The World Chess Championship Match 2012 Viswanathan Anand (IND) vs. Boris Gelfand (ISR) will be held in May 2012 in Moscow. The contract on organizing the Match was signed on 26 November 2011 in the central office of INTERFAX in Moscow. The contract was signed by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Head of Supervisory Board of the Russian chess federation, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Arkady Dvorkovich, Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand.

The match will be held from 10 to 31 of May in Tretyakov Gallery. 12 games with classical time control will be played by the Players. The winner of the match will be declared as the World Champion. In case of a draw result the winner will be determined in the tie-break. The prize fund of the match is USD 2,550,000, it will be divided between the winner and the loser in the proportion of 60% - 40%.

Having signed the agreement Viswanathan Anand said: "I'm glad to sign the contract and to have the opportunity to come back to Moscow in May 2012 to defend my title. We have just visited the venue of the future tournament - the Gallery is very beautiful! I hope we will be inspired by the Gallery to play beautiful and artistic chess.”

"I have an excellent opponent. I expect the match to be a very exciting one. I think that Moscow chess society deserves to have such the tournament", - added the current World Champion.

Boris Gelfand on his part noted: "It is a great honour to me to sign the contract. It is good that the match will be held in such a wonderful place. I would like to thank all those people who made it possible to organize the event".

At the press-conference which was held in INTERFAX Ilyumzhinov advised that the Chief Arbiter of the tournament will be IA Ashot Vardapetyan (ARM).