Anand-Carlsen: All The Info

We're still counting down and it's now less than 19 hours until the start of the much awaited World Championship match in Chennai between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen. On Saturday, November 9th, at 15:00 hrs local time, the players will start their first game. For your convenience, here's all the important info one more time.

Chess fans around the globe are waiting for one of the most anticipated chess events in recent years: the Anand-Carlsen world title match. Here's all the important information you need.

Schedule

At the opening ceremony on Thursday, the drawing of colors resulted in Magnus Carlsen playing with the white pieces in the first game.

World Chess Championship 2013

Players	Rating	G01	G02	G03	G04	G05	G06	G07	G08	G09	G10	G11	G12	Pts
Viswanathan Anand	2775	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	0
Magnus Carlsen	2870	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	0

The players

Viswanathan Anand (India, 43) retained the world title after defeating the challenger, Boris Gelfand, in the FIDE World Championship Match 2012 in Moscow, Russia. Before that, after winning the Mexico 2007 World Championship tournament, Anand successfully defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn 2008 and against Veselin Topalov in Sofia 2010. Anand was also FIDE World Champion in 2000 after winning a knockout tournament.

Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 22) became the official challenger by winning the Candidates Tournament 2013, played in London in March of this year, after a thrilling finish where Vladimir Kramnik ended on an equal number of points but lost on tiebreak. Carlsen has been the most successful tournament player in recent years and is the highest rated player in the world by a big margin. In December last year he broke Garry Kasparov's record of highest rating ever.

Anand & Carlsen at the Tal Memorial in 2011

Regulations

You can find the official regulations of the match here in PDF. Below we'll give the most important aspects:

• The World Chess Championship Match 2013 will consist of 12 games and if necessary, tie-break games. The draw for colors will be conducted during the opening ceremony. The colors shall be reversed after game 6. (The player getting the white color in game 1 shall play game 7 with the black color).   
• The time control for each game shall be: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61 has been made.
• If the scores are level after the regular twelve (12) games, after a new drawing of colors, four (4) tie-break games shall be played. The games shall be played using the electronic clock starting with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move. If the scores are level after this, then, after a new drawing of colors, a match of 2 games shall be played with a time control of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment after each move. In case of a level score, another 2-game match will be played to determine a winner. If still there is no winner after 5 such matches (total 10 games), one sudden-death game will be played. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the  player with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds starting from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

Prize fund & venue

The prize fund will be about 14 Crore rupees (1,673.560 Euros or 2,240,840 US$) and will be divided 60% for the winner and 40% to the loser if the match ends within the 12 regular games. In case the winner is decided by tie-break games, the winner shall receive 55% and the loser 45%.

The venue is the 5-star Hyatt Regency in the heart of Chennai. Tickets can be booked here - they're not sold out yet.

Chess.com coverage

Chess.com will offer a wide array of exclusive, comprehensive coverage. With live (ChessTV) coverage during the round, exclusive on- site reporting, and a "post game show," we plan to offer its worldwide community, in all time zones, the most detailed look into all the action from Chennai. Find all info here!