World Chess Championship 2010

The World Chess Championship 2010 match pitted the defending world champion, Viswanathan Anand, against challenger Veselin Topalov, for the title of World Chess Champion. The match took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 24 April to 13 May 2010, with a prize fund of 2 million euros (60% to the winner). Anand won the final game to win the match 6½–5½ and retain the title.

The match was to be twelve games, with tie-breaks if necessary, the same format and length as the 2006 and 2008 matches.

The start of the match was delayed one day due to air travel disruptions caused by the volcanic ash emissions from Eyjafjallajökull. Anand was to fly from Frankfurt to Sofia on 16 April and was stranded because of the eruption. He asked for a three-day postponement, which was refused by the organisers on 19 April. Anand finally reached Sofia on 20 April, after a 40-hour road journey. The first game was consequently delayed by one day.

In early 2006, FIDE announced that the World Chess Championship 2007 for the title of FIDE World Chess Champion would be an eight-player tournament. At the time there were two rival World Champions, 2005 FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, and "Classical" World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. The list of the eight players for the tournament included Topalov, but not Kramnik. To unify the two World Champion titles, FIDE later organised a match between Kramnik and Topalov (the World Chess Championship 2006). Kramnik was to take Topalov's place in the World Chess Championship 2007 if he won the match, which he did. Topalov was hence excluded from the 2007 World Chess Championship, a tournament eventually won by Indian GM Viswanathan Anand to become the World Champion. Anand subsequently defended his title in a one-off match against Kramnik, the World Chess Championship 2008.

...
Wikipedia