{"history":[],"article":{"id":"405ea4a7-49dc-4cda-b2fa-a908494be7b9","title":"World Chess Championship 2007","slug":"world-chess-championship-2007","content":":::summary\n![Viswanathan Anand, winner of the World Chess Championship 2007.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Viswanathan///Anand///08///14///2005.jpg)\n**Competition:** [World Chess Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship) 2007 \n**Governing Body:** [FIDE](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide) \n**Location:** [Mexico City](https://bliptext.com/articles/mexico-city), [Mexico](https://bliptext.com/articles/mexico) \n**Dates:** 12–30 September 2007 \n**Competitors:** 8 \n**Nations:** 5 \n**Champion:** [🇮🇳](https://bliptext.com/articles/india) [Viswanathan Anand](https://bliptext.com/articles/viswanathan-anand) \n**Win Score:** 9 points of 14 \n**Previous:** [2006](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2006) \n**Next:** [2008](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2008) \n:::\n\n# \nThe **World Chess Championship 2007** was held in [Mexico City](https://bliptext.com/articles/mexico-city), from 12 September 2007 to 30 September 2007 to decide the world champion of the game of [chess](https://bliptext.com/articles/chess).\nIt was an eight-player, double [round robin tournament](https://bliptext.com/articles/round-robin-tournament).\n[Viswanathan Anand](https://bliptext.com/articles/viswanathan-anand) won the tournament and the title of [World Chess Champion](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship).\nHis 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.\n\n# Background\nThis championship was unusual in that the [World Chess Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship) was decided by a tournament rather than a match.\nThe [FIDE World Chess Championship 2005](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide) world championship, and with Classical World Champion [Vladimir Kramnik](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-kramnik) refusing to take part.\nSoon after the 2005 tournament, FIDE announced that the 2007 World Championship would also be a double round robin tournament.\nIn 2006, FIDE announced the [World Chess Championship 2006](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2006), to reunify the world chess championship.\nBecause the organization of the 2007 tournament was largely in place, conditions of that match included:\nKramnik won the 2006 match.\nIn 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.\nFIDE later announced that future world championships (beginning with the [World Chess Championship 2008](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2008)) would be decided by matches between the champion and a challenger.\nAt 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2010) cycle.\n\n# Participants\n\n# Qualification process\nThe top four finishers of the [2005 FIDE World Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2005) event were granted direct entry into the 2007 event.\nHowever, [Veselin Topalov](https://bliptext.com/articles/veselin-topalov), [FIDE World Chess Champion 2005](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2005), was replaced by [Vladimir Kramnik](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-kramnik), Classical World Chess Champion, after losing his unification match to him in the [2006 World Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2006).\nFour further players qualified through the 2005–07 qualification process, which consisted of three stages:\n\n## 2005 World Cup\nThe 2005 World Cup, held in [Khanty-Mansiysk](https://bliptext.com/articles/khanty-mansiysk), Russia, was the qualification for the Candidates tournament.\nIt was a knock-out tournament of mini-matches, in the style of the [FIDE World Chess Championships 1998-2004](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championships-1998-2004).\nHowever, once 16 players were left, they were no longer immediately eliminated, but played further mini-matches to establish places 1 through 16.\nThe top finishers were:\n

🇺🇸 [Gata Kamsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/gata-kamsky) (USA)

🇳🇴 [Magnus Carlsen](https://bliptext.com/articles/magnus-carlsen) (NOR)

🇷🇺 [Vladimir Malakhov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-malakhov) (RUS)

🇪🇸 [Francisco Vallejo Pons](https://bliptext.com/articles/francisco-vallejo-pons) (ESP)

🇷🇺 [Alexey Dreev](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexey-dreev) (RUS)

🇳🇱 [Loek van Wely](https://bliptext.com/articles/loek-van-wely) (NLD)

🇫🇷 [Joël Lautier](https://bliptext.com/articles/jo-l-lautier) (FRA)

🇷🇺 [Konstantin Sakaev](https://bliptext.com/articles/konstantin-sakaev) (RUS)

\n\nThe top 10 qualified for the Candidates Tournament.\nSince Bacrot was already qualified on rating, 11th placed Malakhov also qualified.\n\n## 2007 Candidates tournament\nOne place in the [Candidates Tournament](https://bliptext.com/articles/candidates-tournament) was reserved for [2004 FIDE World Champion](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2004) Kasimdzhanov, who had also finished 6th in the [2005 championship tournament](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2005).\nFive places were then awarded to the five [highest rated players](https://bliptext.com/articles/elo-rating-system) (average of July 2004 and January 2005 ratings): Leko, Adams, Polgar, Shirov and Bacrot.\nThe remaining ten places went to the highest finishers at the [2005 World Cup](https://bliptext.com/articles/chess-world-cup-2005) who had not otherwise qualified (see above).\nThe Candidates tournament, held in [Elista](https://bliptext.com/articles/elista), [Kalmykia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kalmykia), Russia, from 26 May to 14 June 2007, was originally to consist of a two-round [knockout](https://bliptext.com/articles/single-elimination-tournament) with one player qualifying from each quarter of the draw.\nIn September 2006, FIDE proposed that these players play a 16 player, single round-robin tournament instead.\nHowever this decision was reversed, and the tournament consisted of two rounds of matches as originally planned.\nWorld Cup winner Aronian was top seed, with the remaining players seeded in rating order according to the January 2006 ratings list.\nIn the second round, the 1v16 winner played the 8v9 winner, 2v15 winner versus 7v10 winner, and so on.\n\n### Match conditions\nMatches were best of six games, at normal time controls (40/120, then 20/60, then 15 minutes + 30 seconds per move).\nWhere matches were tied after six games, tie breaks were played on the seventh day:\n\n### Round 1\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n\n### Round 2\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\nThe four second round winners qualified for the championship tournament.\n\n# 2007 Championship tournament\n\n## Playing conditions\nThe tournament was a double round robin, with the first round on 13 September 2007 and the final round on 29 September 2007.\nRest days were on the 17th, 22nd and 26th, that is after rounds 4, 8 and 11.\nGames each day began at 2 pm local time, which is 19:00 [UTC](https://bliptext.com/articles/coordinated-universal-time).\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/time-control)).\nThe pairings were made on Wednesday, 12 September 2007.\n\n## Results\nNumbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.\n\n## Final standings\n!Rank!!Player!!Rating\n!colspan=\"2\"|ANA\n!colspan=\"2\"|KRA\n!colspan=\"2\"|GEL\n!colspan=\"2\"|LEK\n!colspan=\"2\"|SVI\n!colspan=\"2\"|MOR\n!colspan=\"2\"|ARO\n!colspan=\"2\"|GRI\n!Points!!H2H!!Wins!!NS\nKey: H2H = head-to-head, points against tied player; NS = [Neustadtl score](https://bliptext.com/articles/neustadtl-score)\nFor 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/neustadtl-score).\n\n## Points by round\nFor each player, the difference between wins and losses after each round is shown.\nThe players with the highest difference for each round are marked with green background.","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T08:31:05.892Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T08:31:05.892Z","search_vector":"'2007':4 'championship':3 'chess':2 'world':1","search_content":" \n \n**Competition:** [World Chess Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship) 2007 \n**Governing Body:** [FIDE](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide) \n**Location:** [[Mexico](https://bliptext.com/articles/mexico) City](https://bliptext.com/articles/mexico-city), [Mexico](https://bliptext.com/articles/mexico) \n**Dates:** 12–30 September 2007 \n**Competitors:** 8 \n**Nations:** 5 \n**Champion:** [🇮🇳](https://bliptext.com/articles/india) [Viswanathan Anand](https://bliptext.com/articles/viswanathan-anand) \n**Win Score:** 9 points of 14 \n**Previous:** [2006](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2006) \n**Next:** [2008](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2008) \n \n\n# \nThe **World Chess Championship 2007** was held in [Mexico City](https://bliptext.com/articles/mexico-city), from 12 September 2007 to 30 September 2007 to decide the world champion of the game of [chess](https://bliptext.com/articles/chess).\nIt was an eight-player, double [round robin tournament](https://bliptext.com/articles/round-robin-tournament).\n[Viswanathan Anand](https://bliptext.com/articles/viswanathan-anand) won the tournament and the title of [World Chess Champion](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship).\nHis 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.\n\n# Background\nThis championship was unusual in that the [World Chess Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship) was decided by a tournament rather than a match.\nThe [[FIDE](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide) World Chess Championship 2005](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide) world championship, and with Classical World Champion [Vladimir Kramnik](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-kramnik) refusing to take part.\nSoon after the 2005 tournament, FIDE announced that the 2007 World Championship would also be a double round robin tournament.\nIn 2006, FIDE announced the [World Chess Championship 2006](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2006), to reunify the world chess championship.\nBecause the organization of the 2007 tournament was largely in place, conditions of that match included:\nKramnik won the 2006 match.\nIn 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.\nFIDE later announced that future world championships (beginning with the [World Chess Championship 2008](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2008)) would be decided by matches between the champion and a challenger.\nAt 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2010) cycle.\n\n# Participants\n\n# Qualification process\nThe top four finishers of the [2005 FIDE World Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2005) event were granted direct entry into the 2007 event.\nHowever, [Veselin Topalov](https://bliptext.com/articles/veselin-topalov), [FIDE World Chess Champion 2005](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2005), was replaced by [Vladimir Kramnik](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-kramnik), Classical World Chess Champion, after losing his unification match to him in the [2006 World Championship](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-chess-championship-2006).\nFour further players qualified through the 2005–07 qualification process, which consisted of three stages:\n\n## 2005 World Cup\nThe 2005 World Cup, held in [Khanty-Mansiysk](https://bliptext.com/articles/khanty-mansiysk), Russia, was the qualification for the Candidates tournament.\nIt was a knock-out tournament of mini-matches, in the style of the [FIDE World Chess Championships 1998-2004](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championships-1998-2004).\nHowever, once 16 players were left, they were no longer immediately eliminated, but played further mini-matches to establish places 1 through 16.\nThe top finishers were:\n 🇺🇸 [Gata Kamsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/gata-kamsky) (USA) \n 🇳🇴 [Magnus Carlsen](https://bliptext.com/articles/magnus-carlsen) (NOR) \n 🇷🇺 [Vladimir Malakhov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-malakhov) (RUS) \n 🇪🇸 [Francisco Vallejo Pons](https://bliptext.com/articles/francisco-vallejo-pons) (ESP) \n 🇷🇺 [Alexey Dreev](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexey-dreev) (RUS) \n 🇳🇱 [Loek van Wely](https://bliptext.com/articles/loek-van-wely) (NLD) \n 🇫🇷 [Joël Lautier](https://bliptext.com/articles/jo-l-lautier) (FRA) \n 🇷🇺 [Konstantin Sakaev](https://bliptext.com/articles/konstantin-sakaev) (RUS) \n \nThe top 10 qualified for the Candidates Tournament.\nSince Bacrot was already qualified on rating, 11th placed Malakhov also qualified.\n\n## 2007 Candidates tournament\nOne place in the [Candidates Tournament](https://bliptext.com/articles/candidates-tournament) was reserved for [2004 FIDE World Champion](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2004) Kasimdzhanov, who had also finished 6th in the [2005 championship tournament](https://bliptext.com/articles/fide-world-chess-championship-2005).\nFive places were then awarded to the five [highest rated players](https://bliptext.com/articles/elo-rating-system) (average of July 2004 and January 2005 ratings): Leko, Adams, Polgar, Shirov and Bacrot.\nThe remaining ten places went to the highest finishers at the [2005 World Cup](https://bliptext.com/articles/chess-world-cup-2005) who had not otherwise qualified (see above).\nThe Candidates tournament, held in [Elista](https://bliptext.com/articles/elista), [Kalmykia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kalmykia), Russia, from 26 May to 14 June 2007, was originally to consist of a two-round [knockout](https://bliptext.com/articles/single-elimination-tournament) with one player qualifying from each quarter of the draw.\nIn September 2006, FIDE proposed that these players play a 16 player, single round-robin tournament instead.\nHowever this decision was reversed, and the tournament consisted of two rounds of matches as originally planned.\nWorld Cup winner Aronian was top seed, with the remaining players seeded in rating order according to the January 2006 ratings list.\nIn the second round, the 1v16 winner played the 8v9 winner, 2v15 winner versus 7v10 winner, and so on.\n\n### Match conditions\nMatches were best of six games, at normal time controls (40/120, then 20/60, then 15 minutes + 30 seconds per move).\nWhere matches were tied after six games, tie breaks were played on the seventh day:\n\n### Round 1\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n\n### Round 2\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\n!Seed!!Name!!Rating!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!TB!!Total\nThe four second round winners qualified for the championship tournament.\n\n# 2007 Championship tournament\n\n## Playing conditions\nThe tournament was a double round robin, with the first round on 13 September 2007 and the final round on 29 September 2007.\nRest days were on the 17th, 22nd and 26th, that is after rounds 4, 8 and 11.\nGames each day began at 2 pm local time, which is 19:00 [UTC](https://bliptext.com/articles/coordinated-universal-time).\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/time-control)).\nThe pairings were made on Wednesday, 12 September 2007.\n\n## Results\nNumbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.\n\n## Final standings\n!Rank!!Player!!Rating\n!colspan=\"2\"|ANA\n!colspan=\"2\"|KRA\n!colspan=\"2\"|GEL\n!colspan=\"2\"|LEK\n!colspan=\"2\"|SVI\n!colspan=\"2\"|MOR\n!colspan=\"2\"|ARO\n!colspan=\"2\"|GRI\n!Points!!H2H!!Wins!!NS\nKey: H2H = head-to-head, points against tied player; NS = [Neustadtl score](https://bliptext.com/articles/neustadtl-score)\nFor 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/neustadtl-score).\n\n## Points by round\nFor each player, the difference between wins and losses after each round is shown.\nThe players with the highest difference for each round are marked with green background.","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

History