The biggest chess event of 2010 is fast approaching, as Vishy Anand of India gets set to defend his title against Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov in a $3 million world championship match in Sofia from April 21st to May 12th.

The 21st April is the official opening ceremony at the match venue of the Central Military Club. Play gets underway with game one taking place on April 23rd. After every two games there is a rest day, with game twelve on May 10th. If the score is tied 6-6 there will be rapid-play tiebreaks and closing ceremony on May 12th. The full schedule for the Anand-Topalov world championship match between can be found by clicking here.

Will it be Anand, or will it be Topalov? The pundits have the match evenly balanced between the two elite heavyweights - but you can have your say NOW by voting in the ICC poll at www.chessclub.com.

Here on ICC, Chess.FM will have extended coverage throughout this intriguing match-up. The Chess.FM grandmaster team (Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen, Gregory Kaidanov, Jon Speelman, Nick De Firmian, Alex Yermolinsky, Varuzhan Akobian and Ronen Har-Zvi) and will be on hand giving you their expert spin of every move in every game - and look out for some surprise special guests popping in during our live shows to offer their insight to all the happenings in Sofia!

And at the nerve center of all the action in the Sofia press room, Macauley Petersen, Chess.FM's resident video guru, will be bringing us all the breaking news, developments, interviews, and his daily video coverage. We'll also have the daily New In Chess & Game of the Day trivia competitions, where ICC members can win major prizes every day.

All the live coverage, move-by-move grandmaster commentary, Game of the Day recaps and trivia contests are restricted to ICC members-only. Join ICC now by clicking here to get all the best in Chess.FM grandmaster action for the upcoming Anand-Topalov match!

Altounian now goes forward to claim a spot in next month's US Championship sponsored by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.

In his youth, Altounian was an incredibly strong Armenian junior player in the early 1990s. He was the U.S.S.R Junior Team Champion in 1991 and the Armenian Junior Champion from 1992-1993 and, as his country's representative, tied for tenth place in the 1993 World Junior Championship. 

Lev is a 6 time California State champion (1996-2003) and has continued this streak by becoming both the 2008 and 2009 Arizona State Champion. He is currently among the top 40 chess players in the country and is highly respected as a player with a profound understanding of the game by the country’s best players. He also qualified to play in the 2002 US Championship in Seattle.

He is also one of the most successful coaches in Arizona. Shortly after his arrival to the state in 2002, the school where he taught, Castlehill Country Day School, became the 2003 National K-5 Champions.  He has coached numerous state champion teams as well as individuals among all age groups. He also coached Landon Brownell who became the 2006-2007 National Individual Champion.