The FIDE World Chess Championship 1999 was held in Las Vegas, United States, between 31 July and 28 August 1999. The format was a knockout tournament of short matches. This was similar in style to that used at the FIDE World Chess Championship 1998, and had the same advantages and disadvantages. A change from the 1998 championship was that incumbent champion (Anatoly Karpov) had no special privileges, other than that he (like a number of leading players) was seeded into the second round. In protest at this, Karpov refused to play.

	Alexander Khalifman

Kasparov and Anand also refused to play, as they were negotiating a rematch, and also harbored criticisms of the format. Kasparov was highly dismissive of the FIDE event, saying that most of the participants were "tourists".¹ In the absense of Kasparov, Anand, and Karpov, the event less attention than many other high category tournaments that took place the same year.

In the final, Vladimir Akopian and Alexander Khalifman faced off to play a short 6 game match. With a draw in the 6th game, Khalifman was crowned FIDE World Chess Champion.

Khalifman, 44th strongest player in the world by rating points, said of his victory:

I do not claim that I am the world's best chessplayer, but I am the FIDE World Champion, the only championship of the world that we have now.

click on a game number to replay game 1 2 3 4 5 6 Akopian 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ Khalifman 1 ½ 0 1 ½ ½

FINAL SCORE:  Khalifman 3½;  Akopian 2½
Reference: game collection Khalifman - Akopian WCC 1999

NOTABLE GAMES   [what is this?]

	· Game #4		Khalifman vs Akopian, 1999		1-0
	· Game #1		Akopian vs Khalifman, 1999		0-1
	· Game #3		Akopian vs Khalifman, 1999		1-0