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).

[2] Anand won the final game to win the match 6½–5½ and retain the title.

Kramnik was to take Topalov's place in the World Chess Championship 2007 if he won the match, which he did.

Anand subsequently defended his title in a one-off match against Kramnik, the World Chess Championship 2008.

Topalov was compensated for missing the 2007 tournament by getting direct entry to a Challenger Match against the winner of the Chess World Cup.

Gata Kamsky earned the right to play in the Challenger Match by winning the Chess World Cup 2007.

[6] After Kamsky won the World Cup, there was ongoing uncertainty about the location for the Challenger match.

[8] Kamsky got a new manager, and met with FIDE and Topalov representatives during the Chess Olympiad,[9] and on 19 November 2008, FIDE announced that the players had agreed to play in Bulgaria, despite Kamsky's preference to play elsewhere.

On 26 February 2009, Topalov defeated Kamsky in game 7 to win the match 4½–2½, earning the right to challenge Anand for the World Chess Championship.

The championship match was moved from September 2009 to April 2010 after Anand requested a postponement.

[13] Topalov demanded that the match be played in silence, which would occur if the players followed the Sofia Rules, which were introduced to curb draw offers in some tournaments from 2005.

"[14] Anand had the same group of seconds who helped his preparation in World Chess Championship 2008: Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Surya Ganguly and Radosław Wojtaszek.

[15][16] Topalov's seconds were Jan Smeets, Erwin l'Ami, Ivan Cheparinov and Jiri Dufek.

[17] For preparation, Topalov also used a state-owned IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer with 8192 processors,[18] running the latest version of Rybka.

[19] [20] Before the 2010 match, Anand and Topalov played 67 games against each other at classical time control with the following statistics:[21] The start of the match was delayed one day due to air travel disruptions caused by the volcanic ash emissions from Eyjafjallajökull.

Despite the fact that Topalov had prepared superbly, it has to be admitted that in terms of talent he is still inferior to Anand.

"[25] Grünfeld Defence, Exchange Variation, D86 Anand admitted he forgot his preparation (23...Bd7 prior to Kf7) while considering his 23rd move, leading to his blunder 23...Kf7?

At the press conference both players admitted that they simply forgot to shake hands.

In order to protect the pawn, Black is forced to place his pieces in awkward positions.

novelty was independently found by Levon Aronian, who was at that time carrying out a training camp in Armenia.

[34] The event suffered a power outage for thirteen minutes while Anand contemplated his 17th move;[35] the organizers later apologized for this mishap, which was caused by an electrical system failure in central Sofia.

Nd7 Anand begins the longest string of knight moves ever seen in a World Championship match.

[36] Bogo-Indian Defence, E11 11...Bd7 is a novelty, as in Gelfand-Ivanchuk, Amber (blindfold) 2010, Ivanchuk had played 11...Ba6.

was a blunder that removed the possibility of Black protecting the h7 pawn with his bishop.

[38] Though the game appeared to finish early, it might have concluded: 56.g4 Bd7 57.g5 Be8 58.Bg7 Bd7 59.g6 hxg6 60.Kxg6 and Black is helpless to prevent White from penetrating, for example: 60...Be8+ 61.Kf6 Bd7 62.Ke7 Bc6 63.d7 Bxd7 64.Kxd7 Kxg7 65.Kxe6 1–0.

White weakens his kingside in an attempt to gain activity and Topalov misses the best reply in 46...Ne7!

[42] Prior to the game, Topalov asked for one minute of silence in memory of Andor Lilienthal, who had died the day before.

Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense, D56 This was the only win for Black in the match.

Anand's choice of Lasker's Defense in the Queen's Gambit Declined appeared to signal his willingness to accept a draw, which would have tied the match at 6–6 and forced a rapid chess playoff.

allowed Anand active piece play in return for his weak pawn on c5.