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 match 6½–5½ to 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.
Read more about World Chess Championship 2010: The World Champion, Previous Head-to-head Record, Match Stats
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or chess:
“We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
“Work, as we usually think of it, is energy expended for a further end in view; play is energy expended for its own sake, as with children’s play, or as manifestation of the end or goal of work, as in “playing” chess or the piano. Play in this sense, then, is the fulfillment of work, the exhibition of what the work has been done for.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)