The Classical World Chess Championship 2000, also known as the Braingames World Chess Championship 2000, was a match for the "Classical" World Chess Championship between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. ... Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (Russian: Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров. IPA: ; (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion. ... Vladimir Kramnik at the 2005 Corus chess tournament. ...

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 the Kasparov's title was that he had not been defeated in a match, but in fact had defeated the strongest challenger (Nigel Short in 1993), so FIDE had no power to strip the title from him. The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. ... The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world. ... The Professional Chess Association was created 1993 by Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short for the marketing and organization of its chess world championship, as a consequence of the then FIDE President, Florencio Campomanes, abrogating the voting rights of the players. ... Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (Russian: Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров. IPA: ; (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion. ... Nigel Short (born June 1, 1965 in Leigh, Lancashire) is widely regarded as the greatest British chess player of the 20th century. ...

The PCA then held an Interzonal and Candidates matches in 1993-1995, and Kasparov defended his PCA title again in 1995, this time against Viswanathan Anand. Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. ... The Candidates Tournament was an annual chess tournament in which various chess players play against each other. ... Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand (IPA: ) (born December 11, 1969 in Chennai (then called Madras), India) is an Indian chess grandmaster. ...

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.

Selecting a Challenger

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. The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess and Go. ... Vladimir Kramnik at the 2005 Corus chess tournament. ...

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. Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (Aleksejs Širovs, Алексе́й Широв) (born July 4, 1972 in Riga, Latvia), is one of the top chess grandmasters in the world today. ...

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.

In 2000, 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. It is worth pointing out that Kramnik had a far better record against Kasparov then Shirov did. In the years that followed, Kasparov maintained an overwhelming plus score in his individual games against Shirov.

The Kasparov-Kramnik Match

The match was the best of 16 games, with Kasparov to keep his title in the event of an 8-8 draw.

Kasparov was the overwhelming favourite. But in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the World Chess Championship, 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.

See also

The previous world championship was the PCA World Chess Championship 1995.

The next world championship was the Classical World Chess Championship 2004.