FIDE World Chess Championships 1993-2005

The FIDE World Chess Championships 1993-2005 were a consequence of the disqualification of the reigning world chess champion , Garry Kasparov , by the World Chess Federation FIDE . Kasparov did not recognize this dismissal. As a result, the world championship title was split in two from 1993 to 2006.

On the one hand, Kasparov defended his title in specially organized competitions in 1993 and 1995 , and finally lost it in personal continuity to Vladimir Kramnik in the 2000 World Chess Championship . For the World Chess Championship in 2004, this introduced the terms "classic chess world champions" and "classic chess world championships", which have often been used retrospectively since then - in contrast to the world championship tournaments organized by FIDE on the other side, which are accordingly called "FIDE World Chess Championships" or, for short, "FIDE- World Championships ”. These expressions are usually only used for the period of competitive entitlement to the title, although all world championships from the 1948 to 1990 World Chess Championships were organized by FIDE, as well as those afterwards: After several reunification initiatives had failed, the unification fight in the World Chess Championship In 2006 the division between Kramnik and FIDE world champion Wesselin Topalow was canceled.

For several reasons, the FIDE World Chess Championships 1993-2005 received relatively little attention, and most of the winners were not recognized as world champions or even the best chess players in the world. FIDE changed modes several times; they used the knockout system and a reduced cooling off period at some of these world championships . This met with resistance from many top players and was later abolished. The "classic world champion" (Kasparov or later Kramnik) did not take part in any of these FIDE World Championship tournaments. Sometimes players only won the world elite, especially Rustam Kasimjanov in 2004 . Therefore, when counting the world championships and the titleholders, the FIDE world championships are usually ignored. Kasparov as the 13th world chess champion was therefore replaced by Kramnik as the 14th, who in turn was replaced in the 2007 world chess championship by Viswanathan Anand , the 15th world chess champion.

background

The world title and FIDE

Starting with the duel between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort , the world chess champions and their chosen challengers themselves took the initiative to organize the World Cup between 1886 and 1937. The World Chess Federation FIDE was only founded in 1924 and shortly thereafter it awarded its own title, namely that of FIDE Champion . The first and only carrier was Efim Bogolyubov . Under the direction of FIDE and financed by patrons from Germany, he played two World Cup matches against the undisputed world champion Alexander Alekhine in 1929 and 1934 , both of which he lost without a chance. As a result, FIDE made no further attempts to bring the world title under its control. Alekhine retained the title (with a two-year hiatus) until his death in 1946. Only then was FIDE able to muster enough legitimacy to award the world title itself. So she organized the 1948 World Chess Championship , a round-robin tournament with five participants. Until 1990, qualification fights (so-called candidate tournaments ) and world championships were regularly organized by FIDE in one-on-one form.

Garry Kasparov

Kasparov's break with the World Chess Federation

In 1993, however, the then world champion Kasparov fell out with FIDE and founded his own chess organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA). On this basis, he directed the world championship match against the English challenger Nigel Short determined by FIDE . FIDE had previously set a deadline for Kasparov and Short, within which the two should respond to an offer made by FIDE to host an event in Manchester . However, both players refused. After the ultimatum had expired, FIDE disqualified both players, revoked Kasparov's official World Cup title and organized a "replacement World Cup". This resulted in two competing titles: the title of PCA or classic world champion and that of FIDE world champion. Today Kasparov is self-critical about the establishment of the PCA: “It was bad judgment.” (Eng. It was a bad decision. ).

The time during the split

The "classic" world championships

Kasparov successfully defended his world title against Nigel Short during the classic world chess championship in 1993 . And two years later, at the 1995 World Chess Championship against Viswanathan Anand , he was able to prevail in the World Trade Center with 10.5: 7.5. In the same year Kasparov and FIDE settled their dispute and the PCA broke up. A new sponsor for a world championship fight by Kasparov was only found in 2000; at the world championship organized by Braingames he lost the world title against Vladimir Kramnik . Since the time of Alekhine, this was the first challenger the world champion chose himself. Kasparov was heavily criticized for it, as Kramnik was previously defeated in a duel against Alexei Schirow . It was therefore considered sensational that Kasparov could not win a single game and that Kramnik was the winner with 8.5: 6.5 with two wins in the second and tenth game.

Kramnik then claimed the “classic” world title in September and October 2004 in a match against Péter Lékó , which ended 7: 7. This draw was enough to defend the title. The 2002 Dortmund Chess Days served as qualification . Only in 2006 did Kramnik finally agree to a reunification battle against the winner of the FIDE World Cup 2005, Wesselin Topalow (see below).

The FIDE World Championships

FIDE world champion 1993-2006

Surname	Period	country
Anatoly Karpov	1993-1999	Russia
Alexander Chalifman	1999-2000	Russia
Viswanathan Anand	2000-2002	India
Ruslan Ponomarev	2002-2004	Ukraine
Rustam Kasimjanov	2004-2005	Uzbekistan
Wesselin Topalow	2005-2006	Bulgaria

FIDE, however, had to appoint two new players who played the final of “their” World Cup, and decided on shorts for the last opponents in the candidate fights - Jan Timman in the final, Anatoly Karpov in the semifinals. The winner of this fight should be considered the new official FIDE world champion. Karpov, who was recognized world chess champion from 1975 to 1985 , finally prevailed. He was able to maintain his world title until 1999, but lost it to Alexander Chalifman in the 1999 knockout tournament . In the two previous tournaments in 1996 and 1997/1998 , he had clearly been given an advantage by FIDE, as he only had to intervene in the semifinals or final and thus had a conditional advantage over his opponents, who had previously played several games against strong opponents within a few days had to. After violent protests from the players, FIDE finally abolished the special regulation for their world champions before the 1999 World Cup.

FIDE World Championship 1993

Anatoli Karpov, winner of the FIDE World Cup 1993 and then FIDE World Champion until 1999

The first world championship after Kasparov's disqualification took place from September 6 to November 1, 1993 in the Netherlands ( Arnhem and Amsterdam ) and Indonesia .

At that time Karpov was second in the FIDE world rankings, Timman was 34th. Both players were 42 years old and had often played against each other. The record spoke clearly for Karpow: of the 67 games played before the title fight, he had won 23, Timman had only got the upper hand in five games.

Organizational difficulties

The match started one day before the start of the PCA World Championship. As a result, he was barely noticed by the media, as they focused on Kasparov's title fight. The FIDE fight was scheduled for 24 games. The first twelve games were to be played in Zwolle , Arnheim and Amsterdam , i.e. in three cities in Timman's homeland of Holland, the rest of the original plans in the Sultanate of Oman (Oman was the newest member of FIDE). Time controls were planned for 40 trains after two and a half hours, one hour for 16 trains afterwards with the possibility of a hanging game . In the event of a tie, a maximum of four mini-matches of two games each with a reduced time limit should be played. World Cup boss was Hendrik van Buren .

The World Chess Federation initially offered four million Swiss francs (2,482,000 euros ) as prize money, half of which should be provided by the Dutch and Omani organizers (five eighths for the winner, three eighths for the loser). However, the financial obligations were not met. The Dutch side could only bear the pure organization costs, while the Omani organizers withdrew their offer at short notice. After the first half, the competition was threatened with abandonment. After all, the second half of the competition was not held in Oman, but after a match break of several weeks (September 25th to October 16th) in the Indonesian capital Jakarta .

The organizational mismanagement contributed to Florencio Campomanes , who was already partly responsible for the events surrounding the split, was finally replaced as FIDE President in 1995.

Result

Karpov decided the duel with 12.5: 8.5 for himself. The last three games were not played because Karpow was four points ahead of the game.

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	Result
Anatoly Karpov	1	0	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	1	1	1	½	½	½	0	½	12½
Jan Timman	0	1	½	½	½	0	½	½	½	0	½	½	½	0	0	0	½	½	½	1	½	8½

FIDE World Championship 1996

qualification

This FIDE world championship was the last until 2006 in which the FIDE world champion was played out in a duel. At first there were candidate competitions in a tried and tested manner . However, no challenger to the world champion was identified, rather defending champion Anatoly Karpov was placed in the semi-finals. The final of the Candidates Tournament was thus also the World Cup fight.

Round of 16 1994

The round of 16 competitions took place in January 1994 in Wijk aan Zee .

Michael Adams - Boris Gelfand

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Points
Michael Adams	½	½	½	0	1	0	½	0	3
Boris Gelfand	½	½	½	1	0	1	½	1	5

Valery Salov - Alexander Chalifman

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	Points
Valery Salov	1	½	1	1	½	1	5
Alexander Chalifman	0	½	0	0	½	0	1

Jan Timman - Joël Lautier

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Points
Jan Timman	½	1	0	½	1	½	½	½	4½
Joël Lautier	½	0	1	½	0	½	½	½	3½

Viswanathan Anand - Artur Yusupov

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Points
Viswanathan Anand	½	1	1	0	1	½	½	4½
Artur Yusupov	½	0	0	1	0	½	½	2½

Paul van der Sterren - Gata Kamsky

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Points
Paul van der Sterren	0	1	0	0	½	½	½	2½
Gata Kamsky	1	0	1	1	½	½	½	4½

Leonid Judassin - Vladimir Kramnik

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Points
Leonid Judassin	0	½	½	½	0	½	½	2½
Vladimir Kramnik	1	½	½	½	1	½	½	4½

Quarterfinals 1994

The quarterfinals were held in July and August 1994 in Sanghi Nagar .

Viswanathan Anand - Gata Kamsky

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	Points
Viswanathan Anand	½	½	1	1	½	0	0	½	0	0	4th
Gata Kamsky	½	½	0	0	½	1	1	½	1	1	6th

Vladimir Kramnik - Boris Gelfand

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Points
Vladimir Kramnik	½	½	1	0	½	½	½	0	3½
Boris Gelfand	½	½	0	1	½	½	½	1	4½

Valery Salow - Jan Timman

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Points
Valery Salov	0	½	½	1	½	½	1	½	4½
Jan Timman	1	½	½	0	½	½	0	½	3½

Semifinals 1995

The quarter-finals competitions took place in February 1995 in Sanghi Nagar .

Gelfand - Karpov

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	Points
Boris Gelfand	½	½	1	0	½	0	0	½	0	3
Anatoly Karpov	½	½	0	1	½	1	1	½	1	6th

Kamsky - Salow

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Points
Gata Kamsky	1	½	1	½	1	1	½	5½
Valery Salov	0	½	0	½	0	0	½	1½

The World Cup final between Karpov and Kamsky took place. For the 45-year-old Karpov it was already the ninth world championship fight. His opponent Gata Kamsky was only 22 years old and was playing for the title for the first time. The world championship lasted from June 5 to July 11, 1996.

venue

After a long search for a suitable venue, the decision was made for Elista , the capital of Kalmykia , an autonomous republic of Russia . The main reason for this decision was that the new FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumschinow , who was also President of Kalmykia, wanted to make Elista an international chess center.

Match conditions

The prize money was $ 1.5 million. The winner received five eighths of the money, or $ 937,500. If there had been a tie after the scheduled twenty games, mini-competitions of two games each would have followed until one of them was won by one of the players. Time outs were not allowed; if the player did not appear, he would have lost the game without a fight.

The dispute between the players caused the regulation of the game: While Karpow wanted the game to be postponed after six hours, Kamsky wanted to play on the same day until the decision. Finally, the competition agreement of December 1995 was adhered to, according to which 40 moves had to be played in two hours and 16 more in one hour before a game could be abandoned.

Result

Karpow defeated Kamsky with 10.5: 7.5 and defended his world title. The last two games were no longer played because Karpov could no longer be overtaken.

Six months after the tournament, Kamsky announced his retirement from professional chess to take up law studies. In the meantime, however, he is playing again in major tournaments and even qualified for the candidate finals of the 2010 World Cup against Wesselin Topalow , which he lost , through his victory at the 2007 World Cup .

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	Result
Anatoly Karpov	1	0	½	1	½	1	1	½	1	0	½	½	½	1	½	0	½	½	10½
Gata Kamsky	0	1	½	0	½	0	0	½	0	1	½	½	½	0	½	1	½	½	7½

FIDE World Championship 1997/1998

For the 1997/1998 World Cup, FIDE President Ilyumschinow proposed a completely new mode: the world champion was to be determined by means of a knockout tournament. Two games were to be played in each round (four or six in the semifinals and final); in the event of a tie, the new regulations stipulated tiebreaks with quick and blitz games. This mode has been used in tournaments before, but never before in a World Cup.

Controversy over the new format

One advantage of the new format was that a long qualification process was avoided; the entire competition could be played within a month. In this way, scheduling problems that occurred at previous World Championships were minimized from the outset. In addition, more players were eligible (up to 128). After the initial planning, no privileges were provided for the world champion; like all other participants, he should intervene in the action in the first round. However, this rule was later changed in favor of the defending champion.

Opponents of the new format criticized the short thinking time and the small number of games (only two in the first rounds), which gave too much influence to luck and chance. The rapid chess format of the tiebreaks was particularly controversial. Ultimately, the new regulations meant that it was not necessarily the better player who made progress, but in extreme cases even a complete outsider. Many experts saw the classic tradition of world championships broken, according to which only those who defeated the reigning champions in a duel could become world champions. The only exceptions were the chess world championships in 1948 after the death of the reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine († 1946), and in 1975 , when Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title.

Venues and participants

All rounds except the final took place in Groningen from December 9th to 30th, 1997 . The final was held from January 2 to 9, 1998 in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne .

FIDE world champion Karpov and PCA world champion Kasparov were directly qualified for the semifinals. Kasparov did not want to defend his title under the given conditions and canceled. FIDE then modified the format and put Karpov straight into the final.

A total of seven knockout rounds were played. 97 players took part. In the first round 68 players took up the fight, in addition to the 34 winners, 28 champions were added in the second round, who had been placed due to their high rating. Boris Gelfand joined the 31 players who reached the third round and received the free place from last year's finalist Kamsky.

Result

Karpov met in the final in January 1998 on Viswanathan Anand and prevailed in two 25-minute games 2-0 after the regular competition had ended 3-3 after tournament games. At that time Karpov was sixth in the world rankings with an Elo number of 2735, Anand was third with 2770 points behind Kasparow and Kramnik.

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Result
Anatoly Karpov	1	0	½	1	½	0	1	1	5
Viswanathan Anand	0	1	½	0	½	1	0	0	3

Disadvantage to Anand

After the six knockout rounds, Anand was no longer fresh from the exertion. In fact, Anand had played 23 games against six strong opponents during the World Cup. A rested Karpov thus met a "worn out" opponent. Anand's last semi-final game against Michael Adams was on December 30, 1997, just three days before the final match began. It was obvious that he was tired in Lausanne.

After protests by the players, FIDE no longer used this privilege of the defending champion at the following knockout world championships and had its titleholders compete in the second round. Since then Karpov has only taken part in this event once (2001/2002 in his hometown Moscow).

FIDE World Championship 1999

Alexander Chalifman

The second knockout tournament for the FIDE World Championship took place from July 30th to August 29th, 1999 in Las Vegas . Karpov was not placed in the final this time and refused to participate. Even the classic world champion Kasparov did not take part and described most of the participants as "tourists".

None of the favorites could prevail, and so Alexander Chalifman and Wladimir Hakobjan faced each other surprisingly in the final . Hakobjan (also Akopian ) was number 36 in the world rankings at that time, Chalifman was listed in 44th position, which, in comparison with world number one and PCA world champion Kasparov, made the sporting dubious value of the FIDE World Championship clear. After the tournament, Chalifman said: “The scoring system works perfectly for those players who only compete in round-robin tournaments. I think a lot of these are overrated. Organizers keep inviting the same players because their rating is always at the same high level. ” Perhaps in response to this, Chalifman was invited to the next“ super tournament ”in Linares , where he finished fourth (Kramnik and Kasparov won).

Result

The six-game final took place from August 21st to 28th. Chalifman defeated Hakobjan with 3.5: 2.5 and became the new FIDE world champion.

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	Result
Alexander Chalifman	1	½	0	1	½	½	3½
Vladimir Hakobyan	0	½	1	0	½	½	2½

FIDE World Championship 2000

Viswanathan Anand, FIDE world champion 2000-2002

From November 24th to December 27th, 2000, another knockout tournament took place in New Delhi and Tehran , which was considered the FIDE World Cup. Vladimir Kramnik had only recently dethroned Kasparov at the "classic" World Chess Championship in 2000 . For this reason, neither of these two players took part, who then occupied places one and three in the world rankings of October 2000.

Time controls

In normal games, the time controls were scheduled for 40 moves after 100 minutes, then for 20 more moves after 50 minutes. After all, ten minutes were available for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move. In the event of a tie, two quick games should be played with 25 minutes time and 10 seconds surcharge per move; if there is another tie, another two quick games should be played, but in this case only with 15 minutes time and 10 seconds bonus per move. If there had still been a tie after that, a final game would have been played in which White would have had four minutes and Black five. White should definitely have won, in a draw Black would have been the winner.

Result

This time one of the favorites prevailed, the later sole world champion Viswanathan Anand won with superiority. He only had to go into a tiebreak once in the preliminary rounds. In the final in Tehran, which was scheduled for six games, he won early against Alexei Schirow with 3.5: 0.5.

	1	2	3	4th	Result
Viswanathan Anand	½	1	1	1	3½
Alexei Shirov	½	0	0	0	½

FIDE World Championship 2001/2002

The next world championship took place two years later. From November 17, 2001 to January 23, 2002, the game was played again in knockout mode. The venue was the State Kremlin Palace , a modern event center located in the Moscow Kremlin .

Time controls

Ruslan Ponomarev

After the tournament, FIDE was criticized many times for the introduction of a drastically shortened reflection period: The game pace was from this World Cup until the abolition in 2004 at official FIDE tournaments (World Cup, Chess Olympiad , Youth World Cup, etc. ) 90 minutes for 40 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an additional 30 seconds for each move made. The “classic” time to consider, which was used in international non-FIDE tournaments and was reintroduced by FIDE in 2005 and favored by the vast majority of players - according to a ChessBase survey of 80 percent of those surveyed - is two hours for 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves, then an hour or a half hour for the remaining moves (there is occasionally an additional surcharge of 30 seconds per move).

Result

The young Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomarjow surprisingly won in the final against his compatriot Wassyl Ivanchuk with 4.5: 2.5.

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Result
Ruslan Ponomarev	1	½	½	½	1	½	½	4½
Vasyl Ivanchuk	0	½	½	½	0	½	½	2½

The “Prague Agreement” 2002

Attempts were repeatedly made during the split to unite the competing titles. The most advanced was the Prague Agreement initiated by the American Grand Master Yasser Seirawan , which was signed on May 6, 2002 by Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Kirsan Ilyumschinow , President of FIDE. It was planned that the FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomarjow will contest a duel against the world number one Kasparov. At the same time, the classic world champion Kramnik should compete against the winner of the Dortmund Chess Days 2002 (this was Péter Lékó ). The winners of these two fights would have determined the sole title holder in a world championship fight.

Due to discrepancies, however, the qualifying competitions did not take place: Ponomarjow demanded that various points in his contract be changed, which FIDE refused. Ponomarev therefore refused to sign.

Thereupon the FIDE submitted a correspondingly modified union proposal: The winner of the next FIDE World Championship should play against Kasparov, but not later than in July 2005. The winner would have against the winner of the classic World Championship 2004 , that between Kramnik and Lékó in September and October 2004 was held to play the world title.

FIDE World Championship 2004

→ Main article : 2004 FIDE World Chess Championship

Rustam Kasimjanov, 2004 FIDE World Championship surprise winner

The fifth and last of the knockout tournaments took place from June 18 to July 13, 2004 in the Libyan capital Tripoli . The venue was the Almahary Hotel. Very few world class players took part in this most controversial of all FIDE tournaments. On the one hand, the Libyan government prevented all Israeli citizens from entering the country, and even though numerous Jewish chess players from all over the world did enter, some players, including non-Jewish ones, showed solidarity with the Israelis. On the other hand, a controversial FIDE contract, which left the participants in the unknown about reimbursement of their expenses, was the reason for numerous rejections. It was planned that the winner of the tournament would play an unification fight against Kasparov. However, this did not take place due to discrepancies.

Tournament conditions

FIDE again used the reduced cooling off period, which was abolished after violent protests after the tournament. The first five rounds were also played very quickly with only two games at the beginning. The semifinals lasted four games, the final six. Time controls were after ninety minutes for 40 moves, after that there was a surcharge of 15 minutes and from the start 30 seconds per move. In the event of a tie, tiebreaks again decided who would go on. First, two quick games were played with 25 minutes to think about and ten seconds surcharge per move, after another draw two games would have been played over five minutes and 10 seconds per move; if it had still been tied after that, a final game would have been played in which White would have had six minutes and Black five. White should definitely have won, in a draw Black would have been through.

Result

At this tournament there was the biggest surprise of all FIDE World Championships when the Uzbek Rustam Kasimjanov took the title. He defeated the British Michael Adams in the final with 1.5: 0.5 in two overdue 25-minute games after it was 3: 3 after six games with a long time limit. Kasimjanov received $ 80,000 in prize money .

	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Result
Rustam Kasimjanov	½	1	0	1	0	½	1	½	4½
Michael Adams	½	0	1	0	1	½	0	½	3½

Final collapse of the Prague Agreement

After winning the title, Kasimjanov should play against Kasparov to reunite the title. The World Chess Federation selected the United Arab Emirates as the venue for this duel. However, this project did not materialize either. The promised financing of the duel did not materialize, and plans to have the match instead in Turkey fizzled out. This ambiguity delayed the whole matter. Finally, after Kasparov's unexpected retirement in March 2005, the discussion became obsolete.

FIDE World Championship 2005

Wesselin Topalov when he arrived in Sofia in October 2005 after winning the FIDE World Cup

From September 27 to October 16, 2005, the last FIDE World Championship took place in San Luis , Argentina, during the time of the split on the title question, until the year after the union of the two world championship titles longed for by the chess world was achieved (see below) .

Attendees

The following eight players were invited:

• the finalists of the 2004 World Cup: Rustam Kasimjanov and Michael Adams
• the classic world champion Wladimir Kramnik , and his last challenger Péter Lékó
• the four best players in the world rankings: Garry Kasparov , Viswanathan Anand , Wesselin Topalow and Alexander Morozevich .

Since Kramnik did not see this tournament as a World Cup and the unification contract of the competing world championships as broken by FIDE, he did not accept the invitation, as did Kasparov, who had ended his career, from. Instead, the next players on the world rankings took part, Pjotr ​​Swidler and Judit Polgár .

Tournament conditions

FIDE moved away from the controversial knockout system and for the first time since 1948 organized a round-robin tournament to choose the world champion. FIDE also dispensed with the repeatedly criticized shortened reflection time in the tournament, which was played with the classic cooling time rule of two hours for 40 moves, then one hour for 20 moves and another hour for the rest of the game. The eight participants played two games against each other over 14 rounds.

Final score

Bulgarian Wesselin Topalow won the tournament unbeaten 1.5 points ahead of Viswanathan Anand and Pjotr ​​Swidler , after he had an outstanding performance with 6.5 points from the first seven games in the first half and all the remaining games in the second half drew.

	Elo	performance	WT	VA	PS	AT THE	PL	RK	MA	JP	Points
Wesselin Topalow	2788	+102	##	½½	1½	1½	1½	1½	1½	1½	10
Viswanathan Anand	2788	+19	½½	##	½½	0½	½1	01	1½	11	8½
Pyotr Swidler	2738	+76	0½	½½	##	11	1½	½½	½½	1½	8½
Alexander Morozevich	2707	+36	0½	1½	00	##	½1	½1	½½	½½	7th
Péter Lékó	2763	−52	0½	½0	0½	½0	##	½1	1½	1½	6½
Rustam Kasimjanov	2670	+2	0½	10	½½	½0	½0	##	½½	01	5½
Michael Adams	2719	−53	0½	0½	½½	½½	0½	½½	##	½½	5½
Judit Polgár	2735	−125	0½	00	0½	½½	0½	10	½½	##	4½

Successful title union

Before the 2005 World Cup, FIDE had declared that it would consider the winner of the tournament as the sole world champion. Since the classic world champion Kramnik did not take part, the division of the title persisted. Kramnik invoked the “Prague Agreement” and thus the possibility of playing a direct union fight against the FIDE world champion. Even when Topalow was established as FIDE world champion after the tournament, Kramnik confirmed his readiness for such a duel.

Topalow, who was initially reserved, accepted the challenge. In 2006 the unification battle took place, from which Kramnik emerged victorious. This made him the first generally recognized sole chess world champion since Kasparov. Kramnik's successor was Viswanathan Anand , who took the title from him at the 2007 World Chess Championship .

literature

• Helmut Pfleger and Hartmut Metz: World Chess Championship 1993. Kasparow - Short / Karpow - Timman. Edition Olms, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-283-00276-2 .
• Wolfgang Uhlmann : FIDE World Chess Championship 1996. Gata Kamsky - Anatoli Karpow. Joachim Beyer Verlag, Hollfeld 1996, ISBN 3-88805-252-1 .
• Schach magazine , No. 2, 1998, pp. 4–65 (report on the 1997/1998 FIDE World Cup in Groningen and Lausanne).
• Schach , No. 9, 1999, pp. 5-59 (report on the 1999 FIDE World Cup in Las Vegas).
• Schach , No. 1, 2001, pp. 6–34 and No. 2, 2001, pp. 10–29 (reports on the FIDE World Cup 2000 in New Delhi and Tehran).
• Schach , No. 1, 2002, pp. 4–37 and No. 3, 2002, pp. 6–16 (reports on the 2001/2002 FIDE World Cup in Moscow).
• Schach , No. 8, 2004, pp. 4–48 (report on the FIDE World Cup 2004 in Tripoli).
• Schach , No. 11, 2005, pp. 4–47 (report on the FIDE World Cup 2005 in San Luis).
• Alik Gershon and Igor Nor: San Luis 2005 . Quality Chess, Göteborg 2007, ISBN 978-91-976005-2-1 .

Web links

• Mark Weeks: The World Chess Championship - all games and highlights of the world championships
• André Schulz: The new World Cup cycle , March 10, 2008 (Chessbase)
• Diagram of the new World Cup cycle

Individual evidence

1. ↑ New In Chess , 2006, 8, p. 103.
2. ↑ Jules Welling: Timman missed his opportunities . Die Schachwoche 1993, Issue 38, pp. 3–6 (report, picture and games).
3. ^ Scheck matt , Spiegel.de, accessed on September 2, 2010
4. ^ Robert Byrne : Draw and Match: Karpov Triumphs , in: The New York Times , July 12, 1996
5. ^ The Week in Chess 249 - August 16, 1999 - The Week in Chess
6. ^ The Week in Chess 243 - July 5, 1999
7. ↑ Las Vegas World Championship on chessscotland.com, accessed April 9, 2018 (English)
8. ↑ The Week in Chess 279 - March 13, 2000
9. ↑ The Week in Chess 295 - July 3, 2000
10. ↑ The Week in Chess 377 - January 28, 2002
11. ^ The Week in Chess 546 - April 25, 2005
12. ↑ Official statement by Vladimir Kramnik ( memento of July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), April 28, 2005.
13. ↑ Kramnik willing to face Topalov , ChessBase , October 22, 2005 (English)
14. ↑ Topalov says Nyet to Kramnik , ChessBase , October 22, 2005 (English)