FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament
27 November – 15 December 2000, New Delhi (India)
20-24 December 2000, Tehran (Iran)
Winner – Viswanathan Anand
The plot. The Indian tournament turned out to be the most peaceful in the history of world knockout championships. There were no high-profile rejections or controversies along the way. In addition, the future winner’s place had essentially been “reserved” for Vishy Anand.
Kramnik declined to participate for “technical reasons”, as he was preparing for a match with Kasparov. Karpov and Chinese chess leader Ye Jiangchuan did not make it to the starting line. All the other leading chess players in the world arrived on time in India.
Almost all the participants noted the excellent organisation of the tournament. In the capital, they were shielded from all the usual Indian “pleasures” – unsanitary conditions, exotic food and the unbearable heat. The championship began in late autumn, when the average temperature was no higher than +20 and the humidity was quite moderate. Nobody complained.
The favourites. Could Anand not win the tournament on his home turf? Vishy had experienced a slump one year prior to New Delhi, but he had prepared extremely hard for the championship. The most important thing was that he tried not to repeat the previous mistakes he had made during his performances in India and shielded himself from the excessive attention of his countrymen.
Shirov was charged to play. In 1999, he was supposed to play with Kasparov for the world championship match, but due to the fact that Alexei felt the prize fund for the match in Los Angeles was not sufficient, he ended up with no match and no prize money.
As always, Adams was also aiming for high results. Ivanchuk, Topalov, Morozevich, Gelfand and Leko also arrived in India in good spirits. Khalifman had no intentions of surrendering his title without a fight. The year following Las Vegas had been almost triumphal for him, as he confirmed it was no accident that he had become champion.
Sensations. All the way up to the quarterfinals, there were no real big surprises with the exception of Jaan Ehlvest’s victory over Ivanchuk – 2.5-1.5. Jaan cleared the way for Alexander Grischuk, one of the youngest players in the tournament. Defeating Lima, Smirin, Serper and Ehlvest, he was among the top eight and went on to beat Tkachev by inertia with a score of 2.5-1.5. The latter knocked out Kasimdzhanov and Morozevich, causing sensation number two.
The quarterfinals turned out to be extremely entertaining. Adams defeated Topalov with relative ease – 1.5-0.5, but the other three matches ended in a tie-break. Shirov, after starting his match against Bareev with a loss, managed to equalise and then broke his opponent’s resistance in the 25-minute games. Grischuk did the same to Tkachev after two quick draws. Anand was on the verge of defeat in his battle with the reigning world champion.
The match against Alexander Khalifman had been the most difficult for Vishy in Groningen. Here, having a score of 1.5-1.5, Alexander should have won the fourth game and moved on. During the rook endgame, however, he failed to put the squeeze on Anand. After conceding the psychological advantage, he then lost in the well-played fifth game and failed to even the score in the sixth – 3.5-2.5.
After surviving, Anand then confidently defeated the “perpetual semi-finalist” Micky Adams. Shirov managed to break the resistance of the 17-year-old Grischuk. The match turned out to be a real thriller with White starting and winning in each of the first three games: 1-0, 1-1 and 2-1. Alas, Alexander came up short in the fourth game – 1.5-2.5.
The final. Once there was only one final step to his desired goal – the title of world champion – nothing could stop Anand! The opponents relocated to Tehran, but Vishy felt at home there as about a hundred Indian journalists as well as his family and friends travelled to Iran with him. He never gave anyone the slightest chance to doubt that he was the most deserving. In order to demonstrate his superiority over Shirov in the match, he needed only four games instead of the six under the rules!
Anand rather skilfully managed a draw in the first meeting with Black. He then won the brain-racking second game and sealed victory in the third game. Shirov at some point in this game went for broke, made an exchange and set up a massive assault on the “fortress” of the black king. But Vishy calculated everything perfectly: he returned his pieces to his camp in time and the material advantage caught up with him. Understanding that there was no way of salvaging the match, Alexei made a gamble to “slam the door”, but his play of sacrificing two pieces against Anand failed as Vishy stopped the armada of black pawns.
Thus, the Indian won with a score of 3.5-0.5 and became the fifteenth FIDE world champion!
Conclusions. Everyone was happy about Anand’s victory in the world championship. The winner was a player who on multiple occasions had demonstrated that he was worthy of the championship laurels. In addition, the Indian was distinguished by his calm nature and the absence of any conflicts – traits that were severely lacking in the chess of the 1990s. At that very moment, the chess world was on the verge of uniting.
Unlike Karpov, he never said that he considers himself the sole world champion and “recognised” Kramnik’s title. “I respect his brilliant achievement. It’s obvious that both he and I are world champions. My credo is to live and let live. There’s no reason for a controversy here. After all, the dual power situation has already lasted for seven years!” he said.
It is interesting that Vishy, who after Lozanne was extremely sceptical since the crown had virtually been taken away from him, supported the idea of an annual knockout championship after he became the first. “I can’t imagine that we would return to the old formula. The matches with contenders were good for their time, but nowadays they would not lead to interesting chess. If you look at some of the recent matches, there were quick draws and timeouts… For many reasons, the knockout or something else consisting of a single tournament is the true path for developing chess,” he said.
