FIDE World Chess Championships (1998â€“2004)

From 1993 to 2006, the world champion in chess was two fold. On the one hand there was the disqualified by the World Chess Federation FIDE world champion Garry Kasparov with the newly formed Professional Chess Association ( PCA) and on the other hand, organized by the FIDE World Championship tournaments.

For several reasons, the FIDE World Chess Championships 1993-2005 found relatively little attention, and their winners were mostly not recognized as the best chess player in the world. The FIDE turned in some of these World Championships to the knockout mode and a shortened period of consideration. This met with many top players on resistance and was later abolished. None of these FIDE world championship tournaments in the "classical world champion" Kasparov or his successor, Vladimir Kramnik took part, resulting in a continuous splitting result. Only in the year 2006, the division was stopped, the unification fight between Kramnik and the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov.

2.1 The "classical" world championships
2.2 The FIDE World Championships

3.1 Organisational difficulties
3.2 Result

4.1 Qualification 4.1.1 knockout round 1994
4.1.2 Quarter-finals 1994
4.1.3 Semi-finals 1995

5.1 Controversies about the new format
5.2 venues and participants
5.3 Result
5.4 deprivation Anand

6.1 Result

7.1 Time Controls
7.2 Result

8.1 Time controls
8.2 Result

Background

The World Champion title and the FIDE

Beginning with the battle of Wilhelm Steinitz against Johannes Zukertort chess world champion and their self- chosen challenger each had himself taken in the period 1886-1937, the initiative to organize the world championship fights. Only in the year 1924, the World Chess Federation FIDE was founded and shortly thereafter he forgave your own title, that of FIDE champions. The first and also the only carrier was Efim Bogolyubov. He played - under the auspices of FIDE and financed by patrons from Germany - in the years 1929 and 1934, two world championship fights against the undisputed world champion Alexander Alekhine, he lost both a chance. Then made the FIDE no further attempts to bring the world title under their control. Alekhine retained the title with a one year interruption until his death in 1946. Now only succeeded FIDE to raise enough legitimacy to be awarded the world title himself, and in 1948 it organized then their first World Championship, a round-robin tournament with five participants. By 1990, then regularly qualification fights ( so-called candidate tournaments) and the World Championships of the FIDE were aligned in single combat form.

Kasparov's break with the World Chess Federation

In 1993, however, the former world champion Kasparov quarreled with FIDE and founded his own chess organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA). On this basis, he turned from the world championship match against the needs identified by the FIDE British challenger Nigel Short. FIDE had previously Kasparov and Short set a deadline within which the two vorliegendes on a FIDE host range should be included in Manchester. Both players refused however. After the expiration of the ultimatum FIDE disqualified both players, Kasparov recognized official world title off and organized a " replacement - WM". Thus, two competing titles were created: the title of the PCA or classical world champion and the FIDE World Champion. Kasparov manifests itself today self-critical about the founding of the PCA: "It was bad judgment. " (Eng. It was a bad decision. ).

The time during cleavage

The "classical" world championships

Kasparov successfully defended his world title against Nigel Short during the classical World Chess Championship 1993. And two years later, at the World Chess Championship 1995 against Viswanathan Anand, he was able to prevail with 10,5:7,5 in the World Trade Center. In the same year Kasparov and FIDE put their dispute and the PCA broke up. A new sponsor for a world title fight Kasparov was found only in 2000; at the conference organized by Brain Games World Championship he lost the world title against Vladimir Kramnik. This was since the time of Alekhine's the first challenger to the world champion chose themselves. Kasparov has been heavily criticized for this, as Kramnik was previously unsuccessful in a duel against Alexei Shirov. As sensational was therefore considered that Kasparov could win a single match and Kramnik prematurely firmly stood as the winner by two victories in the 2nd and 10th game with 8,5:6,5.

Kramnik then claimed that in September and October 2004, the "classical" world title in a match against Péter Lékó, which ended with 7:7. This draw was enough to defend their title. As a qualification, the Dortmund Chess Day 2002 served. Recently as 2006, Kramnik finally agreed to a re- unification bout against the winner of the FIDE World Cup in 2005, Vesselin Topalov, (see below).

The FIDE World Championships

The FIDE but had two new players determine who fought out the final of "their" World Cup, and decided on the last opponent Shorts in candidate fighting JAN - Timman in the finals, Anatoly Karpov in the semi-finals. The winner of this fight should be considered as a new official FIDE world champion. Karpov, who was already 1975-1985 recognized world chess champion, finally won through. He was able to defend his world title until 1999, but lost him in the Co- Tournament 1999 Alexander Khalifman. In the previous two tournaments in 1996 and 1997/ 1998, he was clearly favored by FIDE, since he had to intervene only in the semi-finals or finals and had such a conditional advantage over his opponent, who previously played several games within a few days against strong opponents had. After strong protests from the players FIDE special arrangements for their World Cup before the World Cup 1999 finally abolished.

FIDE World Cup 1993

The first world championship after the disqualification Kasparov took place from 6 September to 1 November 1993, the Netherlands and Indonesia instead. Karpov was at that time the second in the FIDE world ranking list, Timman was ranked 34th Both players were 42 years old and had been frequently played against each other. The balance spoke clearly for Karpov: from the 67 played before the title fight games he had won 23, Timman had the upper hand in only five games.

Organizational difficulties

The start of the match was one day before the start of the PCA World Championship. This meant that it was hardly noticed by the media as they concentrated on Kasparov's title fight. The FIDE fight was scheduled for 24 games. The first 12 games should in Zwolle, Arnhem and Amsterdam, so in three cities in Timmans native Holland, the rest are played according to the original plan in the Sultanate of Oman (Oman was the newest member of FIDE ). Time controls were provided by two and a half hours for 40 moves, for the rest of one hour for 16 trains with the subsequent possibility of a stalemate. In the event of a tie, a maximum of four mini- matches should be played à two games with a shorter time limit. World Cup chief was Hendrik van Buren.

The prize money of the World Chess Federation praised initially of 4 million Swiss francs ( 2.482 million euros ), which should be provided equally by the Dutch and Omani organizers ( five-eighth for the winner, three-eighths for the loser ). The financial obligations, however, were not observed. The Dutch side could carry the pure cost of the organization, while the Omani organizers withdrew their offer short term. After completing the first half of the competition was therefore in danger of demolition. Finally, the second half of the competition not in Oman, but after a few weeks match was interrupted ( September 25-October 16 ) aligned in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

The organizational mismanagement contributed to the fact that Florencio Campomanes, who was responsible in part for the events surrounding the cleavage already, was eventually replaced in 1995 as FIDE President.

Result

Karpov decided the duel with 12,5:8,5 for themselves. The last three games were not played as unassailable Karpov was in the lead by four points.

FIDE World Cup 1996

Qualification

This World Cup FIDE until 2006, the last in the World Cup was played in a duel. First there was in the established manner candidates competitions. Here, but not a challenger of the World Champion has been determined, but defending champion Anatoly Karpov was put into the semifinals. The finale of the candidates tournament was thus at the same time the championship fight.

Second round in 1994

Boris Gelfand - Michael Adams 5-3
Valeri Salow - Alexander Khalifman 5:1
January Timman - Joël Lautier 4 ½: 3 ½
Viswanathan Anand - Artur Yusupov 4 ½: 2 ½
Gata Kamsky - Paul van der Sterren 4 ½: 2 ½
Vladimir Kramnik - Leonid Judassin 4 ½: 2 ½

Quarterfinals 1994

Boris Gelfand - Vladimir Kramnik 4 ½: 3 ½
Valeri Salow JAN - Timman 4 ½: 3 ½
Gata Kamsky - Viswanathan Anand 6:4 (after rapid chess decision, 4:4 according to tournament games )

Semi-finals in 1995

Anatoly Karpov - Boris Gelfand 6-3
Gata Kamsky - Valeri Salow 5 ½: 1 ½

So the World Cup final between Karpov and Kamsky took place. For the 45 -year-old Karpov it was already the ninth world title fight. His opponent Gata Kamsky was only 22 years old and played for the first time for the title. The World Cup ran from June 5 to July 11 1996.

Venue

After a long search for a suitable venue it was decided to Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, an autonomous republic of Russia. The main reason for this decision was that the new FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who had been president of Kalmykia at the same time, wanted to make Elista at an international chess center.

Match conditions

The prize money was 1.5 million U.S. dollars. The winner received five-eighths of the money, ie $ 937,500. If there would have been according to the planned twenty games in a tie, mini- competitions were followed as long as any two games until one of them would have been won by one of the players. Outs were not allowed; non-appearance of the respective player would without a fight lost the game.

Dispute between the players caused the scheme to stalemate: while Karpov wanted a postponement of the game after six hours, Kamsky wanted to play on the same day to the decision. Finally, they stuck to the competition agreement in December 1995, after 40 moves in two hours and 16 more had to be played in an hour before a game could be canceled.

Result

Karpov defeated Kamsky with 10,5:7,5 and defended his world title. The last two games were not played since Karpov could not be obtained.

Six months after the tournament, Kamsky gave his retirement from professional chess known to concentrate on a career as a doctor. Meanwhile, however, he plays back at major tournaments and qualified by his victory at the World Cup in 2007 even for the Candidates final of the World Cup 2010 against Veselin Topalov, which he lost however.

FIDE World Cup 1997/1998

For World Cup 1997/1998 the FIDE President Ilyumzhinov proposed a completely new mode: Using a knockout tournament should the World Champion to be determined. In each round two matches should be played ( in the semifinals and finals four or six), tied score saw the new regulations Tie- Breaks with quick and blitz games before. This mode was indeed applied earlier in tournaments, but never before at a World Cup.

Controversy about the new format

One advantage of the new format was that a long qualification process was avoided, the whole competition was played out within a month. Thus, scheduling problems have been minimized from the outset that occurred in previous World Cups. In addition, more players were eligible to participate (up to 128 ). After the initial planning no privileges for the world champions were provided, it should intervene as all other participants in the first round in the action. However, this rule was later changed in favor of the defending champions.

Opponents of the new format, the short period of reflection and the small lot number was ( in the early rounds only two) criticized what the luck and chance confers too much influence. Specifically, the rapid chess format of the tie break was controversial. Ultimately, the new regulations led to the fact that not necessarily the better player progressed, but in extreme cases a complete outsider. Many specialists saw the Classical Tradition of the World Championships broken, according to which only one world champion could be, who defeated the incumbent in a duel ( exceptions was the situation in 1948 after the death of the world champion Alekhine and 1975 when Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title defend ).

Venues and participants

All rounds except the finals took place from 9 to 30 December 1997 instead of Groningen. The finale was held from 2nd to January 9th, 1998 at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

FIDE World Champion Karpov and PCA champion Kasparov were directly qualified for the semifinals. But Kasparov did not defend his title under the given conditions and canceled. Then modified the FIDE format and put Karpov directly into the final.

A total of seven all-in - rounds have been played. It was attended by 97 players. In the first round, 68 players took part in the fight, the 34 winners came in the second round 28 Master added, which had been set on the basis of their high rating number. Among the 31 players who reached the third round, Boris Gelfand joined, who won the free place of the absent last year finalist Kamsky.

Result

Karpov met in the final in January 1998 Viswanathan Anand and sat down in two 25 -minute games 2-0 after the regular competition had ended after tournament games 3:3. Karpov was at that time with an ELO of 2735 sixth in the world rankings, Anand finished with 2770 points, third place behind Kasparov and Kramnik.

Discrimination Anand

After the six knockout rounds Anand was not fresh from the effort. In fact, Anand had completed 23 games against six strong opponents during the World Cup. Thus a well-rested Karpov met a " weary " counterparty. Anand's last semi-final match against Michael Adams was held on 30 December 1997, just three days before the start of the final battle. It was obvious that he was tired in Lausanne.

The FIDE turned to the protests of the players that privilege the Defender at the following co- world championships no longer and let her titleholders compete in the second round. Karpov took only once since then (2001/2002 in his hometown of Moscow) part in this event.

FIDE World Chess Championship 1999

The second knockout tournament for the FIDE World Championship took from July 30 to August 29, 1999 in Las Vegas. Karpov was not this time set in the final and refused to participate. Even the classical world champion Kasparov did not take part and designated most of the participants as "tourists".

None of the favorites prevailed, and so were in the final surprising Alexander Khalifman and Vladimir Hakobyan opposite. Hakobyan (also Akopian ) was at that time the number 36 in the world rankings, Chalifman was performed at position 44, which demonstrated the sporty dubious value of the FIDE World Cup in comparison with the world number one and PCA champion Kasparov. Chalifman commented on this issue after the tournament as follows: " The rating system works perfectly for those players who only compete in round-robin tournaments. I think that many of them are overrated. Organizers invite repeating the same player one, because their rating of always being on the same high level. "Perhaps in response, Khalifman was the next" invited Super Tournament " in Linares, where he finished fourth ( it won Kramnik and Kasparov ).

Result

The final six games took place from 21 to 28 August. Khalifman defeated Hakobyan with 3,5:2,5 and became the new FIDE world champion.

FIDE World Chess Championship 2000

From 24 November to 27 December 2000, a further co- tournament was held in New Delhi and Tehran, which was considered a FIDE World Championship. Vladimir Kramnik had recently dethroned in the "classical" World Chess Championship 2000 Kasparov. For this reason, neither of these two players took part, the then places one and three in the world rankings of October 2000 occupied.

Time controls

In normal games, the time controls were after 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes provided for 20 additional trains. Finally, stood ten minutes the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per train available. With a draw in two rapid games should be played with 25 minutes and 10 seconds thinking time charge per train, with repeated draws a further extension to two rapid games, but in this case only 15 minutes' thinking and 10 seconds added per train. If it would then still stood undecided, one last game would have been played at the White would have had four minutes on the clock, and black five. White would have necessarily have to win, one draw black would have been the winner.

Result

This time, sat down by one of the favorites, who later became the sole world champion Viswanathan Anand won superior. Only once he had in the preliminary round in a tie-break. In the final, in Tehran, which was scheduled over six games, winning against Alexei Shirov with 3,5:0,5 prematurely.

FIDE World Cup 2001/2002

Two years later, the next World Cup was held. From 17 November 2001 until January 23, 2002 was played out again in the knockout mode. Location of the event was the State Kremlin Palace, a modern exhibition center, which is located in the Moscow Kremlin.

Time controls

After the tournament, FIDE has been widely criticized because of the introduction of a dramatically shortened time limit: The game pace was since this World Cup up to the forced by violent protests of the players abolition in 2004 at official FIDE tournaments (World Cup, Chess Olympiad, World Junior Championships, etc. ) 90 minutes for 40 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, additional 30 seconds for each running train were added. The "classical " cooling, during which was considered by the international non - FIDE tournaments and was also introduced again in 2005 by FIDE and is favored by the vast majority of players - according to a ChessBase survey of 80 percent of respondents - including two hours 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves, then one hour or half hour cooling-off period for the remaining trains (sometimes there is an additional charge of 30 seconds per train ).

Result

The young Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov won the final against his compatriot Vasyl Ivanchuk surprising with 4,5:2,5.

The "Prague Agreement " in 2002

Attempts have been made repeatedly during cleavage to unite the competing titles. The most widely promoted was initiated by the American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan Prague Agreement, which was on 6 May 2002, signed by Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the president of FIDE. It was planned that the FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov contests against world ranked first Kasparov a duel. At the same time the classical world champion Kramnik should face the winner of the Dortmund Chess Days 2002 ( this was Péter Lékó ) compete. The winners of these two fights were determined in a world championship match the sole title holder.

On the basis of discrepancies, the qualifying competitions but did not take place: Ponomariov demanded the amendment of various points in his contract, which FIDE refused. Therefore Ponomariov refused to sign.

Then the FIDE put a new union proposal. Winner of the next FIDE world championship (this was Rustam Kasimjanow ) should play against Kasparov, but no later than in July 2005 had the winner against the winner of the classic 2004 World Championship between Kramnik and Lékó was held in September and October 2004 in order to play for the world title.

After the 2004 FIDE World Cup then chose the World Chess Federation of the United Arab Emirates as the venue of the duel Kasimjanov - Kasparov. However, this plan did not materialize. The promised funding of the duel did not materialize, and also plans to make the match instead take place in Turkey, came to nothing. Due to these uncertainties, the whole matter was delayed. Finally, the discussion after Kasparov's surprising career end in March 2005 was obsolete.

FIDE World Chess Championship 2004

Main article → FIDE World Chess Championship 2004

The fifth and last of the Co- Tournament was held from June 18 to July 13, 2004 in the Libyan capital Tripoli instead. Venue was the Almahary hotel. At this most controversial of all FIDE tournaments are very few world-class players participated. On the one hand prevented the Libyan governance to all Israeli citizens to enter it, and even if numerous Jewish chess players from around the world entered the country, some players behaved, including non-Jewish solidarity with the Israelis. On the other hand, was a controversial contract FIDE, which made the participants in the dark about a compensation of their expenses, reason for numerous cancellations. The plan was that the winner of the tournament against Kasparov plays a unification fight. However, this did not take place due to inconsistencies.

Tournament conditions

The FIDE used again the shortened time limit, which was abolished after violent protests after the tournament. The first five rounds were played very quickly at first with only two games. The semi-finals went through four games, the final six. Time controls were after ninety minutes 40 moves, then there was a bonus of 15 minutes, and from the beginning 30 seconds per train. In case of a tie back tie break decided the next round. First, two rapid games were played with 25 minutes to change your mind and ten seconds increment per train, after a re- draw two games would have been played over five minutes and 10 seconds per train; if it would then still stood undecided, a last game would have been played at the White would have had six minutes on the clock, and black five. White would have necessarily have to win, one draw black would have been on.

Result

In this tournament, there was the biggest surprise of all FIDE World Championships, when the Uzbek Rustam Kasimjanov won the title. He defeated the British Michael Adams in the final with 1.5:0.5 in two matured 25 -minute games after it was after six games with a long reflection 3:3. The prize money Kasimjanov received 80,000 U.S. dollars.

FIDE World Chess Championship 2005

From 27 September to 16 October 2005 took place in San Luis in Argentina the last FIDE World Championship during the period of division in the title question occur until after, the long awaited by the world chess union of the two world title could be taken during the year (see below).

Participant

Invited were the following eight players:

The finalists of the 2004 World Series: Rustam Kasimjanov and Michael Adams
The classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik, and his last challenger Péter Lékó
The four best players in the world rankings: Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov and Alexander Morozevich.

Since Kramnik did not look at this tournament as World Cup and the union contract, the competitive world championships as broken by the FIDE, he not accepted the invitation, as also said Kasparov, who had ended his career, from. Instead, the next player took part in the world rankings, Pyotr Svidler and Judit Polgár. Hence, this was the first woman, who played for the World Champion title.

Tournament conditions

The FIDE took distance from the controversial knock-out system and organized for the first time since 1948 a round-robin tournament that should crown the world champion. Also on the shortened time limit repeatedly criticized renounced the FIDE in the tournament, which was played with the classical cooling- regulation of two hours for 40 moves, then one hour for 20 moves and an additional hour for the rest of the game. The eight participants wore over 14 rounds each from two matches against each other.

Full Time

The Bulgarian Vesselin Topalov won the tournament undefeated with 1.5 points ahead of Viswanathan Anand and Pyotr Svidler, after scoring in the first half with 6.5 points from their first seven games, a superior performance in the second half and all remaining games remisierte.

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