Russia Or India For Anand v Gelfand

FIDE have confirmed that they have received 2 bids to host the 2012 World Championship Match between Vishy Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel.

The Indian bid is sponsored by the Tamil Nadu government to the sum of 200 million rupees (approx 4.5 million US Dollars).

This is higher than the Russian bid, but critics have questioned whether financial guarantees are in place to confirm the money is available.

The Russian bid is more of a known quantity, but is 'only' for 2 million US Dollars (see clarification from mishanp in the comments).  The sponsor is the Russian billionaire Andrei Filatov.

Supporters of the Moscow bid will point to their experience at hosting major chess events, and the fact that Moscow would be a more neutral venue.

Neither bid is therefore from a commercial sponsor, which is something of a pipe dream.  An early bid from Universal Event Promotions (before the Candidates event) to stage the contest in London was withdrawn following disagreements with FIDE.

The official press release from FIDE:

FIDE announces that two offers were received in its office by the deadline of 31 July for the World Championship Match 2012, one from the Russian Chess Federation and one from the All India Chess Federation. Both offers are well above the minimum required prize fund of 1 million euros.

FIDE is currently in contact with the bidders, the players and the two national federations for additional clarifications. The final decision will be made by the FIDE President by 10 August.