Classical World Chess Championship 2000

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, United Kingdom. Garry Kasparov, the defending champion, played Vladimir Kramnik. The match was the best of 16 games, with Kasparov to keep his title in the event of an 8-8 draw.

Although Kasparov was the strong favourite, Kramnik won the match with 2 wins, 13 draws 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 in 1993, there were two rival world titles: the official FIDE world title, and the PCA world title held by Garry Kasparov. 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 in 1993, so FIDE had no power to strip the title from him.

The PCA then held an Interzonal and Candidates matches in 1993-1995, and Kasparov successfully defended his PCA title in 1995, this time against Viswanathan Anand.

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 and results, Anand and Vladimir Kramnik 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.

Despite being the underdog, Shirov won the match with 2 wins, 7 draws and no losses.

However during 1999 Kasparov, Shirov and sponsors were unable to come to an agreement. (There were already difficulties in 1998).

In 1999, Kasparov abandoned plans for a match with Shirov and pursued a match with Anand instead. When that also failed to materialise, Kasparov negotiated 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 still (in 2006) maintains that he was the valid challenger, and that the Kasparov-Kramnik match was invalid. 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. In the years that followed, Kasparov maintained an overwhelming plus score in his individual games against Shirov.

The games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Total
Kasparov 2849 -77	½	0	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	½	½	½	½	6.5/15
Kramnik 2772 +102	½	1	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	½	½	8.5/15

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