The match between World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India) and his official challenger Boris Gelfand (Israel) will be held at Skolkovo in May 2012, Chess Federation President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said Tuesday.

      Indian city Chennai also pretended to host the match, but the FIDE World Chess Federation considered that conditions and guarantees produced by Moscow were more preferable. 

      According to Ilyumzhinov, the prize money for the match is more than $2.5 million.

      Gelfald had gained the right to play with Anand, winning the Pretendents' Tournament which was held in Kazan in May.

Last time Moscow hosted the World Chess Championship Finals in 1985, when Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov competed in the famous House of Unions. 

      Also on Tuesday, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov unveiled his plans to include an exhibition chess event into the program of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

      “I called for President Dmitry Medvedev to support our bid so that the Russian Olympic Committee could ask the International Olympic Committee to include chess in the Sochi Olympics program as an exhibition event,” he said.

      Russia is evidently developing a taste for hosting major sporting events. The hosting of the Chess Final is just one event in the chains of successful bids to host, such as the Winter Olympics, the football World Cup  and its first F1 Grand Prix.

Sources: RIA Novosti Russia Today FIDE official site  Russian Chess Federation site