the presence of many officials and other VIPs such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Anatoly Karpov and Yuri Averbakh, there were speeches, the drawing of lots and a piano / violin concert. The drawing of lots resulted in Vishy Anand having the white pieces in game 1 tomorrow.

Here is our first video from Moscow which reports on Thursday's events.