The World Chess Championship 2010 match pitted the defending world champion, Viswanathan Anand, against challenger Veselin Topalov, for the title of World Chess Champion. The match took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 24 April to 13 May 2010, with a prize fund of million euros (60% to the winner). Anand won the final game to win the match 6½–5½ and retain the title. The match was to be twelve games, with tie-breaks if necessary, the same format and length as the 2006 and 2008 matches. Background Qualifying In early 2006, FIDE announced that the World Chess Championship 2007 for the title of FIDE World Chess Champion would be an eight-player tournament. At the time there were two rival World Champions, 2005 FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, and "Classical" World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. The list of the eight players for the tournament included Topalov, but not Kramnik. To unify the two World Champion titles, FIDE later organised a match between Kramnik and Topalov (the World Chess Championship 2006). Kramnik was to take Topalov's place in the World Chess Championship 2007 if he won the match, which he did. Topalov was hence excluded from the 2007 World Chess Championship, a tournament eventually won by Indian GM Viswanathan Anand to become the World Champion. Anand subsequently defended his title in a one-off match against Kramnik, the World Chess Championship 2008. The World Chess Championship format then returned to its original form, wherein a match between the current champion and a challenger would decide the World Champion. To choose the challenger, FIDE organized the Chess World Cup 2007. Topalov was compensated for missing the 2007 tournament by getting direct entry to a Challenger Match against the winner of the Chess World Cup. The winner of the Challenger Match would then be the official challenger to Anand. Gata Kamsky earned the right to play in the Challenger Match by winning the Chess World Cup 2007. Challenger Match The Challenger Match was an eight-game match between Topalov and Kamsky. It was played in Sofia, Bulgaria, between 16 and 28 February 2009. After Kamsky won the World Cup, there was ongoing uncertainty about the location for the Challenger match. Topalov preferred his home country of Bulgaria, while Kamsky wanted to play in a neutral country, and his manager organised a bid from Lviv, Ukraine. FIDE awarded the match to Bulgaria in February 2008, to Ukraine in June