The FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 was contested in a match between the FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov and the challenger Viswanathan Anand. The match took place between 2 January and 9 January 1998 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The challenger was determined in a tournament held in Groningen, Netherlands, between 9 December and 30 December 1997. After the championship match ended in a draw, Karpov won the rapid playoff, becoming the 1998 FIDE World Chess Champion.

New World Championship format

Background

From 1948 to 1993, the world chess championship had been administered by FIDE, the international chess federation. In 1993, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov split from FIDE and formed a rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association. FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, meaning there were now two rival championships: the FIDE title, held by Anatoly Karpov, and the PCA title, held by Kasparov. Karpov and Kasparov had successfully defended their titles at the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 and PCA World Chess Championship 1995 respectively. From 1948 until 1996, World Chess Championships had followed a similar pattern: a series of qualifying tournaments and matches were held over more than a year, culminating in the Candidates Tournament. The winner of the Candidates tournament was the official challenger for the world title and would play the incumbent champion in a match for world championship. (The 1996 cycle was an exception. The incumbent world champion participated in the Candidates tournament as a seeded in the Candidates final.) In 1997, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov proposed a completely new structure: a knockout tournament, consisting of two-game matches (slightly longer in the final rounds), with match tie-breakers using rapid chess and blitz chess if necessary. This format had been done before in tournaments such as Tilburg 1992–94, but never at the world championship level. In addition to the new format, it was proposed by Ilyumzhinov as a way to unify the two rival world titles. To do this, FIDE champion Anatoly Karpov and PCA champion Garry Kasparov were each to be seeded into the semi-finals. Kasparov did not want to defend his title under these circumstances and declined his invitation. The format was then modified to have FIDE champion Karpov seeded directly into the final.

Controversies

The advantages of the new format were: Opponents pointed out disadvantages of the format:

Prominent non-participants

Participants

All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. • # 🇷🇺 Vladimir Kramnik1 (RUS), 2770 • # 🇮🇳 Viswanathan Anand (IND), 2765 • # 🇷🇺 Anatoly Karpov (RUS), 2745 • # 🇧🇬 Veselin Topalov (BUL), 2745 • # 🇺🇦 Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR), 2725 • # Alexander Beliavsky, 2710 • # 🇪🇸 Alexei Shirov (ESP), 2700 • # 🇧🇾 Boris Gelfand (BLR), 2695 • # 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Michael Adams (ENG), 2680 • # 🇷🇺 Valery Salov (RUS), 2680 • # 🇷🇺 Yevgeny Bareev (RUS), 2670 • # 🇧🇬 Kiril Georgiev (BUL), 2670 • # 🇭🇺 Judit Polgár (HUN), 2670 • # 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Matthew Sadler (ENG), 2665 • # 🇦🇲 Vladimir Akopian (ARM), 2660 • # 🇧🇾 Aleksej Alexandrov (BLR), 2660 • # 🇫🇷 Joël Lautier (FRA), 2660 • # 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Nigel Short (ENG), 2660 • # 🇷🇺 Peter Svidler (RUS), 2660 • # 🇷🇺 Alexander Khalifman (RUS), 2655 • # Loek van Wely, 2655 • # Zurab Azmaiparashvili, 2650 • # 🇷🇺 Sergei Rublevsky (RUS), 2650 • # 🇺🇸 Alex Yermolinsky (USA), 2650 • # 🇵🇱 Michal Krasenkov (POL), 2645 • # 🇪🇪 Lembit Oll (EST), 2645 • # 🇱🇹 Eduardas Rozentalis (LTU), 2645 • # 🇸🇪 Ulf Andersson (SWE), 2640 • # 🇭🇺 Alexander Chernin (HUN), 2640 • # 🇷🇺 Alexey Dreev (RUS), 2640 • # 🇦🇲 Rafael Vaganian (ARM), 2640 • # 🇩🇪 Arthur Yussupov (GER), 2640 • # 🇭🇺 Peter Leko (HUN), 2635 • # Vadim Milov, 2635 • # 🇧🇦 Ivan Sokolov (BIH), 2635 • # 🇷🇺 Vadim Zvjaginsev (RUS), 2635 • # 🇧🇦 Predrag Nikolić (BIH), 2630 • # Jeroen Piket, 2630 • # 🇺🇸 Yasser Seirawan (USA), 2630 • # Giorgy Giorgadze, 2625 • # 🇵🇪 Julio Granda (PER), 2625 • # Jan Timman, 2625 • # 🇭🇺 Zoltán Almási (HUN), 2615 • # 🇮🇱 Boris Alterman (ISR), 2615 • # 🇺🇦 Vladimir Malaniuk (UKR), 2615 • # 🇰🇿 Vladislav Tkachiev (KAZ), 2615 • # Utut Adianto, 2610 • # 🇪🇪 Jaan Ehlvest (EST), 2610 • # Viktor Korchnoi, 2610 • # 🇭🇺 Lajos Portisch (HUN), 2610 • # 🇮🇸 Jóhann Hjartarson (ISL), 2605 • # 🇨🇿 Zbyněk Hráček (CZE), 2605 • # Friso Nijboer, 2605 • # Curt Hansen, 2600 • # 🇺🇸 Grigory Kaidanov (USA), 2600 • # Ivan Morovic, 2600 • # 🇧🇷 Gilberto Milos (BRA), 2590 • # 🇷🇺 Alexander Morozevich (RUS), 2590 • # 🇮🇱 Emil Sutovsky (ISR), 2590 • # 🇷🇺 Sergei Tiviakov (RUS), 2590 • # 🇲🇩 Viktor Bologan (MDA), 2585 • # 🇪🇸 Miguel Illescas (ESP), 2585 • # Vasilios Kotronias, 2585 • # 🇺🇿 Alexander Nenashev (UZB), 2585 • # 🇷🇺 Andrei Sokolov (RUS), 2585 • # 🇺🇸 Joel Benjamin (USA), 2580 • # 🇺🇸 Boris Gulko (USA), 2580 • # 🇨🇦 Kevin Spraggett (CAN), 2575 • # 🇷🇺 Vladimir Epishin (RUS), 2570 • # 🇩🇪 Stefan Kindermann (GER), 2570 • # 🇺🇦 Konstantin Lerner (UKR), 2560 • # 🇮🇸 Margeir Petursson (ISL), 2555 • # Paul van der Sterren, 2555 • # 🇺🇸 Larry Christiansen (USA), 2550 • # Andrei Istrățescu, 2550 • # 🇩🇪 Roman Slobodjan (GER), 2550 • # 🇦🇲 Ashot Anastasian (ARM), 2545 • # 🇫🇷 Étienne Bacrot (FRA), 2545 • # 🇧🇦 Bojan Kurajica (BIH), 2545 • # 🇷🇺 Alexander Fominyh (RUS), 2535 • # 🇲🇦 Hichem Hamdouchi (MAR), 2535 • # 🇨🇳 Peng Xiaomin (CHN), 2530 • # 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Peter Wells (ENG), 2530 • # 🇲🇽 Gilberto Hernandez (MEX), 2525 • # 🇩🇪 Thomas Luther (GER), 2525 • # John van der Wiel, 2525 • # 🇨🇳 Wang Zili (CHN), 2520 • # 🇮🇳 Dibyendu Barua (IND), 2515 • # 🇱🇹 Šarūnas Šulskis (LTU), 2510 • # 🇷🇺 Igor Glek (RUS), 2505 • # Igor Miladinović, 2500 • # 🇺🇸 Tal Shaked (USA), 2500, IM • # Niaz Murshed, 2490 • # 🇨🇴 Gildardo Garcia (COL), 2480 • # 🇷🇺 Vasily Smyslov (RUS), 2480 • # 🇮🇸 Helgi Grétarsson (ISL), 2475 • # 🇪🇬 Essam Mohammed2 (EGY), 2460, IM • # Hendrik Hoeksema, 2400, IM • # Watu Kobese, 2315, IM • # 🇷🇺 Alexander Umgaev (RUS), unrated, no title 1 Kramnik (ranked 2nd in the world) declined participation on the grounds that Karpov's direct entry into the final was unacceptable. 2 Mohammed did not appear. Garry Kasparov (ranked 1st in the world), Gata Kamsky (ranked 7th), and Zsuzsa Polgar (Women's world champion) declined participation in advance. Karpov as defending FIDE champion was seeded directly into the championship match. Of the 97 remaining participants, 68 entered the tournament in the first round, 28 in the second round and 1 (Gelfand, loser from Round 3 of the previous Candidates match) in the third round.

Results, rounds 1-4

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Results, rounds 5–7

Championship match

The match was played over 6 games in Lausanne, Switzerland (on January 2-3-4 and 6-7-8) and ended in a 3–3 tie. Two rapid games were then played on January 9. Karpov won both, retaining his FIDE title. ! !! Rating !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! R1 !! R2 !! Points