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[what is this?]

Anand's Knockout Knockouts "As one by one I mowed them down, my superiority became apparent" - Jose Raul Capablanca This collection contains all of the games that Anand played in the FIDE KO tournaments in 1997, 2000, and 2001. He finished winner, winner, and semi-finalist respectively, and clearly has the best record of any player in that format so far. Some highlights of Anand's performance: * Anand is the only player to win two FIDE KO events of this kind. * Anand eliminated Alexey Shirov in all three events. Shirov is one of only four players to reach a KO final twice, the other three being Ponomariov, Adams, and Anand himself. * Anand's match record across all 3 events is 17-1. His game record across all time controls is 22 wins, 27 draws, and only 2 losses. Both losses occurred in the 2001 tournament in classical games where Anand played white. Interestingly, these losses came against what might well have been his weakest and strongest competitors (Touzane and Ivanchuk respectively). 61 games, 1997-2001 Battles Before Bonn: Two all time greats I'm creating this collection ahead of the Kramnik - Anand world championship match. I'm going to try and include all of the decisive classical games between the two, as well as the most interesting draws. 19 games, 1993-2007 Champion of the Olympiad Now that the days of Soviet/Russian absolute dominance in world chess are over, every two years we are able to enjoy an interesting fight for the team gold medal in the Olympiad. In light of this, all members of Armenia's 2006 and 2008 gold medal winning teams deserve praise; but it was Gabriel Sargissian's two devastating performances on board 3 that played the greatest role. He managed to go +7, undefeated, in both events, accumulating an amazing total of 14 wins and only eight draws over all 22 games. Such a score would be impressive even against a field of strong IMs, but Armenia's consistent presence on the top boards ensured that Sargissian's opponents included some of the very best players in the world. For instance, when the time came he defeated both of his world class Russian counterparts, Morozevich and Grischuk. 22 games, 2006-2008 Chess Oscar 1997:Anand Before 1997, the year he won the first of what now total six Chess Oscars, Vishy Anand had already established himself as one of the finest players of his generation. He had already played a world championship match against Garry Kasparov in 1995, and had been showing excellent results in tournaments and matches since 1991, and had become a permanent fixture as one of the top 5 players in the world. Still, 1997 was a watershed year for Anand, which saw the beginning of his growth from a great player to a one of the very finest in chess history. He won three very strong classical events: Belgrade (ahead of Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, and Shirov), Biel (ahead of Karpov and Gelfand), and Dos Hermanas (shared with Kramnik). He saved the best for last, winning the inaugural- and controversial- FIDE "Knockout" tournament. Anand was undefeated in both the classical games and rapid/blitz tie-breaks, eliminating Shirov, Gelfand, and Adams to close out the event. Anand's rapid results in 1997 were likewise phenomenal, and he was victorious in Leon, the Credit Swiss Rapid in Geneva, and the Chess Classic in Frankfurt. He set a record in Melody Amber by finishing clear first in both the rapid and blindfold sections, a feat which has been repeated only once- by Anand himself in 2005. Related Game Collections: Game Collection: Biel 1997 Game Collection: Dos Hermanas 1997 Game Collection: Anand's Knockout Knockouts 7 games, 1997 Chess Oscar 1998: Anand 1997 was a great year for Anand, but 1998 was truly phenomenal. It is ironic that such a year began with a major disappointment: Anand lost the controversial FIDE World Championship match to Karpov, although he did not succumb until rapid tie-breaks. It must not have bothered him too much, because he went on to win four strong classical tournaments, including: the VII Torneo Magistral in Madrid (which included Svidler, Leko, and Adams), Tilburg Fontys (Kramnik, Topalov, Leko), Wijk Aan Zee (shared with Kramnik ahead of Karpov, Shirov, Adams, Topalov) and finally the crème de la crème: clear first in Linares ahead of Kasparov, Kramnik, and Shirov. Rapid wins in the Siemens Giants (which included Kasparov; Anand beat Kramnik in the final in blitz tiebreaks) and the large Villarrobledo open tournament were simply icing on the cake. Related Game Collections: Game Collection: Tilburg Fontys 1998 Game Collection: Wijk aan Zee Hoogovens 1998 Game Collection: Madrid 1998 Game Collection: Linares 1998 18 games, 1998 Chess Oscar 1999: Kasparov 15 games, 1999 Kramnik's Debut In 1992, Kramnik- only an <FM> at the time- had the best performance at the 1992 Olympiad. 8.5/9! He did not stay an FM for long. 9 games, 1992 Sensations Before Sofia 5 games, 1993-1998 SetNoEscapeOn's favorite games 6 games, 1957-2007 Super Strong Simuls This is a game collection to highlight events where some the world's best players take on a team of very strong competition. As far as I know, for the moment only Kramnik and Kasparov have played these. 34 games, 1992-2008 The Search Ends <technical draw: After reviewing the games of Magnus Carlsen from Corus 2004, I'm going to dare and say the following: The search for Bobby Fischer is over.> Magnus Carlsen 13 games, 2004 Vishy World Champion: 2007-2012 Highlights of Anand's journey as champion from Mexico to Moscow. 6 games, 2007-2008 When you have to win Games where the competitive aspect of chess took center stage- and one player stepped up and was able to win despite the increased tension. The inspiration for this collection is the audio annotation to his game against Larry Christiansen by Josh Waitzkin in Chessmaster, similarly titled "When you have to win". 10 games, 1910-2006