Geneva will host the 2026 Chess World Championship match between India's Gukesh Dommaraju and Uzbekistan's Javokhir Sindarov between November 25 and December 15, FIDE confirmed on Tuesday.
Interim FIDE President and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand confirmed that they had received bids from various countries, including India, Cyprus and the USA, but the decision was made to host it in neutral territory.
"After carefully considering all the proposals, FIDE has decided to stage the match on neutral soil and bring it to Geneva, a city with a historic tradition of bringing nations and cultures together," Anand said.
This ends weeks of speculation about the host city for the match, with FIDE also having to extend the bidding deadline from the original May 31, to provide prospective bidders with more time.
Geneva is an interesting choice because Sindarov had publicly stated that he wouldn't want to play in the cold, which is why it was understood that Uzbekistan wouldn't be bidding for the match. However, he will now have no choice but to play in alpine winters in Switzerland.
Gukesh will look to defend the title he won in 2024 in Singapore, when he beat Ding Liren 7.5-6.5 in a dramatic 14th game of the match and became the youngest world champion.
Sindarov, 20, won the right to challenge Gukesh for the world title after winning the FIDE Candidates tournament in Cyprus earlier this year. With Gukesh also now 20, this will be the youngest world championship match in history.
Sindarov is in great form in classical chess while Gukesh isn't, and that makes this match a tantalising prospect, much like the last World Championship match, which Gukesh went into with excellent form, up against a struggling Ding. Gukesh will now look to turn his form around in the few months that are left before the match.
There will be Indian interest in the women's world championship match, which is scheduled for April, too, where R Vaishali will take on Ju Wenjun. While FIDE did invite bidders to put up a joint bid for both matches if they wanted to, that hasn't come to pass, and we will now have to wait for the bidding process to commence for the women's match.
"This is a truly special day for Swiss chess," André Vögtlin, President of the Swiss Chess Federation (SSB), said.
"It's also a unique opportunity to raise the public profile of chess in Switzerland even further and to inspire new players to take up our sport. Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing regular updates on how we're using this mega-event to boost the popularity of the 'royal game' in our country," he added.