FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament

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FIDE World Championship Knockout, 2001
Moscow

Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
The 2001-2002 FIDE knockout world championship tournament took place in Moscow Russia. It was a 128 player knockout tournament conducted by pairing the contestants into "mini matches" (two games at normal time control) with one another. The winner would move on to the next round while the loser was eliminated. If the two game mini match was tied, the players would break the tie with two rapid-play games to determine a winner, followed by two games of blitz if necessary. If the match was still undecided, a single "Armegeddon" (sudden death) blitz game would take place between the participants, with White having an extra minute on the clock, and Black having draw odds. The winner of this seventh game would be the overall match winner; in the event of a draw the player with the black pieces would be allowed to advance. For the sixth round of the event, the amount of games played at normal time control in each minimatch were increased from two to four, and then from four to eight for the seventh and final round. The rules for quick-play tie-breaks remained unchanged throughout the event.¹

The final match took place from January 16-26 in Moscow, and was to be 8 games in length. The finalists were Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov. The 18 year old Ukranian grandmaster Ponomariov prevailed, winning the FIDE title. Ponomariov had already shown enormous talent by winning the 1996 European Under-18 Championship at the age of just twelve, and the following year winning the World Under-18 Championship. In 1998, at the age of fourteen, he was awarded the grandmaster title making him the youngest ever player at that time to hold the title. He defeated Li Wenliang, S. Tiviakov, Ki. Georgiev, A.Morozevich, E. Bareev, P. Svidler, and V. Ivanchuk to become the youngest ever FIDE champion.

¹ WCC Index 2001 FIDE Championship by "iron maiden"
² The World Chess Championships by Graeme Cree

FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament

PARTICIPANTS (sorted by highest achieved rating; click on name to see player's games)
Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko, Michael Adams, Alexey Shirov, Evgeny Bareev, Boris Gelfand, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Alexis Cabrera, Aimen Rizouk, Nikolai Vlassov, Juan Facundo Pierrot, Mikhail Gluzman, Watu Kobese, Olivier Touzane, Gaetan Sarthou, Baatr Shovunov, Nugzar Zeliakov

page 1 of 1; 22 games

Game Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening
1. Anand vs O Touzane 0-1 39 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament C42 Petrov Defense

2. O Touzane vs Anand 0-1 23 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament A57 Benko Gambit

3. Anand vs O Touzane 1-0 35 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament A15 English

4. O Touzane vs Anand ½-½ 46 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament E34 Nimzo-Indian, Classical, Noa Variation

5. G Sarthou vs Adams 0-1 32 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament E55 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System, Bronstein Variation

6. Adams vs G Sarthou 1-0 43 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament B30 Sicilian

7. Morozevich vs N Zeliakov ½-½ 60 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament B50 Sicilian

8. N Zeliakov vs Morozevich 0-1 17 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament D11 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav

9. B Shovunov vs Ivanchuk ½-½ 28 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament B76 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack

10. Ivanchuk vs B Shovunov 1-0 26 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament A57 Benko Gambit

11. Leko vs W Kobese 1-0 43 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed

12. W Kobese vs Leko 1-0 59 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament B10 Caro-Kann

13. M Gluzman vs Bareev 0-1 27 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament B18 Caro-Kann, Classical

14. Bareev vs M Gluzman 1-0 43 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament D34 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch

15. Gelfand vs A Cabrera ½-½ 61 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament E91 King's Indian

16. A Cabrera vs Gelfand 0-1 66 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament B23 Sicilian, Closed

17. J Pierrot vs Topalov 0-1 61 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament B51 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Rossolimo) Attack

18. Topalov vs J Pierrot 1-0 29 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament A15 English

19. Shirov vs A Rizouk 1-0 28 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament C67 Ruy Lopez

20. A Rizouk vs Shirov 0-1 40 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament C48 Four Knights

21. N Vlassov vs Kasimdzhanov ½-½ 69 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament C24 Bishop's Opening

22. Kasimdzhanov vs N Vlassov 1-0 51 2001 FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament D94 Grunfeld

page 1 of 1; 22 games

REFINE SEARCH: White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)

Apr-04-07		Bob726: I think this is incomplete

Apr-05-07		bumpmobile: Given that Ponomariov won the event and there are none of his games on the list yet, I would have to agree.

Jan-05-08		talisman: would like to see anand's fide championship added to the list.Anand vs shirov and the rest.Thanks hesam for making them available and for the hard work of you and your helpers.

Jan-05-08		talisman: that was 2000 i believe.

Apr-19-08		Knight13: Knock-out? This is BS organized type of tournament. Staunton himself tasted the fishiness back in 1851 when he held one, and even assured a "ANYONE can challenge the winner of 1851 International" as insurance.

Apr-20-08		Petrosianic: It was hardly fishy in 1851. Those knockout matches went to the first to win 4 games, which is incredibly meaty compared to those piddly Best of 2 matches in the FIDE Lottery (The last time somebody scored as much as 4 wins in a World Championship Match was 1995).

Apr-21-08		Knight13: <Petrosianic> If they do a "first to win 4 games" this would go for so long people would start leaving and be like "screw this I'm gonna go drink some beer and pop a smoke." But me, I still don't think Knock-Out is fair at all.

Apr-22-08		Petrosianic: Be careful here. You're saying that the event that made Fischer the challenger was unfair! But what's unfair about it (provided that the matches are a reasonable length)? I can see that it might have some <undesirable> aspects, like if the two best players meet in the Quarterfinals and one of them has to get knocked out. But that doesn't make it unfair. I don't remember any "Anyone can challenge the winner of 1851" rule. I think Staunton took his victory for granted, and didn't bother to make one. He certainly never played a match with Andersson after that. There was no title to fight for anyway.

Apr-26-08		Knight13: <Petrosianic: I don't remember any "Anyone can challenge the winner of 1851" rule.> It says it in Kasparov's "My great predecessors" book.

Jun-14-08		talisman: someone hit the delete button on 1999 and 2000.

Aug-09-08		JimmyVermeer: According to Wikipedia, this was a single elimination tournament between 128 players.

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