World Chess Championship 2012
| Defending champion | Challenger |
 |
 |
 Viswanathan Anand (IND)
|
 Boris Gelfand (ISR)
|
| Winner of World Chess Championship 2012 | |
| Born 11 December 1969 42 years old |
Born 24 June 1968 43 years old |
| Winner of the 2010 World Chess Championship | Winner of the 2011 Candidates Tournament |
| FIDE rating: 2791 (World No.4) | FIDE rating: 2727 (World No.20) |
The World Chess Championship 2012 was a chess match between the defending world champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the 2011 Candidates Tournament. After sixteen games, including four rapid games, Anand retained his title. The match, held under the auspices of the World Chess Federation FIDE, took place between 10 and 30 May 2012 in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. The prize fund was US$2.55 million.
Anand was the defending champion, having gained the title in 2007 and defended it in 2008 (against Vladimir Kramnik) and in 2010 (against Veselin Topalov). Boris Gelfand became the challenger in 2012 after winning the eight-player 2011 Candidates Tournament. Anand's subsequent victory, therefore, was his third consecutive title defence.
The match conditions called for twelve games to be played with classical time control. If a player scored at least 6½ points, he would be declared the winner and the match ended. By the end of the twelve games, however, the match was tied at 6 points each, so four rapid games were played in order to produce a result. Anand won the rapid-game playoff with a win in the second game and draws in the other three games.
The process for selecting the challenger underwent a number of changes. A major change was announced on 25 November 2008, when it was announced that a two-player Challenger Match would be replaced with an eight-player Candidates Tournament. The change was criticised by a number of players and commentators, as well as by the Association of Chess Professionals. In June 2009, FIDE indicated that the format would be in the form of matches.
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