FIDE Presidential Board which is in progress at Baku, Azerbaijan, confirmed Chennai as the venue for the World Chess Championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen from 06-26 November 2013.
The news of India hosting the World Championship and the Paris offer not being reviewed was not met with joy by Carlsen’s team. The manager of Magnus Carlsen, Espen Agdestein, sent to Chessdom.com an official statement by the Candidate’s Tournament winner regarding the WCC in Chennai:
After qualifying for the World Championship match by winning the London Candidates I have been highly motivated for, and looking forward to the World Championship match against reigning champion V. Anand.
I’m deeply disappointed and surprised by the FIDE decision to sign a contract for the 2013 match without going through the bidding process outlined in the WC regulations, and for not choosing neutral ground. The bid from Paris clearly showed that it would be possible to have more options to choose from.
The lack of transparency, predictability and fairness is unfortunate for chess as a sport and for chess players.
My team and I will now start preparing for the match. The main thing now will be to come to an agreement with the Indian Chess Federation and FIDE regarding terms and conditions before and during the match. I really hope this process will run quick and smoothly.
Lastly, I will not let the news from Baku diminish the joy and excitement derived from playing the top level Norway Chess tournament starting tomorrow.
The statement comes a day before the start of Norway Chess 2013 – which you can follow live here, the first direct battle of Anand and Carlsen before the World Chess Championship 2013.
