FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov has announced that the 2011 Candidates matches, originally scheduled to be held in Azerbaijan, will now take place in Russia, according to media reports. Earlier, Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronyan had said he would refuse to participate in a tournament staged in Azerbaijan, for security reasons.

But the change in FIDE’s decision reportedly comes following a Russian request.

Online chess news website ChessBase writes that the decision was made despite the existence of a signed contract with organizers in Azerbaijan and even the pre-payment by the latter of some $150,000 to FIDE’s bank account.

It quotes Illyumzhinov as saying on Tuesday that the matches will be hosted by the Russian city of Kazan. The source also reports that several days before, the Russian Chess Federation wrote to FIDE and requested that the matches be moved to Kazan. The online chess news publication names no precise reason behind the Russian request, but it mentions that Aronyan had said it would not be safe for him, as an Armenian, to play in Azerbaijan, a country with which Armenia warred in the early 1990s and is still at loggerheads over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov, another of the Candidates qualifiers, has issued an open letter, refusing to play in Russia.

The latest FIDE announcement confirms that the eight players who will take part in the event remain the same: Carlsen, Kramnik, Aronyan, Topalov, Radjabov, Kamsky, Gelfand and Mamedyarov.

The winner qualifies as Challenger for the World Championship match in 2011.