After Rustam Kasimdzhanov won the FIDE World Championship 2004, FIDE immediately started the organization of the potential Kasimdzhanov – Kasparov match. In accordion to the Prague Agreement, the winner of that match was supposed to play Vladimir Kramnik (who had just beaten Peter Leko) in the match for the unification of the chess title.

However, Kasimdzhanov – Kasparov match never took place. Much later, Kasparov cited the events in the first half of the 2000s as one of the reasons for his retirement:

“It seemed to me that everyone was very pleased when I was constantly denied a chance to play for the highest title. What happened with FIDE in the last year was scandalous. But I never heard a voice of concern or a voice of support for Garry Kasparov. I still read about the bad treatment by FIDE of Ponomariov, but I never heard any serious complaints about the way they treated me. After the Prague agreement, I had regular disappointments with the entire process. The process was used for advancing the agenda of others, eventually at my expense.“

(More details were given in our post about Kramnik – Leko match in 2004)

Thus, FIDE had to seek an alternative way. In the face of criticism of the knockout tournaments organized previously, FIDE decided to stage the next event, FIDE World Chess Championship 2005, as a double round-robin event, consisting of eight players. Players who were invited were:

• Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Michael Adams (finalists of the 2004 FIDE World Championship)
• Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko (participants of the 2004 Classical World Championship match)
• Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov and Alexander Morozevich ( highest rated players in the period from July 2004 to January 2005)

As Kasparov retired and Kramnik refused to risk his title by participating, Peter Svidler and Judit Polgar, as the next players on the rating list, took their places.

The tournament took place in Potrero de Los Funes, San Luis Province, in Argentina, from September 27 to October 16, 2005. Although everyone was expecting a close fight, the tournament saw a dominant performance from Veselin Topalov. After starting with 6.5/7 (!!) he drew the remaining 7 games of the 2nd cycle and with 10/14 scored a convincing victory.

Although FIDE declared that the winner will be regarded as the World Chess Champion, the non-participation of the Classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik still left the question open to debate. Kramnik stated that according to „Prague agreement“, he deserves the right to a match against the winner of the tournament.

Although Topalov initially refused Kramnik’s offer, later he reconsidered and agreed to play in the Kramnik – Topalov 2006 World Championship Match, which would unify the chess title once and for all.

Sources:

Chessbase: Garry Kasparov Retires From Professional Chess

Chessbase: Topalov Says Nyet To Kramnik