★★★ INTRO ★★★

The 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship was between 31 year old Viswanathan Anand of India and 28 year old Alexey Shirov of Latvia.

★★★ QUALIFICATION ★★★

After Alexander Khalifman defeated Vladimir Akopian in the previous FIDE Championship (see Game Collection: 1999 FIDE World Chess Championship for games and more info) held in 1999, FIDE decided to hold another knockout tournament the next year with the same format. The first 5 rounds (up to the quarter-finals), were best of 2 (with tiebreaks the next day) and the semi-finals were a best of 4. 28 players received byes into Round 2. (see Game Collection: 2000 - FIDE World Championship KO Tournament for games and more info)

The top seed, Anand, defeated Victor Bologan 1 1/2-1/2, Smbat Lputian by the same score, Bartlomiej Macieja 1 1/2-1/2, Alexander Khalifman 3 1/2-2 1/2 (tiebreaks) and Michael Adams 2 1/2-1 1/2 to reach the final.

Meanwhile, Shirov beat Alexander Onischuk 1/2-1 1/2 (tiebreaks), Mikhail Gurevich by the same score, Boris Gelfand 2 1/2-1 1/2 (tiebreaks), Evgeny Bareev by the same score and Alexander Grischuk 2 1/2-1 1/2 to face off against Anand.

★★★ CONDITIONS ★★★

The match would be a best of 6, with the first to 3 1/2 points being the winner. If it were tied 3-3, tiebreaks of rapid followed by blitz would follow. Game 1 was played on December 20th, 2000.

★★★ NOTABLE GAMES ★★★

Game 1: Shirov vs Anand, 2000

Game 2: Anand vs Shirov, 2000

Game 3: Shirov vs Anand, 2000

★★★ FINAL ★★★

The final game was played on December 24th, 2000. Entering Game 4, Anand had a 2 1/2-1/2 lead and needed just one point in the final 3 games, 2 of them with white to become the 4th FIDE champion during the "split title era".

Game 4: Anand vs Shirov, 2000

With the win, Anand had defeated Shirov 3 1/2-1/2, in the shortest WCC match to date and also the most one sided match (87.5% score).

★★★ MINI TABLE ★★★

Anand 1/2 1 1 1 (3 wins, 0 losses and 1 draw) <87.5% score>

Shirov 1/2 0 0 0 (0 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw) <12.5% score>

★★★ OTHER LINKS ★★★

See also: FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2000)

Previous Head to Head Record Prior to 2000: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (7 wins, 23 draws and 3 losses in favour of Anand)

Previous FIDE Championship: Game Collection: 1999 FIDE World Chess Championship

Next FIDE Championship: Game Collection: 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship

Previous Classical Championship: Game Collection: 2000 Classical World Chess Championship

Next Classical Championship: Game Collection: 2004 Classical World Chess Championship