India's Viswanathan Anand took on Israel's Boris Gelfand on Friday for the first world chess crown to be decided in Moscow since intrigue and politics rocked the sport at the height of the Cold War.

Russia is hosting the epic 12-match series at the State Tretyakov Gallery in the capital where the great chess battles of the Soviet era gripped the world and seen by many as the natural home of the event.

The 42-year-old Indian grandmaster Anand began his third defence of the world title since 2007 playing white and the overwhelming favourite despite a recent run of uninspired form.

His Minsk-born rival is making his maiden challenge at 43 and hoping to fulfill the promise that once made him a great hope of the great Soviet chess machine in his youth.

Gelfand opened with a classic Grunfeld defence but turned a deep red and cupped his ears in his palms when Anand surprised him with a quick sixth move that shredded the challenger's queen-side defence.

"I do not think that Gelfand was looking this red yesterday," said live commentator Nigel Short, the British grandmaster and former world championship challenger.

Anand sipped tea and Gelfand stared intently at the board during the tense opening exchanges. But both men repeatedly left their specially-ordered chairs to walk around the stage in a bid to keep themselves composed.

The series marks the World Chess Championship's first return to Moscow since the epic 1984-85 clash between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov was controversially aborted and replayed at the end of the year.

The flamboyant Kasparov then went on to infuriate the Soviet authorities by beating their strait-laced favourite Karpov to become the youngest chess champion of the time.

Organisers decided to add drama to this event by staging it in the 19th century splendour of the Tretyakov -- the first title decided in an art gallery since Stalin ordered one played at the Pushkin Museum in 1935.

But both Anand and Gelfand enter the $2.55 million face-off smarting from a string of disappointing performances that saw the world champion slip to fourth in the rankings and below the coveted 2,800-point chess rating mark.

Anand finished fifth in his last tournament in December while Gelfand ended up tenth in January.

"If Anand had not been so disappointing (in recent months), there would be no question about who is the favourite," Moscow Chess Federation deputy head Sergei Smagin told the RIA Novosti news agency.

But bookmakers in both Moscow and London make the Israeli the underdog. Gelfand has not beaten his rival in the timed classical chess format since 1993 and is currently ranked 20th.

But he enters the match after putting together a dazzling performance at a star-studded 2011 championship qualification tournament from which Norway's top-ranked prodigy Magnus Carlsen had surprisingly pulled out.

"I can only say one thing about my opponent's strong suits," Gelfand said Thursday when asked to pick apart Anand's play. "He is a very good chess player."

The two grandmasters' first match-up in 1989 also came in Moscow and saw them settle for a draw with Gelfand playing black and enjoying a marginally better position.

Anand has held the world crown since 2007 and last defended it against Veselin Topalov on the Bulgarian's home turf in 2010.