Garry Kasparov Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....  Rating: Elo rating system The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....  2849	Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...  Rating: 2772

The Classical World Chess Championship 2000, known at the time as the Braingames World Chess Championships, was held from October 8, 2000 – November 4, 2000 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

, the defending champion, played Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

. The match was the best of 16 games, and in the event of an 8-8 tie, Kasparov would keep his title.

Although Kasparov was the strong favourite, Kramnik won the match with two wins, 13 draws

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

 and no losses. To the supporters of the world championship by succession (later dubbed the "classical" world championship by Kramnik), Kramnik became the 14th world chess champion.

Background

Following the split in the world chess championship

World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....

 in 1993, there were two rival world titles: the official FIDE world title, and the PCA

Professional Chess Association

The Professional Chess Association , which existed between 1993 and 1996, was a rival organisation to FIDE, the international chess organization...

 world title held by Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

. The rationale behind Kasparov's title was that he had not been defeated in a match, but in fact had defeated the rightful challenger Nigel Short

Nigel Short

Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...

 in 1993, so FIDE had no power to strip the title from him.

The PCA then held an Interzonal

Interzonal

Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...

 and Candidates

Candidates Tournament

The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...

 matches in 1993-1995, and Kasparov successfully defended his PCA title in 1995

Classical World Chess Championship 1995

The Classical World Chess Championship 1995, known at the time as the PCA World Chess Championship 1995, was held from September 10, 1995, to October 16, 1995, on the 107th floor of the former World Trade Center in New York City. Garry Kasparov, the defending champion, played Viswanathan Anand, the...

, this time against Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand

V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....

.

The PCA folded in 1996. However Kasparov still saw himself as the true world champion (as did many in the chess world), so Kasparov looked for other ways to select his next challenger.

Qualification

Without the sponsorship of the PCA, Kasparov found he was unable to organise a series of qualifying matches to choose a challenger. Eventually in 1998, he announced that, based on their ratings

Elo rating system

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....

 and results, Anand and Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

 were clearly the next two best players in the world, and that they would play a match to decide who would challenge for Kasparov's title.

However Anand, as a participant in the FIDE world championship cycle, believed he was contractually obligated to not participate in a rival cycle. So instead a match was organised between Kramnik and the next person in the ratings list, Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov

Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...

, in May-June 1998.

Despite being the underdog, Shirov won the match with two wins, seven draws and no losses.

However during 1998 Kasparov, Shirov and sponsors were unable to come to an agreement. Shirov rejected one offer of a match in California, but believed rejecting this offer did not mean waiving his rights for a match; In December 1998, there was still talk of organising a Kasparov-Shirov match.

In February 1999, Kasparov abandoned plans for a match with Shirov and pursued a match with Anand instead, on the basis that Anand was second to Kasparov on the ratings list. Negotiations for a 1999 match failed, as did negotiations in 2000, with Anand expressing dissatisfaction with the contract. In March 2000 it was announced that negotiations with Anand had failed and so Kasparov would negotiate a match with the next player in the ratings list - ironically Kramnik. This time negotiations were successful, and the company Braingames was formed to finance a Kasparov-Kramnik match in October 2000.

Shirov was understandably aggrieved, and even in 2006 maintained that Kramnik was not a valid world champion. However most supporters of Kasparov's title believe that, despite the unsatisfactory way in which a challenger was chosen, nevertheless the winner of this match would be the true World Champion. Kramnik had a far better record against Kasparov than Shirov did (a point Kasparov emphasised when the match was announced in April 2000). In the years that followed, Kasparov maintained an overwhelming plus score in his individual games against Shirov.

The games

	White	Black	Date	Result	Moves	Winner	Standing	Opening	Notes / Reference
1	Kasparov	Kramnik	8 October	½–½	25		½–½	C67 Ruy Lopez Ruy Lopez The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252041
2	Kramnik	Kasparov	10 October	1–0	40	Kramnik	Kramnik leads 1½–½	D85 Grünfeld Defence Grünfeld Defence The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The first instance of this opening is in an 1855 game by Moheschunder Bannerjee, an Indian player who had transitioned from Indian chess rules, playing black against John Cochrane in Calcutta, in May 1855: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4...	Kramnik uncorked a novelty in Grünfeld Defence, after which Kasparov did not use the Grünfeld http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252042
3	Kasparov	Kramnik	12 October	½–½	53		Kramnik leads 2–1	C67 Ruy Lopez	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252043
4	Kramnik	Kasparov	14 October	½–½	74		Kramnik leads 2½–1½	D27 Queen's Gambit Queen's Gambit The Queen's Gambit is a chess opening that starts with the moves:The Queen's Gambit is one of the oldest known chess openings. It was mentioned in the Göttingen manuscript of 1490 and was later analysed by masters such as Gioachino Greco in the seventeenth century...	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1267516
5	Kasparov	Kramnik	15 October	½–½	24		Kramnik leads 3–2	A34 English Opening English Opening In chess, the English Opening is the opening where White begins:A flank opening, it is the fourth most popular and, according to various databases, anywhere from one of the two most successful to the fourth most successful of White's twenty possible first moves. White begins the fight for the...	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252044
6	Kramnik	Kasparov	17 October	½–½	66		Kramnik leads 3½–2½	D27 Queen's Gambit	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252045
7	Kasparov	Kramnik	19 October	½–½	11		Kramnik leads 4–3	A32 English Opening	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252046
8	Kramnik	Kasparov	21 October	½–½	38		Kramnik leads 4½–3½	E32 Nimzo-Indian Defence Nimzo-Indian Defence The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:This hypermodern opening was developed by Grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch who introduced it to master-level chess in the early 20th century. Unlike most Indian openings the Nimzo-Indian does not involve an immediate fianchetto,...	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252047
9	Kasparov	Kramnik	22 October	½–½	33		Kramnik leads 5–4	C67 Ruy Lopez	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252048
10	Kramnik	Kasparov	24 October	1–0	25	Kramnik	Kramnik leads 6–4	E54 Nimzo-Indian Defence	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252049
11	Kasparov	Kramnik	26 October	½–½	41		Kramnik leads 6½–4½	C78 Ruy Lopez	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252050
12	Kramnik	Kasparov	28 October	½–½	33		Kramnik leads 7–5	E55 Nimzo-Indian Defence	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252051
13	Kasparov	Kramnik	29 October	½–½	14		Kramnik leads 7½–5½	C67 Ruy Lopez	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252052
14	Kramnik	Kasparov	31 October	½–½	57		Kramnik leads 8–6	A30 English Opening	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252053
15	Kasparov	Kramnik	2 November	½–½	38		Kramnik wins 8½–6½	E05 Catalan Opening Catalan Opening The Catalan is a chess opening which can be considered to be White adopting a mixture of the Queen's Gambit and Réti Opening: White plays d4 and c4 and fianchettoes the white bishop on g2. A common opening sequence is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2, though the opening can arise from a large number...	http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252054

By Kasparov's admission, Kramnik's victory stemmed from his superior opening preparation. He relied on the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez to defuse Kasparov's 1.e4

King's Pawn Game

The King's Pawn Game is any chess opening starting with the move:White opens with the most popular of the twenty possible opening moves. Though effective in winning for White , it is not as successful as the four next most common openings for White: 1.d4 , 1.Nf3 , 1.c4 , and 1.g3...

, an opening Kasparov was not prepared for. Kramnik also won Game 2 with a new idea for White in Kasparov's favourite Grünfeld Defence

Grünfeld Defence

The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The first instance of this opening is in an 1855 game by Moheschunder Bannerjee, an Indian player who had transitioned from Indian chess rules, playing black against John Cochrane in Calcutta, in May 1855: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4...

, which Kasparov never played again in the match.

Aftermath

The world championship remained split until 2006, when Kramnik, still classical champion, defeated FIDE champion Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov

Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....

in a reunification match.