World Chess Championship 2007

The World Chess Championship 2007 was held in Mexico City, from September 12 2007 to September 30 2007 to decide the world champion in the board game chess. It was an eight-player, double round robin tournament.

Viswanathan Anand of India won the tournament and the title of World Chess Champion. His winning score was 9 points out of 14, with a total of 4 wins and 10 draws, and Anand was the only undefeated player in the tournament. He will defend the title in a 2008 match against the previous world champion, Vladimir Kramnik.

Background

This championship was unusual in that the World Chess Championship was decided by a tournament rather than a match.

The FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 was also a double round robin tournament, but at the time the world title was split, with that tournament being for the FIDE world championship, and with Classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik refusing to take part. [ [http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/kramfide.html Official Statement by Vladimir Kramnik] , The Week in Chess, April 28 2005] Soon after the 2005 tournament, FIDE announced that the 2007 World Championship would also be a double round robin tournament.

In 2006, FIDE announced the World Chess Championship 2006, to reunify the world chess championship. Because the organization of the 2007 tournament was largely in place, conditions of that match included:
* If Classical champion (Kramnik) defeated FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov, Kramnik would take Topalov's place in the 2007 tournament.
* The 2007 tournament would be a world championship.

Kramnik won the 2006 match. In June 2007, Kramnik confirmed that he recognized the 2007 tournament as the world championship, while expressing a personal preference for the championship to be decided by a match. [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3899 Vladimir Kramnik on the world of chess (Part 2)] , Chessbase, 1 June 2007]

FIDE later announced that future world championships (beginning with the World Chess Championship 2008) would be decided by matches between the champion and a challenger. [ [http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=DD106 Regulations for the 2007 - 2009 World Chess Championship Cycle] , sections 4 and 5, FIDE online. Undated, but reported in [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3948 Chessbase on 24-Jun-2007] ] At the same time FIDE announced that, as compensation for being denied entry to the 2007 tournament, Topalov would have special privileges in the World Chess Championship 2008 cycle.

Participants

# – reigning World Champion
# – joint second place in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005
# – joint second place in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005
# – fourth place in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005
# – qualified via the Candidates Tournament
# – qualified via the Candidates Tournament
# – qualified via the Candidates Tournament
# – qualified via the Candidates Tournament

Qualification process

The top four finishers of the 2005 FIDE World Championship event were granted direct entry into the 2007 event. However, Veselin Topalov, FIDE World Chess Champion 2005, was replaced by Vladimir Kramnik, Classical World Chess Champion, after losing his unification match to him in the 2006 World Championship.

Four further players qualified through the 2005-07 qualification process, which consisted of three stages:
#Continental championships
#2005 World Cup
#2007 Candidates Tournament

2005 World Cup

The 2005 World Cup, held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, was the qualification for the Candidates tournament. It was a knock-out tournament of mini-matches, in the style of the FIDE World Chess Championships 1998-2004. However, once 16 players were left, they were no longer immediately eliminated, but played further mini-matches to establish places 1 through 16.

The top finishers were: [ [http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/a5a7$iix.htm 2005 FIDE World Cup Results] at [http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-indx.htm Mark Weeks' World Chess Championship Index] ] [ [http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic580.html The Week in Chess 580] ]

#flagathlete|Levon Aronian|Armenia
#flagathlete|Ruslan Ponomariov|Ukraine
#flagathlete|Etienne Bacrot|France
#flagathlete|Alexander Grischuk|Russia
#flagathlete|Evgeny Bareev|Russia
#flagathlete|Boris Gelfand|Israel
#flagathlete|Sergei Rublevsky|Russia
#flagathlete|Mikhail Gurevich|Turkey

9. flagathlete|Gata Kamsky|USA
10. flagathlete|Magnus Carlsen|Norway
11. flagathlete|Vladimir Malakhov|Russia
12. flagathlete|Francisco Vallejo Pons|Spain
13. flagathlete|Alexey Dreev|Russia
14. flagathlete|Loek Van Wely|Netherlands
15. flagathlete|Joel Lautier|France
16. flagathlete|Konstantin Sakaev|Russia

2007 Candidates Tournament

One place in the Candidates Tournament was reserved for 2004 FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Five places were then awarded to the top five players by FIDE rating (average of July 2004 and January 2005 ratings) who had not already qualified: these were Péter Lékó, Michael Adams, Judit Polgár, Alexei Shirov and Étienne Bacrot. [http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=DD104 FIDE Rules for 2007 World Championship, Candidates Matches] ] The remaining ten places went to the highest finishers at the 2005 FIDE World Cup who had not otherwise qualified.

The Candidates tournament, held in Elista, Kalmykia, Russia from May 26 to June 14, 2007, was originally to consist of a two-round knockout with one player qualifying from each quarter of the draw. In September 2006, FIDE proposed that these players play a 16 player, single round-robin tournament instead. [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3365 FIDE proposes Candidates tournament 2007] , Chessbase, 24 September 2006.] However this decision was reversed, and the tournament consisted of two rounds of matches as originally planned. [ [http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic654.html The Week in Chess 654] , The Week in Chess, 21 May 2007]

The 2005 World Cup winner Aronian was the top seed, with the remaining players seeded in rating order according to the January 2006 ratings list. In the second round, the 1v16 winner played the 8v9 winner, 2v15 winner versus 7v10 winner, and so on.

Match conditions

Matches were best of six games, at normal time controls (40/120, then 20/60, then 15 minutes + 30 seconds per move). Where matches were tied after six games, tie breaks were played on the seventh day:

# Best of four rapid games were played. Rapid time control was 25 minutes for the game, plus 10 seconds per move.
# Where the score was still tied, best of two blitz games were played. Blitz time control was five minutes for the game, plus 10 seconds per move.
# If the score was still tied, the players would have drawn lots for a single sudden death game where White had six minutes but needed to win, Black had five minutes but only needed to draw. This final stage of tie break, called an Armageddon chess game, was never required.

Round 1

:Numbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.

Standings

:Key: v. tied = points against tied player; NS = Neustadtl score

For players who finished level on points, the following tie-breakers were applied (in order of precedence): results of games between tied players, total number of wins, Neustadtl score.

References

External links

* [http://www.chessmexico.com Official site of the World Championship]
* [http://globalchess.eu/main.php Official site of the Candidates matches]