[2] The match, held under the auspices of the World Chess Federation FIDE, took place between 10 and 31 May 2012 in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

2 Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Candidates Tournament citing the selection process as not sufficiently modern and fair.

The Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand was held from 10 to 30 May 2012 in Moscow, Russia, under the auspices of FIDE.

The executive board gave during its congress in fall 2009 in Halkidiki an option to London, United Kingdom to organise the World Chess Championship for 2012.

They had until 15 February 2010 to exercise the option which had to include the offer of a prize fund similar to that for the World Chess Championship 2010 match.

[22] However, after FIDE failed to agree to the terms of the contract within the time frame agreed upon, the option expired on 28 January 2011, and Chess Promotions Limited withdrew their bid to organise the event in London, citing the lack of time left to successfully organise the event.

[23] As a result, FIDE opened an application procedure for the hosting of the World Chess Championship match to be played from 10 April 2012 to 31 May 2012.

[24] On 28 June 2011, it was announced that Moscow had submitted a bid to host the 2012 World Chess Championship.

[25] On 13 July 2011, the Tamil Nadu state government announced a bid of Rs 20 crore (Approx.

[27] In an interview with the Russian newspaper "Kommersant", dated 29 July 2011, Boris Gelfand expressed his concern about the offer made by Chennai.

Gelfand said the offer from Moscow was the only transparent one; he was not sure of the existence of financial guarantees by the Indian side.

In the past, matches, including those of Kasparov against Ponomaryov and against Kasimdzanov, were cancelled due to lack of financial guarantees.

FIDE announced they would contact the bidders and players, and declare the winner of the bid by 10 August 2011.

[29] Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE's president, told the Russian newspaper "Sport Express" that the financial offer was not the only criterion.

[30] On 8 August 2011, FIDE announced that the Russian Chess Federation had won the bid and would host the match in Moscow in May 2012.

[31] On 20 February 2012, an agreement between the Russian Chess Federation and the Tretyakov Gallery was signed to stage there the World Championship Match.

In case of a tie at the end of 12 games, there would be a series of tie breaks: Anand had the same group of seconds who helped his preparation in World Chess Championship 2008 and World Chess Championship 2010: Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Radosław Wojtaszek.

[35] Gelfand's seconds for the match included Alexander Huzman, Pavel Eljanov, and Maxim Rodshtein.

[36] In a post-game press conference, Gelfand confirmed the media speculation that he had additional seconds, who were not revealed.

Anand played several accurate moves to set up a good position for neutralising White's active pieces.

[46] At move 20 White chose to capture correctly with 20.Nxf6, rather than 20.Rxd2 after which the continuation 20...Nxe4 21.fxe4 Bxd4 22.Rxd4 Rf2 23.e5 Bb5 gives Black strong counterplay.

The game reached a standard position after the theoretical moves in the opening, with a bind in the centre for White and a backward d6 pawn and weak d6 square for Black that is compensated with his activity.

In the next moves Gelfand successfully equalised the position and left his opponent with minor chances.

This idea was also missed by grandmaster commentators Peter Leko and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who preferred Black's position until Anand played 17.Qf2.

Gelfand chose a concrete line in the middlegame that was criticized by several Grandmasters and exchanged a rook, bishop and pawn for the Anand's queen.

The game entered an endgame with a queen for White and a rook, knight and a pawn for black.

White was trying to play on the a7 pawn and to attack on the kingside, but Black appeared to have found the right evaluation in the end.