TheFIDE World Chess Championships from 1998 to 2004 followed a similarknockout format, radically different from previousWorld Chess Championship events. Previous events had had long qualifying cycles, spread over more than a year, culminating in a long match (best of 20 or 24 games) between the incumbent champion and a challenger. From 1998 to 2004, however,FIDE organised its World Championship as a single event over about a month, with many players playing short knockout matches, rather in the style of atennis tournament such asWimbledon.
From 1948 to 1993, the world chess championship had been administered byFIDE, the international chess federation. In 1993, the World Chess ChampionGarry Kasparov split fromFIDE and formed a rival organisation, theProfessional Chess Association. FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, meaning there were now two rival championships: the FIDE title, held byAnatoly Karpov, and the PCA title, held by Kasparov. Karpov and Kasparov had successfully defended their titles at theFIDE World Chess Championship 1996 andPCA World Chess Championship 1995 respectively.
From 1948 until 1996, World Chess Championships had followed a similar pattern: a series of qualifying tournaments and matches were held over more than a year, culminating in theCandidates Tournament. The winner of the Candidates tournament was the official challenger for the world title and would play the incumbent champion in a match for the world championship. (The 1996 cycle was an exception. The incumbent world champion participated in the Candidates tournament as a seeded semi-finalist.)
In 1997, FIDE presidentKirsan Ilyumzhinov proposed a completely new structure: a knockout tournament, consisting of two game matches (slightly longer in the final rounds), with match tie-breakers usingrapid chess andblitz chess if necessary. This format had been done before in tournaments, but never at the world championship level.
The advantages of the new format were:
Opponents pointed out the disadvantages of the format:
In declining to participate,Garry Kasparov wrote, "In Chess, the tradition of playing for the official WORLD TITLE is 111 years old and recognises the age-old tradition of a match between the HOLDER of the title and the CHALLENGER. Tradition dictates that this challenge is made in a serious manner with a full series of matches. The format being suggested flies directly in the face of tradition and unfortunately trivialises the World Title."[1]
Despite winning the first event,Anatoly Karpov expressed his unhappiness with the use of rapid tiebreaks, comparing it to using a 100 metre race as a tiebreak for amarathon.[2]
The first knockout tournament was held at the end of 1997. In addition to the new format, it was proposed by Ilyumzhinov as a way to unify the two rival world titles. To do this, FIDE champion Karpov and PCA champion Kasparov were each to be seeded into the semi-finals.
Kasparov did not want to defend his title under these circumstances and declined his invitation.
The format was then modified to have FIDE champion Karpov seeded directly into the final.
All of the tournament except the final was held inGroningen in December 1997. Karpov as defending FIDE champion was seeded directly into the championship match. Of the 97 remaining participants, 68 entered the tournament in the first round, 28 in the second round and 1 (Gelfand, loser from Round 3 of the previous Candidates match) in the third round. The first six rounds consisted of two normal time control games, plus tiebreaks. The seventh-round consisted of four normal time control games, plus tiebreaks.
The seventh-round was betweenViswanathan Anand andMichael Adams, and was won by Anand.[4]
Anand then played Karpov in the final in January 1998. The final was best of 6 normal time control games, and this was drawn 3-3. Karpov then won the rapid playoff, becoming the 1998 FIDE World Chess Champion.[5]
There were criticisms that Anand never really had a chance because Karpov was much fresher than Anand, who had only three days between his match with Adams and the match with Karpov, while Karpov automatically qualified for the final.
The 1999 tournament was held inLas Vegas, in July and August 1999. Karpov was not seeded into the final and refused to participate.
Kasparov again refused to take part, and famously said that most of the participants were "tourists".[6]
The event was won byAlexander Khalifman.[7]
Khalifman was rated 44th in the world at the time,[8] which some compared unfavourably to PCA champion Kasparov being rated #1. Khalifman said after the tournament,"Rating system works perfectly for players who play only in round-robin closed events. I think most of them are overrated. Organizers invite same people over and over because they have the same rating and their rating stays high."[9] Perhaps in response, Khalifman was invited to the nextLinares chess tournament, and performed creditably (though placing below joint winner Kasparov).[10]
This event was played in November–December 2000.Vladimir Kramnik had recently defeated Kasparov for Kasparov's world title (seeClassical World Chess Championship 2000), and neither of these players[11] took part.
The event was won in convincing fashion by Anand,[12] who only had to rely on a rapid playoff once. This was the first time the top-rated player had won the event (in 1997-98 Anand was top-rated, followed by Karpov).
This event was won byRuslan Ponomariov.[13]
The event was won byRustam Kasimdzhanov.
FIDE abandoned the knockout format in 2005, instead running theFIDE World Chess Championship 2005 as an 8 player, double round-robin tournament.
However, FIDE still held a2005 knockout tournament called the "FIDE World Cup", as the first stage of qualification for theFIDE World Chess Championship 2007. It roughly fills the place of the oldInterzonal tournaments, with the top 10 placegetters qualifying for the 2007Candidates Tournament.
The world championship was eventually reunified in 2006, when classical championVladimir Kramnik (who had defeatedGarry Kasparov in 2000) defeated the winner of theFIDE World Chess Championship 2005,Veselin Topalov. Since then the championship has been decided, as before, in a final match between the defending champion and a challenger decided by theCandidates Tournament.
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