By Nick Butler

Viswanathan Anand will face Magnus Carlsen is their much anticipated rematch in Sochi ©AFP/Getty ImagesAnother major sporting event will be held in Sochi this year following the announcement the World Chess Championship rematch between Norway's Magnus Carlsen and India's Viswanathan Anand will take place in the Olympic host city in November.


Due to be held over three weeks from November 7 to 28, the match will see five-time former world champion Anand attempt to win back the title he lost last November in Chennai, with Carlsen winning the contest 6½–3½ after 10 of the 12 scheduled games.

The 44-year-old Indian earned the right to compete for the title again by winning the Candidates Tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk in March. 

Scheduled to take place in the Olympic Village close to the Coastal Cluster of Winter Olympic and Paralympic venues, the match will be the latest sporting event to be earmarked for the city in recent months. 

Since the conclusion of the Games in March one Olympic Park venue, the Adler Arena, which hosted speed skating during the Olympics, staged Russia's Federation Cup tennis match against Argentina, in which the host nation won 4-0.

It has also been confirmed that a team based in Sochi and playing at either the Bolshoy Ice Dome or Shayba Arena will be added to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for next season, while reformed football club FC Zhemchuzhina will also play their home matches at the Fisht Olympic Stadium at some point in the future. 

A Formula One race is also due to take place in the southern city on September 21 at the Sochi International Street Circuit close to the Olympic Park.

A World Championship chess tournament will take place in the Olympic Village in Sochi ©Getty ImagesA World Championship chess tournament will take place in the Olympic Village in Sochi
©Getty Images



Not all the legacy plans have been delivered, however, with failures including the scrapping of plans to turn the Iceberg Skating Palace, which hosted figure skating during the Games, into a track cycling velodrome.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of the World Chess Federation, announced the schedule earlier this month, confirming the budget for the event has been set at RUB 104.4 million (£1.2 million/$3 million/€1.8 million). 

Russian Chess Federation President Andrei Filatov also confirmed his organisation would participate in hosting the event, thus continuing Russia's long association with the World Chess Championship. 

The last world champion from the world's largest nation was Vladimir Kramnik, who won the 2006 edition before losing to Anand the following year. 

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