The FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 took place in Potrero de los Funes,

San Luis Province San Luis () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country (on the 32° South parallel). Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja Province (Argentina), La Rioja, Córdo ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

from September 27 to October 16, 2005. It was won by

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...

Background

In the face of criticism of the

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

FIDE World Chess Championships held from 1998 to 2004,

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

(the World Chess Federation) made changes for its

World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...

in 2005. It used normal (slow)

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. For turn-based games such as chess, shogi or go, time cont ...

s (unlike the 2002 and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

knockout tournaments), and changed the format to an eight-player, double round-robin event, where every player plays every other player twice, once with each colour. The players invited were: * The finalists from the previous (2004) FIDE World Championship: Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Michael Adams; * Classical World Champion

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

, and his most recent challenger, Péter Lékó; * The next four top-rated players, from the average of the July 2004 and January 2005 lists:

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...

and

Alexander Morozevich Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich (; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994. Morozevich is a two-time World Championship candidate (2005, 2007), two-time Russian champion and has re ...

. Kramnik refused to play (see Aftermath section below), as did the recently retired Kasparov. Their places were taken by the next two players on the FIDE rating list:

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and commentator who is an eight-time Russian Chess Champion. Svidler has competed in three World Championshi ...

and

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the Strong (chess), strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years ...

. Polgár's participation made the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 the first and so far only (as of 2024) small-scale World Chess Championship to have involved a female player. The opening ceremony took place on September 27, the matches started on September 28, and the closing ceremony took place on October 16.

Results

: *¹ Ratings are as at the time of the tournament. The first tie-break was head-to-head result; the second tie-break was total number of wins. Topalov scored an extraordinary 6½/7 in the first cycle, one of the greatest streaks in the history of championship-level chess, beating all but

, after Anand defended tenaciously in a lost queen-pawn ending. He then drew every one of his games in the second cycle, clinching the victory with one round to spare. This made Topalov the FIDE World Chess Champion.

Points by round

For each player, the difference between wins and losses after each round is shown. The players with the highest difference for each round are marked with green background.

Aftermath

declared before the tournament that they would regard whoever won as

World Chess Champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...

. However, the non-participation of "Classical" World Champion

meant that there were still two competing claimants to World Champion: FIDE Champion Topalov, and "Classical" Champion Kramnik. Kramnik announced before the tournament that he should not be required to compete; but that as part of the "Prague Agreement", his defense of his title in the

Classical World Chess Championship 2004 The Classical World Chess Championship 2004 was held from September 25, 2004, to October 18, 2004, in Brissago, Switzerland. Vladimir Kramnik, the defending champion, played Peter Leko, the challenger, in a fourteen-game match. The match ended ...

entitled him to direct entry to a match against the FIDE World Champion for the unified world title. After the tournament, he expressed his willingness to play such a match against Topalov. Although Topalov initially declined Kramnik's offer, he later acceded. The two contested the

FIDE World Chess Championship 2006 The World Chess Championship 2006 was a match between Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov. The title of World Chess Champion had been split for 13 years. This match, played between Septemb ...

to reunify the title, with Kramnik emerging the winner.

References

External links

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{{World Chess Championships, state=expanded

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...