After staging the World Chess Championship in 1998 and in 1999 in the form of the Knockout Tournament, in 2000 FIDE continued with the annual organization of this event and kept the format intact.
FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 was a knockout event that consisted of 7 rounds. First six rounds were played in New Delhi in India between 27 November and 15 December 2000. The final round, effectively a „short match“ for the crown, was played between 20 and 24 December.
The regulations regarding the tournament were as follows:
- Rounds 1-5: Best of two with the time control of 100 minutes + 30 seconds, with an additional 50 minutes after move 40 and an additional 10 minutes after move 60
- Round 6 (semifinal): Best of four, same time control
- Round 7 ( final): Best of six, same time control
In case of equal score, a tie-break consisted first of two rapid chess games (25 minutes + 10 seconds), then of two shorter rapid games (15 minutes + 10 seconds) and finally, first-to-win series of blitz games in which player playing the White pieces had a time handicap (4 minutes and 10 seconds against 5 minutes and 10 seconds). Tiebreak regulations were the same for all rounds.
Similarly, as with previous Knockout Tournaments, a number of top players refused to participate. Both Kasparov and Kramnik, who had just finished their match for the title of the Classical World Champion, one month before the scheduled start of the tournament, refused to take part in official FIDE events. Also, 1998 FIDE World Champion, Anatoly Karpov, still disappointed with zero privileges he got in the 1999 circle, filed a lawsuit for contract violation against FIDE and also refused to participate.
However, both the defending champion Alexander Khalifman and the finalists of the 1998 cycle Viswanathan Anand participated this time, as well as most of the other strongest players in the world (except for Kramnik, Karpov and Kasparov, only one player from the World Top 25 was missing).
The top seed Viswanathan Anand confirmed the status of the pre-tournament favorite. After joining the action in the second round, he beat Bologan, Lputian, Macieja, Khalifman, Adams and Shirov and captured the title of the FIDE World Champion. His performance in front of the home crowd was extremely impressive – during the whole event, he didn’t lose a single game.
Sources:
Wikipedia: FIDE World Chess Championship 2000
Chessgames: FIDE World Championship Knockout 2000
(Cover photo source: Hindu – End Of Anand’s Search For The Elusive World Chess Title)