Viswanathan Anand [Images] starts as firm favourite in the World Chess Championship that begins in Mexico City on Thursday.

The September 12 to 30 tournament, considered the strongest, will have with a double round-robin system and a prize fund of US $1.3 million.

Anand, the world's top-ranked chess player, is one of the four players to qualify directly for the finals together with Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, and Alexander Morozevich.

Lev Aronian needed to go through a tough qualification in Elista, earlier this year, where he beat Magnus Carlsen on his way to the final.

The other three who qualified are Peter Lekoof Hungary, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Russian Alexander Grischuk.

Anand, who won the FIDE Championships back in 2000, has won numerous other titles in the world, but a world title in the current format is something that will add to the glittering cupboard of the World No. 1.

Most of the players arrived as much as a week early to acclimatize themselves in Mexico, which is located at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,349 feet).

Anand starts with the highest Elo rating at 2792 to Kramnik's 2769.

The eight players in the field are:

Player	Country	Rating	Birth
Vishwanathan Anand	India	2792	1969
Vladimir Kramnik	Russia [Images]	2769	1975
Alexander Morozevich	Russia	2758	1977
Peter Leko	Hungary	2751	1979
Levon Aronian	Armenia	2750	1982
Peter Svidler	Russia	2735	1976
Boris Gelfand	Israel	2733	1968
Alexander Grischuk	Russia	2726	1983

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