FIDE World Chess Championship 2007
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The World Chess Championship 2007 was held in
Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
, from 12 September 2007 to 30 September 2007 to decide the world champion of the game of
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
. It was an eight-player, double
round robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...
.
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. ...
won the tournament and the title of
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. ...
. His winning score was 9 points out of 14, with a total of four wins and 10 draws, and Anand was the only undefeated player in the tournament.


Background

This championship was unusual in that the
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. ...
was decided by a tournament rather than a match. The FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 was also a double round robin tournament, but at the time the world title was split, with that tournament being for the
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 ...
world championship, and with 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 ...
refusing to take part. Soon after the 2005 tournament, FIDE announced that the 2007 World Championship would also be a double round robin tournament. In 2006, FIDE announced the
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 world chess championship. Because the organization of the 2007 tournament was largely in place, conditions of that match included: * If Classical champion (Kramnik) defeated FIDE Champion
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 ...
, Kramnik would take Topalov's place in the 2007 tournament. * The 2007 tournament would be a world championship. Kramnik won the 2006 match. In June 2007, Kramnik confirmed that he recognized the 2007 tournament as the world championship, while expressing a personal preference for the championship to be decided by a match. FIDE later announced that future world championships (beginning with the
World Chess Championship 2008 The World Chess Championship 2008 was a best-of-twelve-games match between the incumbent World Chess Champion, Viswanathan Anand, and the previous World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik had been granted a match after not winning the World Che ...
) would be decided by matches between the champion and a challenger. At the same time FIDE announced that, as compensation for being denied entry to the 2007 tournament, Topalov would have special privileges in the
World Chess Championship 2010 The World Chess Championship 2010 match pitted the defending world champion, Viswanathan Anand, against challenger Veselin Topalov, for the title of World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. The match took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 24 ...
cycle.


Participants


Qualification process

The top four finishers of the 2005 FIDE World Championship event were granted direct entry into the 2007 event. However,
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 ...
, FIDE World Chess Champion 2005, was replaced by
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 ...
, Classical World Chess Champion, after losing his unification match to him in the 2006 World Championship. Four further players qualified through the 2005–07 qualification process, which consisted of three stages: #Continental championships #2005 World Cup #2007 Candidates Tournament


2005 World Cup

The 2005 World Cup, held in
Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk (, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a city in west-central Russia. Technically, it is situated on the eastern bank of the Irtysh River, from its confluence with the Ob, in the oil-ri ...
, Russia, was the qualification for the Candidates tournament. It was a knock-out tournament of mini-matches, in the style of the
FIDE World Chess Championships 1998-2004 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 gove ...
. However, once 16 players were left, they were no longer immediately eliminated, but played further mini-matches to establish places 1 through 16. The top finishers were: # # # # # # # #
The top 10 qualified for the Candidates Tournament. Since Bacrot was already qualified on rating, 11th placed Malakhov also qualified.


2007 Candidates tournament

One place in the
Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...
was reserved for 2004 FIDE World Champion Kasimdzhanov, who had also finished 6th in the 2005 championship tournament. Five places were then awarded to the five highest rated players (average of July 2004 and January 2005 ratings): Leko, Adams, Polgar, Shirov and Bacrot. The remaining ten places went to the highest finishers at the 2005 World Cup who had not otherwise qualified (see above). The Candidates tournament, held in
Elista Elista (, ;"Большой энциклопедический словарь", под ред. А. М. Прохорова. Москва и Санкт-Петербург, 1997, стр. 1402 , ''Elst'', )The approximate pronunciation of the Cyr ...
,
Kalmykia Kalmykia, officially the Republic of Kalmykia,; , ''Khalmg Tanghch'' is a republic of Russia, located in the Volga region of European Russia. The republic is part of the Southern Federal District, and borders Dagestan to the south and Stavr ...
, Russia, from 26 May to 14 June 2007, was originally to consist of a two-round
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, ...
with one player qualifying from each quarter of the draw. In September 2006, FIDE proposed that these players play a 16 player, single round-robin tournament instead. However this decision was reversed, and the tournament consisted of two rounds of matches as originally planned. World Cup winner Aronian was top seed, with the remaining players seeded in rating order according to the January 2006 ratings list. In the second round, the 1v16 winner played the 8v9 winner, 2v15 winner versus 7v10 winner, and so on.


Match conditions

Matches were best of six games, at normal time controls (40/120, then 20/60, then 15 minutes + 30 seconds per move). Where matches were tied after six games, tie breaks were played on the seventh day: # Best of four rapid games were played. Rapid time control was 25 minutes for the game, plus 10 seconds per move. # Where the score was still tied, best of two blitz games were played. Blitz time control was 5 minutes for the game, plus 10 seconds per move. # If the score was still tied, the players would have drawn lots for a single sudden death game where White had six minutes but needed to win, Black had five minutes but only needed to
draw Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn most commonly refer to: * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Draw (tie), in a competition, where competitors achieve equal outcomes * Draw ...
. This final stage of tie break, called an
Armageddon chess Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. A ...
game, was never required.


Round 1

:


Round 2

: The four second round winners qualified for the championship tournament.


2007 Championship tournament


Playing conditions

The tournament was a double round robin, with the first round on 13 September 2007 and the final round on 29 September 2007. Rest days were on the 17th, 22nd and 26th, that is after rounds 4, 8 and 11. Games each day began at 2 pm local time, which is 19:00
UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
. The time control was ''40/2h, 20/1h, 15m+30sec/all'' meaning that each player had 2 hours per game, plus an extra hour added after the 40th move, 15 extra minutes added after the 60th move, and from there on 30 extra seconds added for each move ( Fischer delay). The pairings were made on Wednesday, 12 September 2007.Mexico countdown: Openings Ceremony, pairings
Chessbase, 13 September 2007


Results

: Numbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.


Final standings

: Key: H2H = head-to-head, points against tied player; NS = Neustadtl score For players who finished level on points, the following tie-breakers were applied (in order of precedence): results of games between tied players, total number of wins, Neustadtl score.


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.


References

{{World Chess Championships, state=expanded
2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
2007 in chess 2007 in Mexican sports Chess in Mexico Sports competitions in Mexico City 2000s in Mexico City September 2007 sports events in North America