2005 World Cup

The 2005 World Cup, held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, was the qualification for the Candidates tournament. It was a knock-out tournament of mini-matches, in the style of the FIDE World Chess Championships 1998-2004. However, once 16 players were left, they were no longer immediately eliminated, but played further mini-matches to establish places 1 through 16.

The top finishers were:^[4][5]

The top 10 qualified for the Candidates Tournament. Since Bacrot was already qualified on rating, 11th placed Malakhov also qualified.

2007 Candidates tournament

One place in the Candidates Tournament was reserved for 2004 FIDE World Champion Kasimdzhanov, who had also finished 6th in the 2005 championship tournament. Five places were then awarded to the five highest rated players (average of July 2004 and January 2005 ratings): Leko, Adams, Polgar, Shirov and Bacrot. The remaining ten places went to the highest finishers at the 2005 World Cup who had not otherwise qualified (see above).

The Candidates tournament, held in Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, from 26 May to 14 June 2007, was originally to consist of a two-round knockout with one player qualifying from each quarter of the draw. In September 2006, FIDE proposed that these players play a 16 player, single round-robin tournament instead.^[6] However this decision was reversed, and the tournament consisted of two rounds of matches as originally planned.^[7]

World Cup winner Aronian was top seed, with the remaining players seeded in rating order according to the January 2006 ratings list. In the second round, the 1v16 winner played the 8v9 winner, 2v15 winner versus 7v10 winner, and so on.

Playing conditions

The tournament was a double round robin, with the first round on 13 September 2007 and the final round on 29 September 2007. Rest days were on the 17th, 22nd and 26th, that is after rounds 4, 8 and 11. Games each day began at 2 pm local time, which is 19:00 UTC. The time control was 40/2h, 20/1h, 15m+30sec/all meaning that each player had 2 hours per game, plus an extra hour added after the 40th move, 15 extra minutes added after the 60th move, and from there on 30 extra seconds added for each move (Fischer delay).^[8] The pairings were made on Wednesday, 12 September 2007.^[9]

Results

Numbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.

Final standings

Rank	Player	Rating	ANA		KRA		GEL		LEK		SVI		MOR		ARO		GRI		Points	H2H	Wins	NS
1	Viswanathan Anand (IND)	2792			½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	1	½	½	1	1	½	9
2	Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)	2769	½	½			½	½	1	½	½	½	1	0	1	½	½	½	8	1	3	54.50
3	Boris Gelfand (ISR)	2733	½	½	½	½			½	½	½	½	1	½	1	1	½	0	8	1	3	54.25
4	Peter Leko (HUN)	2751	½	½	½	0	½	½			½	½	1	½	½	0	1	½	7
5	Peter Svidler (RUS)	2735	½	0	½	½	½	½	½	½			½	0	½	½	1	½	6½
6	Alexander Morozevich (RUS)	2758	½	0	1	0	½	0	½	0	1	½			½	½	1	0	6	1	3
7	Levon Aronian (ARM)	2750	0	½	½	0	0	0	1	½	½	½	½	½			1	½	6	1	2
8	Alexander Grischuk (RUS)	2726	½	0	½	½	1	½	½	0	½	0	1	0	½	0			5½

Key: H2H = head-to-head, points against tied player; NS = Neustadtl score

For players who finished level on points, the following tie-breakers were applied (in order of precedence): results of games between tied players, total number of wins, Neustadtl score.^[8]

Points by round

For each player, the difference between wins and losses after each round is shown. The players with the highest difference for each round are marked with green background.

Final place	Player \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
1	Viswanathan Anand (IND)	=0	+1	+1	+1	+2	+2	+3	+3	+3	+3	+4	+4	+4	+4
2	Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)	=0	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	=0	=0	=0	+1	+1	+2
3	Boris Gelfand (ISR)	=0	=0	=0	=0	+1	+2	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	+2	+2	+2
4	Peter Leko (HUN)	=0	=0	=0	−1	−1	−1	−1	=0	=0	=0	=0	−1	=0	=0
5	Peter Svidler (RUS)	=0	=0	−1	−1	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−1
6	Alexander Morozevich (RUS)	=0	−1	=0	=0	−1	−2	−2	−2	−1	−1	−2	−1	−2	−2
7	Levon Aronian (ARM)	=0	−1	−1	=0	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	=0	=0	−1	−1	−2
8	Alexander Grischuk (RUS)	=0	=0	=0	=0	+1	+1	=0	−1	=0	−1	−1	−2	−2	−3