World Chess Championship 2010

The World Chess Championship 2010 will be a match, between a champion and a challenger, held during 2010 or 2011 to determine a new World Chess Champion. It will be held under the auspices of FIDE, the World Chess Federation.

The defending champion will be the winner of the World Chess Championship 2009.

The challenger is being decided over a three year process:
* The first stage is the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009, a grand prix series of tournaments between 21 elite players, which began in April 2008.
* In late 2009, FIDE will stage the Chess World Cup 2009, a series of knockout mini-matches following a similar format to the Chess World Cup 2007 (128 players, seven rounds).
* In 2010, an eight game challenger match will be played between the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009 winner and the Chess World Cup 2009 winner. [ [http://grandprix.fide.com/regulations.html FIDE Grand Prix - Regulations] , FIDE web site, accessed April 30 2008] The winner of the challenger match will play the defending champion in a twelve game match in 2010 or 2011. [ [http://www.fide.com/component/handbook/?id=92&view=article Regulations for the World Chess Championship Cycle 2007 - 2009] (see after section 5), FIDE web site, accessed April 30 2008]

This is the first "regular" championship cycle since the world championship reunification in 2006 because Veselin Topalov was excluded from the 2007 championship and the 2008 and 2009 championships granted special privileges to Vladimir Kramnik and Topalov respectively. Starting with this championship FIDE plans to hold future World Chess Championships on a two-year cycle in the same format. [ [http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/3-news/1747-238-tallinn-presidential-board-maps-new-world-chess-championship-cycle Tallinn Presidential Board Maps New World Chess Championship Cycle] , FIDE press release, June 24 2007. Includes [http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS/download/NewWorldChampCycle.pdf chart of future cycles] ]

Background

Initially, FIDE's proposal was to have this championship follow the World Chess Championship 2008. Two proposals were put to leading grandmasters ("proposal A" and "proposal B"). "Proposal A" was adopted, in which the reigning champion would play the winner of the World Cup. [ [http://www.chessvibes.com/fide/lang_nlilyumzhinov-komt-met-voorstellang_nllang_enilyumzhinov-comes-with-proposallang_en/ Chessvibes on the cycle] , March 2, 2007] This led to protests from some grandmasters who believed that Proposal B was preferred. [ [http://www.chess-players.org/eng/news/viewarticle.html?id=609 ACP position on FIDE Proposals for future World Championship Cycles] , Association of Chess Professionals board, February 27, 2007] [ [http://www.chess-players.org/eng/news/viewarticle.html?id=616 Alexei Shirov on the Decision regarding future World Championship Cycles] , published on ACP web site, March 16 2007] The Bulgarian Chess Federation also believed that Veselin Topalov needed some special compensation for being excluded from the World Chess Championship 2007.

In response to these concerns, FIDE announced in April 2008: [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3948 New World Chess Championship cycle] , Chessbase, June 24 2007]
* Topalov was given special seeding in the World Chess Championship 2009.
* Future world championships, beginning with this cycle, would also include a Chess Grand Prix.

The existing system has still had controversy, with some players refusing to take part in the Grand Prix. (See FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009).

Notes