Anand-Topalov: all the info
14 April 2010, 11.45 CET | Last modified: 22:26 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
In just nine days the World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov will start in Sofia, Bulgaria. The opening ceremony is in exactly one week from now. The two will play a 12-game match and possibly a rapid tiebreak. We bring you all details.
History
The upcoming World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov will be the first match since Capablanca-Lasker (1921) in which no Soviet or Russian player is involved. It will be the third match that will yield an “undisputed” World Champion, after the chess world had to deal with a schism from 1993 till 2006. When Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik played their “reunification” match in 2006 in Elista, the line of “FIDE champions” and the line of “match champions” (Kasparov and Kramnik) came together again.
A year later, in September 2007, the winner of the reunification match, Vladimir Kramnik, lost his title at the World Championship tournament in Mexico City. That tournament was won by Viswanathan Anand, who thus took over the world title. To some this title was still not undisputed: they argued that a Chess World Championship should be fought out in a match.
The only top player who didn’t play in Mexico City was Veselin Topalov. With FIDE he had arranged “compensation” for this: the privilege to play a match against the winner of the 2007 World Cup, to determine the challenger for the 2010 World Championship match. At first this arrangement was widely criticized, but when Topalov kept on leading the world rankings, less and less people were having problems with seeing the Bulgarian playing for the World Title again.
Due to many problems involving venues and managers, this challengers match between Topalov and Gata Kamsky (who had won the 2007 World Cup) took place in February 2009, four months after the new World Championship match was played. In this match, played in Bonn, Germany in October 2008, Viswanathan Anand had retained his World Title against Vladimir Kramnik, who had inherited the right for a return match. The challengers math was won by Topalov, who thus qualified for the upcoming match for the highest title.
The 2010 match
The 2010 World Championship match is the final event of the current World Championship cycle. The winner will be declared World Champion for the period 2010-2011. The match will take place April 21 – May 12 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The match will consist of 12 games, and if necessary, a 4-game rapid tiebreak, if necessary 5 2-game blitz matches and if necessary 1 sudden death game.
The classical games will be played in pairs of 2, so there will be a rest day after every 2 games. No postponements are allowed. The draw for colours will be conducted during the opening ceremony. To prevent having the same player starting with the same colour after a rest day all the time, the colours are reversed after 6 games.
Schedule
| April 21 – 18.00 EEST (15.00 UTC) – Official opening April 23 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 1 April 24 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 2 April 25 – Rest Day April 26 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 3 April 27 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 4 April 28 – Rest Day April 29 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 5 April 30 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 6 May 1 – Rest Day May 2 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 7 |
May 3 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 8 May 4 – Rest Day May 5 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 9 May 6 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 10 May 7 – Rest Day May 8 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 11 May 9 – Rest Day May 10 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) – Game 12 May 11 – Rest Day May 12 – Tie breaks |
Players
World Champion Viswanathan Anand, India, 11 December 1969 (40 years old). Still one of the fastest chess players in the circuit. Known for his pragmatic but universal playing style. The strongest rapid chess player ever. Lost a PCA World Championship match against Garry Kasparov back in 1995. Held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002. One of five players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list, and in April 2007 at the age of 37, he became the oldest person to become world number-one for the first time. He was at the top of the world rankings five out of six times, from April 2007 to July 2008, holding the number-one ranking for a total of 15 months. Awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008, as the first sport-person who got this award in Indian history.
Challenger Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria, 15 March 1975 (35 years old). Former FIDE world chess champion and former world’s number one. Known for his fighting spirit and aggressive playing style, with trademark exchange sacrifices. Won the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis, Argentina. Lost his title in the World Chess Championship 2006 match against Vladimir Kramnik, during which he accused his opponent of cheating. Was ranked #1 in the world from April 2006 to January 2007, and had the second highest Elo rating of all time (2813). He regained the world #1 ranking again in October 2008, and officially remained #1 until January 2010, when he fell to #2 behind Magnus Carlsen. Has been ranked number one a total of 27 months in his career, fourth all-time since the inception of the FIDE ranking lists in 1971 behind only Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, and Bobby Fischer.
Previous games
Before this match, Anand and Topalov met 87 times. Anand scored 55%: he won 23 times, drew 50 times and lost 14 times. However, this includes rapid, blitz and blindfold games. If we only look at the classical games, in a total of 44 games, Topalov won 11 games, Anand 10 and 23 games were drawn.
All previous games for replay
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Time control
The time control for each game shall be: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61. The time control for the tiebreak is 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move (4 games) and if necessary 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment after each move (2 blitz games). The sudden death game will have the player with the white pieces receiving 5 minutes, the player with the black pieces 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.
Playing conditions
Only the players and stewards shall be allowed in the actual playing area except with the permission of the Chief Arbiter or his Deputy. Both players will have access to the same toilet facilities during the games. There will be no separate rest rooms for the players during the games. Both players shall use the same rest lounge area which shall be on/at the stage and visible by the Arbiter and the spectators.
Arbiters
The Chief Arbiter is Panaqiotis Nikolopoulos (Greece). The Deputy Chief Arbiter is Werner Stubenvoll (Austria).
Venue
The venue of the match is the Central Military Club in Sofia, Bulgaria, where the MTel Masters tournament has been held as well. Zoom in below in the map to find the exact location.
The Central Military Club is one of the first monumental public structures after the Liberation. Its foundation stone is laid in 1895 on land bought by the Sofia Officers’ Council for 180,000 golden levs. The building, planed and constructed according to the project of the famous Czech architect Antonin Kolar in the Neo-Renaissance style, was completed by the Bulgarian architect Nikola Lazarov and is typical for the Post-Liberation. The three functionally separated floors are allocated typically as for club buildings from the late XIX century.
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Tickets
Tickets for the match will be sold in the Central Military Club. Online purchase won’t be available. The ticket price: 10 BGN (5 EUR).
Organizers & sponsors
The match is officially organized by the Bulgarian Ministery of Physical Education and Sports, and the Executive Committee is the Bulgarian Chess Federation. Besides the Bulgarian government the companies Spectrum Net (a Bulgarian internet and telecommunication company) and IBM sponsor the match.
Update: it seems that despite having their logo on the official website, MTel isn’t sponsoring the match (after they also refused sponsorship for this year’s MTel Masters). According to Silvio Danailov, the company was invited to become a sponsor of the match, but declined. “However, we put their logo on the official site of the match for the world crown of gratitude.” This was reported by Dnevnik.
Prize fund
The total prize fund is 3 million Euros: 2 million for the players, 400,000 for FIDE taxes and 600,000 for organizational costs. The winner will receive 1,2 million Euros while the loser receives 800.000 Euros.
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony will take place in one week from now, on Wednesday, April 21st at 18.00 local time (so not “one day prior to the first round”, as is mentioned in the FIDE rules & regulations). Chessdom mentioned a few details:
In the beginning a 20 minutes movie will be projected. It is about chess history, the beginning of the game in India, and its spreading to the Balkans thanks to the proto-Bulgarians. The presentation of each player at the opening ceremony will be 4-5 minutes, with their favorite songs in the background.
Coverage by ChessVibes
ChessVibes will bring on-the-spot coverage from the venue. (Your editor-in-chief booked an appartment close to the venue, so that’s all settled!) This means exclusive photo and video material as well as inside stories and interviews. We’ll try to bring the games live as well, but we haven’t received confirmation yet that the organizers allow other media to do this.
Last week on the homepage (middle column) we put a poll, which for the moment gives Anand as the favourite to win the match, according to our visitors. We have asked many top 20 players what they think, and we’ll publish their opinions later this week. Stay tuned!
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thank you! A very clear overview!
There have been several mentions of a special curtain that avoids visual contact between players and audience. I guess it might be a one way view curtain , players cannot see audience but other way around is possible. But then chessdom report says “It will be lifted in the first 10 minutes, so that journalists can make photos, and later it will be arranged according to the contract. “. So this means, its actually a two way block curtain. Well, then whats so special about the curtain? and why does it have to come all the way from Germany? Strange.
This will be a titianic clash!
Lots of confusion about the curtain – the audience will be able to see the players, but the players can not see the audience clearly. It will be lifted to let the photographers take clear pictures of the players, but then lowered in order to make visual signalling from the audience to the players impossible.
By controlling the amount of light in the auditorium, and ensuring there is more light on the players, the addition of this curtain makes it possible to fulfill Anand’s demand.
You obviously meant “inside stories and interview” instead of “insight”?!?
I suspect that fewer and fewer people are having problems with seeing the Bulgarian playing for the World Title in his home country.
I hope 12-0 for Anand in Topalovs home-country
The action only really begins when Topalov is 2-0 down…
Brace yourselseves,
for:
“Toiletgate 2: The revenge of the fallen”
By fallen I mean Topalov´s team
Go Vishy!
This will be a great match… I hope we will see a fighting chess.
P.S. Look the “Kostadinov’s challenge” in the official site. It’s interesting
Maybe it’s time to disclose what the organizers would like to keep secret to non-Bulgarians – but what mishanp on Dailydirt found out (he regularly translates from Russian, but apparently can also read some Bulgarian):
MTel is under new management, not only did they cancel the MTel Masters but they also dropped out as a sponsor of the WCh match!? The logo is on the webpage only “out of gratitude”, and maybe because they continue to sponsor Topalov personally.
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/2010/03/mtel-2010-canceled.htm#comment-216089
Sucsess haters, 7:3 for Topa!
Anand 6.5 – 4.5 winner. For sure!
Any guesses on the seconds of the players? For Topalov, it will most likely be among the usual/known suspects (may be with 1 new face) – Cheparinov, Dominguez, L’ami, Smeets, Vallejo.
Anand – Nielsen, Kasim, ? – I guess we’ll find out friday.
Can’t wait for this thing to start.
Go Vishy!
anybody know the “official” odds? i.e. bookmakers betting line etc…
@Pingpong: “Anand 6.5 – 4.5 winner.”
+2-0=9, to be precise
“We’ll try to bring the games live as well, but we haven’t received confirmation yet that the organizers allow other media to do this.”
What a surprise! This is what we get for letting crooks organize a “World Championship Match”. We’re not even sure that the games will be broadcasted.
@rajeshv: If this provides a hint – the following players did not participate in the German Bundesliga last weekend: l’Ami, Smeets, Nielsen, Kasimdzhanov, Anand. But Vallejo did play.
Tie-breaks are wrong. There will be up to 5 blitz mini-matches (up to 10 games total) before the armageddon.
Aha yes, corrected.
@ Harish, SteinL
It sounds like they’re simply going to use the curtain that was used in Bonn as well. Nothing new there. The audience barely sees the curtain; it only makes the players a little bit darker. Tough to make pictures, though, which is a pity because it will be difficult to film timescrambles.
Thomas, yes, you’re right. Apparently Vallejo is not part of the Topalov team this time. We’ll know abt the full teams shortly I guess.
chessvibes team, great preview, and particularly nice to see the compilation of their previous games. Nice work.
@rajeshv: Again mishanp has more info from Bulgarian sources on Dailydirt:
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/2010/03/world-championship-runup-begins.htm#comment-216424
Indeed, Vallejo was dropped (”something about stress”). Dominguez isn’t mentioned either. Cheparinov, l’Ami and Smeets are all in Topalov’s hotel. The surprising name is Czech Jiri Dufek (ELO 2276), “working on the opening book for Rybka 4″.
Apparently Anand still likes to keep the names of his seconds secret. Chessdom just mentioned that he and his team arrived in Sofia, but didn’t tell the organizers about his arrival hour – “to escape journalistsat the airport and keep his seconds secret to the last moment”. Maybe he doesn’t trust the organizers, who might spread the news to team Topalov ….. .
Thanks Peter for the clarification. Also chessdom reports today what you have said that the audience can see the players but not vice versa and that the curtain cost 2500 euros. So much mention about the curtain, it better do its job.
@Peter. “Tough to make pictures” — thats sad , I hope there is a way out of that. Especially video in time scramble, resigning hand shake , they are all great to watch.
In Bonn, Foidos had live camera, and I guess it was a failure in terms of number of people who accepted it. But I hope they record the full video and atleast make some sort of dvd later after the match. — Nothing did come from the Bonn match though.
if anand pulls this one off, another crushing win this time against bulgarias top dog, topalov (has to be something powerful, similar to the a-bomb he’d dropped in bonn against the last “k” of the chess worlds’ kkk, (karpov, kasparov) kramnik, then he must be recognized as the worlds greatsest chess player that ever lived. bar none. what an honour!
we can forget about the social deviants fischer, karpov, kasparov.
a sane world champion, that is what we need!
vishy, i’m in your corner, watching chess history unfold before my very eyes.
cool 1st move by Anand inside Bulgarian territory, even though this plan is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain – from the airport to the hotel staff to spread the word to help the local hero. Good try, nevertheless!
Why tiebrakers?
I believe Anand should retain the title in case of a drawn match!
Well its always been tough on Anand. First there are critics who said his FIDE wch is nothing and then his 2007 win was not enough and he needs to win the classical way because that has been the long standing tradition.. blah blah. And when he does that, they just throw away some aspects of the tradition as per convenience and have the tie breaks instead of giving draw odds to the reigning champion. As late as 2004 — Kramnik vs Leko, there were draw odds and suddenly now its gone.
Ok now some can say, very few world champions did end up retaining the title because of the draw odd (Kramnik was one). But then, it is easy on you psychologically if you know that the draw odds are in your favor. Your opponent will need to take more risks and that can bring about his downfall.
Not just these, Anand has been having to defend his title so very often. And if he wins again, he will need to defend it again next year. Has it ever been in history of chess that 4 wch matches are played in 5 consecutive years (2007, 08, 2010 and again it might be in 2011) and Anand has been (and will be) involved in all of those cycles. That is really tough. And this not being enough, there are others who will complain he does not do well (as in even if he finishes with +2 in corus) in other tournaments when he is amidst preparation.
Well, I just hope he prevails through all of these, and the above along with his nature in general is what makes me agree with “h.white” that he is one of the greatest in chess history.
really looking forward to this confrontation. Pragmatism against all out attacking chess. Lately, Vishy has always made the right choices, especially when it comes to opening preparation, seconds, etc. I somehow think he will grill Topalov the way he did it with Kramnik … but then, as we know, Topalov possesses an incomparable fighting spirit. Good luck to both
^^Anand is already in Sofia for the World Chess Championship 2010
The latest information from the WCC in Sofia
Viswanathan Anand is already in Sofia for the World Chess Championship match. There is confirmation from Hilton Hotel in Sofia that all rooms of Anand’s team are already inhabited. The defending World Chess Champion has not informed the organizers for the hour of the arrival, as he wanted to escape journalists at the airport and keep his seconds secret to the last moment.^^
This is what I read http://players.chessdom.com/viswanathan-anand/anand-world-chess-championship-sofia
And, now, the following is what I read:
^^Will the Icelandic volcano affect the World Championship?
17.04.2010 – Just after landing on a stopover in Frankfurt, World Champion Vishy Anand was informed that all further flights were cancelled, owing to volcanic ash from Iceland. With 25,000 flights cancelled per day, hundreds of thousands of travellers, including Anand, are stranded, with alternative routes (rental cars, trains) almost impossible to arrange. The AICF is seeking a three-day postponement.^^
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6265
Which news do I believe??
@ Mauricio Valdes
@ Harish Srinivasan
I have always been a supporter of ‘Draw odds’ in a World Championship Match.
It would have been fair to a World Champion who is so frequently involved in World Championship Matches.
However, I am now more interested in “Draw odds’ with a twist. An additional regular game at classical time control should be played, if the match ends in a draw after the stipulated number of games (12 in this case), with the Challenger having White pieces and the Champion Black in the additional game. A win for any player in this additional (13th) game will break the tie. In case of draw in this game would result in the Champion retaining the title.
“What a surprise! This is what we get for letting crooks organize a “World Championship Match”. We’re not even sure that the games will be broadcasted.”
You are a moron … The Game was broadcasted , live , with EN comment …
I cant belive you guys hate the offence style that much …
1 min per move for Topalov… lol … u guys must hate now .
Have a great day …