Monday 5 October 2009

Anand v Topalov

FIDE are moving towards settling a venue and date for the Anand v Topalov World Championship Match. At what speed they are moving seems to depend on the bidding consortium's themselves. Although three bids have been recieved, none contain the financial guarantees that were required by FIDE. The three bidding countries, Bulgaria, Turkey and Singapore, have been given an extra 2 weeks to provide such guarantees.
I'm surprised that the Bulgarian and Turkish bids didn't provide such a guarantee, given the close relationship between those countries chess federations and the government. I suspect Singapore on the other hand was always going to be a much more private business venture, and therefore much more likely to be affected by the GFC.
Early days yet, and while I have a personal preference for Singapore (easier to travel too), I suspect that Turkey will win out, by virtue of being a neutral country.

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