The reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand will play a rapid match against the 17th World Champion, and currently his second, Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The event is set to take place in March in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, immediately after the traditional Georgi Agzamov memorial.


The match will take place on 27th March. It will consist of four games with the time control of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov won the knockout World Championship in 2004 and held the title until 2005. Later Kasimdzhanov joined Anand's team to help the Champion defend the crown in the matches against Kramnik in Bonn, 2008, and against Topalov in Sofia, 2010.

Most recently, Kasimdzhanov won the Rapid Championship of the 16th Asian Games which was held in November in Guangzhou, China.