In 1997, the newly elected FIDE President Kyrsan Ilyumzhinov introduced a completely new system of determining the FIDE World Champion. Instead of the „normal“ qualifying cycle that led to Karpov – Kamsky match two years earlier, World Championship was organized in the form of the knockout tournament.
The new tournament format introduced a limited number of games played on classical time control – two-game mini-matches in the early rounds, four-game mini-match in the semi-final and six-game match in the final of the tournament. In the event of the tie after the classical games, the winner was to be determined with the help of the rapid and/or blitz games.
Ilyumzhinov’s plan also included the unification of the World Championship title. FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov and PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov were supposed to be seeded directly in the semi-final. However, Garry Kasparov refused to defend his title in such a tournament format, echoing the opinion of the critics that in such a short format there is a higher probability of an unexpected result.
In response, Ilyumzhinov simply seeded Karpov directly into the final, letting him play a 6 game match against the eventual winner of the tournament. This decision caused a lot of controversies.
Even though everyone agreed that the defending FIDE champion should enjoy certain benefits, a short time difference between the end of the tournament and the start of the final match was the main reason behind the numerous complaints. Vladimir Kramnik refused to take part in the tournament in protest against this decision.
The tournament was held in Groningen from 9th to 30th December, 1997. After beating Nikolic, Khalifman, Almasi, Shirov, Gelfand and finally, Michael Adams in the decisive blitz game in the 8th round of the tournament, the talented Indian Viswanathan Anand gained the right for a final match with Karpov. On 2nd January 1998, only three days (!) after the final games with Adams, he moved to Lausanne to compete against Karpov in a best-of-six match.
After six games of the match, the result was drawn. A rapid tiebreak ensued, where Anand’s exhaustion finally told. In the first rapid game, he built a massive advantage with the Black pieces, but then completely spoilt everything and went on to lose. Then, in a must-win situation, he played dismally and went on to lose without a fight.
Thus, Anatoly Karpov defended his title and added another World Championship victory to his impressive chess biography. Although, just like in the past, it didn’t happen without him enjoying enormous benefits.