Bids deadline for Anand – Gelfand 2012 extended

Bids deadline for Anand – Gelfand 2012 extended

The World Chess Championship 2012 bidding procedure continues until July 31st

No bids were received at the FIDE Presidential Board in Al Ain for the World Championship 2012 match between Anand and Gelfand.

The bidding procedure for the WCC 2012 was opened March 29th via official communication by the FIDE Athens office. The host of the match has to guarantee a minimum prize fund of 1 million eur and respectable playing conditions, and shall provide a bank guarantee for the match.

The bidding procedure is opened until August 1st, 2011. The World Chess Championship 2010 between Anand and Topalov had an increase of interest by at least a full order of magnitude reaching to a large online audience (5 million unique visitors to official site, daily hundreds of articles plus main page appearance on Google news, main page appearance on Wikipedia, etc.), reached a potential of 20M viewers via national sports televisions in India and Bulgaria and 30M potential viewers on the Pas 10 and INSAT 4 B satellites, while official media partners covering the match scored fantastic results (ex: Chessdom.com received over 1,5 million unique visitors and 15M page views for the duration of the match).

Some more details on the WCC 2010 media success here

If the World Chess Championship 2012 repeats the interest statistics from 2010, it is sure to be a desired event by multiple cities seeking international promotion. Even though no bid has been received so far, it is expected that such will be received in the last moment (end of July), just as it happened the last time.

So far there are only rumors of bids being prepared, one of them is from India (info from before the Candidates matches here). In a recent interview in Leon, Vishy Anand confirmed that he will be very happy if the match is to take place in India, “I would love for the match to be in India, but there is a bidding process and only the winning bid will get through.”

Bidding procedure for World Chess Championship 2012

1. The FIDE Presidential Board, in continuation of the ongoing negotiations with potential organisers, decided to open a bidding procedure for the FIDE World Championship Match 2012 between the current World Champion GM V. Anand (India) and his challenger to be determined from the Candidates Matches in May 2011.

2. Each bid shall contain the following particulars as minimum:

a) Proposed exact dates of the event between 10 April and 31 May 2012.
b) Proposed venue of the event.
c) Proposed prize fund for the players (minimum 1,000,000 euros & should be offered net of any applicable local taxes).
d) The contribution to FIDE (net of any applicable local taxes and not less than 20% of the prize money) as stipulated in Article 13.2 as well as the financial obligations stated in Article 14 of the Rules & Regulations of the World Championship Match 2012
e) Commitment to cover all the other financial obligations to FIDE, in accordance with the Rules & Regulations of the World Championship Match 2012
f) Commitment to cover all organizational costs, in accordance with the match regulations.
g) Category of official hotel (minimum 4- stars), and name if possible, with special room rates for visitors (including meals).
h) A statement that the applicant accepts the regulations of the match without any reservations. i) An invitation for 2 (two) members of the FIDE Commission for World Chess Championships and Olympiads to inspect the proposed venue and examine the other conditions, with all travel/hotel expenses paid by the bidder.
j) The applicant’s name, signatures and authentication.

3. In order for a proposed bid to be considered, it should be accompanied by a 9-month term bank guarantee covering the amount of prize fund (minimum 1,000,000 euros), the FIDE contribution (20% over and above the prize fund), 5% for WCO budget and 5% for the commercial rights and 32,500 euros covering stipends of Principals as described in article 14.5 of the match regulations. This guarantee should be from a bank that FIDE bankers, UBS of Switzerland, are able to confirm as acceptable. Alternatively to the above paragraph, a bidder can deposit in FIDE’s bank account the amount of 200,000 euros by the deadline of 31 July 2011 (refundable if the bid is rejected), another 50% of the prize fund by 30 September 2011 and the balance by 31 January 2012.

4. A bid is considered valid if it is accompanied with a non-refundable Bid Fee of 2,000 euros payable to FIDE.

5. No bidder can propose a sponsor which shall be in conflict with the regulations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

6. The bids, including all original documents and particulars, should arrive by registered post to the FIDE Secretariat, post address: 9 Syggrou Ave., 11743 Athens – Greece. The bidding process will close on 30 June 2011, 13:00 GMT.

7. When the deadline has expired, the FIDE President or his representative shall open the received envelopes in order to assess the bids. FIDE will inform the bidding parties of the results within 20 days after the deadline. The final contract with the successful bidder shall be signed within 10 days afterwards.

8. FIDE reserves the right to accept a bid based on the evaluation of all criteria under article 2 of the present bidding procedure and not only that of the prize fund. FIDE also reserves the right not to award any bid at all, however favourable it might be.