The Russian capital has submitted an application to host a match for the world title

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For the first time since 1985, Moscow can become the host of the main chess event. The Russian Chess Federation (RCF) has received an official application to the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to hold a match for the world champion title in the Russian capital next spring between the Indian Viswanathan Anand, who holds one of the most prestigious titles in sports, and the Israeli Boris, who has the status of a challenger. Gelfand. The prize fund for the fight should be $2 million, and co-owner of the N-Trans group Andrei Filatov is going to act as an investor.

Yesterday, the Chairman of the Board of the Russian Chess Federation, Ilya Levitov, told Kommersant that the Russian Chess Federation has sent an official application to the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to hold a match for the world title between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand in Moscow in the spring of next year. Its prize fund should be $2 million, which would be approximately the same as the previous championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov, which took place last year in Sofia. This news was made public four days after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in fact, gave instructions in Kazan to the government and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to continue the fight for the right to host major sporting events, proposing to “think about where else we can show up if necessary, where we have a realistic chance and how much it will cost.”

A championship match in chess is an event that is included both in the top category in international sports and in the category of those for which Russia is quite logical to claim. It has regained its status as a country at the center of chess life. For six years now, one of the chess super tournaments, the Mikhail Tal Memorial, has been held in Moscow. Last year, Khanty-Mansiysk hosted the World Chess Olympiad. This year, the most important competition of the season in this sport took place in Kazan - the Candidates Tournament: having won it, Boris Gelfand received the right to meet Viswanathan Anand. And yesterday the Russian Chess Federation confirmed that in September events will be held in Moscow dedicated to the centenary of the birth of the first Soviet world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, and the brightest chess superstars will take part in them - Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik.

But Russia has hosted the most important event in chess only once in two decades. In 2006, the match for the world title, in which Vladimir Kramnik beat Veselin Topalov, took place in Elista.

Moscow, which in Soviet times was the undisputed capital of world chess, has not hosted such fights for more than a quarter of a century - since 1985, when Garry Kasparov became the 13th world champion by beating Anatoly Karpov. True, reference books sometimes indicate that nine years ago in Moscow the Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomarev won the championship title. But his match with compatriot Vasily Ivanchuk was not a “classic” championship match. We were talking about the final of the world championship using the knockout system, which has not been recognized by the chess world as a fair way to identify the strongest grandmaster.

The application submitted by the Russian Chess Federation does not formally mean that Moscow has already received the opportunity to host the match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand. Advisor to the FIDE President Berik Balgabaev clarified to Kommersant that within a month those wishing to organize the fight can submit applications for the competition to the federation, and “there is interest in it from both Israel and India.” However, he added that he has no doubt that “if the Russian bid wins, the match will be organized superbly.”

Kommersant's sources also consider Moscow the undisputed favorite of the competition. And Boris Gelfand told Kommersant yesterday that, in his opinion, “Moscow is the most chess city in the world” and holding such a match there “may be the best option.” As for Israel's interest in participating in the tender, the applicant emphasized that “so far no concrete steps in this direction” have been taken, as far as he knows.

Neither Ilya Levitov nor Berik Balgabaev disclosed the name of the match sponsor yesterday. Mr. Levitov only emphasized that “he is a big fan of chess.” However, several sources told Kommersant that the “chess lover” is co-owner of the N-Trans group Andrei Filatov. He is indeed known to be a dedicated fan of this game. Mr. Filatov was seriously involved in chess in his youth and has the title of candidate master of sports. It was at his expense that the monument to the great Russian world champion Alexander Alekhine in Paris was restored.

The existence of an investor willing to provide financing for the championship match should not be surprising in any case. After all, Russian chess has an extremely powerful administrative resource. The RCF Supervisory Board is headed by Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Arkady Dvorkovich, and his deputy is Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, President of the ROC Alexander Zhukov. The day before, Mr. Zhukov admitted to Kommersant that he did not know about the RCF’s application. However, answering the question whether it was possible to hold the championship match in Moscow, he answered: “If necessary, we will hold it without any questions, don’t even doubt it.”

Alexey Dospehov

Moscow made a strong move