World Championship to be Held in Sofia

The World Chess Championship finally has a host. The match has been awarded to Sofia, Bulgaria, thanks to a bid worth 3 million Euros backed by the Bulgarian government. According to a report by ChessBase, Turkey and Singapore were also in the running to host the event, but dropped out when Bulgaria's bid -- which includes a 2 million Euro prize fund for the players -- was submitted.

This effectively gives challenger Veselin Topalov home field advantage for the match, though the Bulgarian government has guaranteed neutrality. I think it's unlikely that there would be any material advantage for Topalov anyway, beyond the comfort of playing at home, which shouldn't be dismissed. While hometown venues have been a subject of complaint by players before, it's hard to imaging Viswanathan Anand making much of a fuss about this.

As for the 2011 World Championship, FIDE has made a decision on the Candidates Tournament designed to work around the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The tournament scheduled for late 2010 and/or early 2011, will take place with two groups of four players competing in two different countries: one group in Azerbaijan, and the other in another country -- though not Armenia. This solution allowed Azerbaijan to host a portion of the tournament, while ensuring that Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian would not have to play in Azerbaijan. If one of the finalists is Armenian (specifically, Aronian), the tournament will be played in a neutral country; if it is between a player from Azerbaijan and a player other than Aronian (or between two players from other nations), it will be held in Azerbaijan.

It seems like a lot of work to please all sides, but at least the end result still appears to be a fairly reasonable event. Having two groups (the structure of how a winner will be determined is unclear, but a double-round robin or short matches seem likely) and a final match between the two group winners is as good a way to pick a challenger as any. If this is the most inconvenient thing FIDE has to do during the 2011 World Championship cycle, I think everyone will call this cycle a success.