Chess World Cup 2000


The FIDE World Cup 2000 was a 24-player Category XVI chess tournament played between 1 September and 13 September 2000 in Shenyang, China. The tournament was organized by FIDE, hosted by the Chinese Chess Association, and billed as the First Chess World Cup. Viswanathan Anand defeated Evgeny Bareev in the final to win the inaugural title and a $50,000 cash prize.

Format

The 24 players were split into four groups of six players each, with every player playing each other player in his group once. The top two finishers in each group were sent forward to the knockout stages, with ties being resolved by playoffs. From the quarterfinals onward, each knockout match consisted of two games, with ties being broken by a set of speed games.

Participants

All players are Grandmasters unless indicated otherwise.
  1. , 2762
  2. , 2756
  3. , 2719
  4. , 2702
  5. , 2689
  6. , 2681
  7. , 2677
  8. , 2676
  9. , 2673
  10. , 2670
  11. , 2668
  12. , 2667
  13. , 2667
  14. , 2666
  15. , 2657
  16. , 2646
  17. , 2643
  18. , 2636
  19. , 2633
  20. , 2630
  21. , 2620
  22. , 2591
  23. , 2350, IM
  24. , 2342, no title
Ratings are as per the July 2000 FIDE ratings list.

Calendar

RoundDates
Group Stage1-5 September
Quarterfinals7-8 September
Semifinals9-10 September
Final12-13 September

Group stage

Nine out of the top 10 seeds finished the group stages with a plus or equal score – the lone exception, Alexander Morozevich, crashed out of the tournament with a single point in 5 games. The reigning FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman also suffered a disappointing showing, with losses to Anand and Gelfand. The dark horse of the tournament was 19th-seeded Gilberto Milos, a chess grandmaster from Brazil and five-time South American chess champion. Milos' upset win over Morozevich would propel him to the top of Group A, and eventually, into the semifinals of the World Cup. The top seed in each of the other groups advanced to the quarterfinals.
Group APts.Group BPts.Group CPts.Group DPts.
Gilberto Milos3½ Ye Jiangchuan3½ Evgeny Bareev3½ Viswanathan Anand3½
Zurab Azmaiparashvili3 Vassily Ivanchuk3 Sergei Movsesian3 Boris Gelfand3
Boris Gulko2½ Nigel Short3 Peter Svidler3 Vladislav Tkachiev3
Alexey Dreev2½ Mikhail Gurevich2 Zhang Zhong2½ Pavel Tregubov2½
Aleksej Aleksandrov2½ Xu Jun2 Alexei Fedorov2 Alexander Khalifman2
Alexander Morozevich1 Ruslan Ponomariov1½ Aimen Rizouk1 Mohamed Tissir1

Playoffs

Anand, the tournament's hitherto-untroubled No. 1 seed, breezed through the quarterfinal round against his longtime rival Vassily Ivanchuk. But Boris Gelfand gave Anand a challenge in the semi-final, and the match was not settled until a sudden-death blitz game. In the other half of the bracket, Bareev dropped the first game but managed to win his quarterfinal match against Azmaiparashvili before facing a relentless Gilberto Milos in the semifinals. Bareev eventually edged past the Brazilian, drawing both classical games before winning the first rapid playoff thanks to a distressing blunder from Milos that cost him his queen and the match.

Final

The first game of the World Cup final between Viswanathan Anand and Evgeny Bareev played out to a draw after 33 moves. In the second game, Anand – playing the white side of the French defence – sacrificed the exchange for two pawns to gain a slight advantage. But Bareev's fate was not sealed until 36... Re8?? - a shocking blunder that gave Anand a completely winning position.
NameRating12Total
2762½11½
2702½0½