World championship match by the numbers
The match for the title of FIDE world chess champion was held in Moscow from 10 to 31 May 2012. The match was played in 12 games with classical time control (10 draws and 2 successful games) and 4 games of rapid chess (3 draws, 1 successful game).
The match generated considerable interest from chess fans and the media. On some days, the auditorium’s 400 seats were unable to accommodate all the people who wanted to watch the game. As part of the children’s programme, 20 sessions were held involving some 500 young chess fans. The sessions were hosted by former world champions.
More than 400 journalists were accredited for the match. Two television companies, NTV+ and VGTRK (the Russian 24 channel) covered the events of the match on a daily basis. All the main Russian television stations worked at the match along with representatives of several major global television companies – the BBC, France Press, Associated Press and others.
The official tournament website received some two million unique visitors during the tournament and more than 6 million hits. A video broadcast of the match, which was not only available on the official website but also on other Internet resources, was viewed by approximately 3 million people.
An average of 200,000 users watched each game online using the video broadcast. The most entertaining game came on the final day of the match, when an all-time high of more than 50,000 simultaneous connections to the server were registered.
Final player’s press conference and photos are available on the match’s official website: http://moscow2012.fide.com.
The FIDE World Chess Championship match between the world champion Viswanathan Anand (India) and the challenger Boris Gelfand (Israel) will take place from 10 to 31 May 2012 in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery. Chess championship match will be taking place in one of the world’s biggest museums for the first time.
Organisers of the match are FIDE (the World Chess Federation) and the RCF (the Russian Chess Federation). Initiator of the idea of holding the match in Moscow and its sponsor is the Russian entrepreneur Andrei Filatov (joint owner of the N-Trans Group). Other sponsors of the contest include businessman Gennady Timchenko and the Ladoga charitable foundation, and also the NVisionGroup, Novatek and Almaz-Antei companies.
Contact information for journalists:
Mark Glukhovsky
Press Attaché for the Russian Chess Federation
at the World Championship Match
Nice numbers.
Hi Susan Polgar,
Well organized tournament,hearty wishes to all those contributed to it.
Both legendary players [ Anand & Gelfand ] displayed wonderful chess in a meaningful way.
As a sign of maturity about the game and the tournament,both players exhibited,which format deserves which style of play.
They both displayed,settle as well as vibrant chess in ease.
Both deserved that they displayed in the game.
Good going for chess across globe.
By
Venky [ India – Chennai ]