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Journalism of Courage
Defending champion Viswanathan Anand will have black pieces against local favourite Veselin Topalov in the first match of the 12-game World Chess Championship on Saturday. The travel-weary Anand had requested a three-day postponement after he arrived four days late because of air traffic disruption but the organisers pushed the event ahead by just one day.
I am very happy to be here,it was a longer trip than we expected. The main thing I came here for is to play chess, said the Indian ahead of his first match. I want to thank FIDE for the understanding and I hope the chess fans will see a good match, he added.
Anand has won the title on three occasions 2000,2007 and 2008,while Topalov is the 2005 winner.
The match will consist of 12 games and the first player to score 6.5 points will be the winner. In case the scores are level at 6-6,four tie-break games will be played in the Rapid format on May 13. A rest day is scheduled after every two games.
The prize fund is euro2,000,000,the highest ever in recent times and will be shared by the two players. Pananqiotis Nikolopoulos of Greece is the chief arbiter.
On head-to-head count,Topalov has a slight edge over Anand,having won 11 times compared to Anands 10 out of the 44 encounters they had played against each other.
In terms of match experience,Anand is the favourite and showed sparkling form in Germany 2008 against Vladimir Kramnik. Topalov had lost to Kramnik in the Reunification Match in 2006.
