The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the

World Chess Championship 2010 The World Chess Championship 2010 match pitted the defending world champion, Viswanathan Anand, against challenger Veselin Topalov, for the title of World Chess Champion. The match took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 24 April to 13 May 2010, with ...

. It was held as a 128-player

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in

Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk ( rus, Ха́нты-Манси́йск, Khánty-Mansíysk, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty language, Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi language, Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the admini ...

, Russia. In an event attended by most leading players of the world, American

Gata Kamsky Gata Kamsky ( tt-Cyrl, Гата Камский, italics=no; russian: Гата Камский; born June 2, 1974) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and a five-time U.S. champion. Kamsky reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Cham ...

emerged as the winner. He was unbeaten in the tournament, going into tie-break only once and defeating

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ind ...

Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classic ...

, 2½–1½, in the four-game final. Two 17-year-old players,

Sergey Karjakin Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, . (born 12 January 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster (formerly representing Ukraine). A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, (until it was eventually taken b ...

and

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

, reached the semifinals. By winning, Kamsky qualified for the Challenger Match, the final stage in determining the challenger for the

; his participation in that match allowed him direct entry into the

Candidates Matches The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...

for the

World Chess Championship 2012 The World Chess Championship 2012 was a chess match between the defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the 2011 Candidates Tournament. After sixteen games, including four rapid games, Anand r ...

. The final four also received direct entry into the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–10, a qualifying stage for the

. The winner of the

Chess World Cup 2005 The Chess World Cup 2005 served as a qualification tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. It was held as a 128-player tournament from 27 November to 17 December 2005 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The top ten finishers qualified for ...

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenians, Armenian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A ches ...

, was defeated by

Dmitry Jakovenko Dmitry Olegovich Jakovenko (russian: Дмитрий Олегович Яковенко; born 28 June 1983) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001. Jakovenko was European champion in 2012. He was a member ...

in the fourth round.

Background

The 2007 World Cup was part of the cycle for the

, as the winner of this tournament, played an eight-game match against

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess International Grandmaster, grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champ ...

in 2008, for the right to be the challenger for the

. Ultimately Topalov won the match and will face World Champion

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...

, who successfully defended his title against former champion

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...

at the

World Chess Championship 2008 The World Chess Championship 2008 was a best-of-twelve-games match between the incumbent World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, Viswanathan Anand, and the previous World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik had been granted a match after ...

Prominent non-participants

and

were ineligible to participate, due to special privileges they already had in the 2008–2010 World Championship cycle. All other leading players, including world champion

, were eligible to participate. However Anand, who was already seeded into the 2008–2010 cycle, elected not to play. Three other players who had recently competed in the

World Chess Championship 2007 The World Chess Championship 2007 was held in Mexico City, from 12 September 2007 to 30 September 2007 to decide the world champion of the game of chess. It was an eight-player, double round robin tournament. Viswanathan Anand of India #Standings ...

in Mexico –

Péter Lékó Peter Leko ( hu, Lékó Péter; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess player and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was draw ...

Aleksandr Morozevich Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich (russian: Александр Серге́евич Морозе́вич, translit=Aleksandr Sergéevich Morozévich; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE ...

and

Boris Gelfand Boris Gelfand ( he, בוריס אברמוביץ' גלפנד; be, Барыс Абрамавіч Гельфанд, Barys Abramavich Hel'fand; russian: Борис Абрамович Гельфанд, Boris Abramovich Gel'fand; born 24 June 1968) ...

– elected not to play. Lékó and Morozevich refused to take part as a form of protest against the special privileges given for the inclusion of Kramnik and Topalov in the World Chess Championship Cycle. The only other player from the Top 30 who did not participate was

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the you ...

Qualification

The final list of 128 qualifiers for the World Cup was as follows: *Three of the eight participants of the

(

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (russian: Пётр Вениами́нович Сви́длер; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian chess grandmaster and an eight-time Russian Chess Champion who now frequently commenta ...

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates T ...

). The other five qualifiers in this category were replaced by five players from the average rating list. * Women's World Champion 2006 (

Xu Yuhua Xu Yuhua (born 29 October 1976) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and former Women's World Chess Championship, Women's World Champion (2006–2008). She was China's third women's world chess champion after Xie Jun and Zhu Che ...

). * Junior World Champion 2006 (

Zaven Andriasian Zaven Andriasian (sometimes transliterated as Andriasyan; hy, Զավեն Անդրիասյան; born March 11, 1989, in Yerevan) is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and former World Junior Chess Champion. Chess career He won the 2005 European Yo ...

). *Twenty-five players with the highest

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

(including five replacements). The average ratings from July 2006 and January 2007 were used. *89 players qualified from the continental and zonal championships: **45 players from Europe (16 from the 2006

European Individual Chess Championship The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis. Apart from determining the European champions (open and women's), ...

and 29 from 2007) **19 players from the Americas (7 from the 4th American Continental Championship, 12 from the 2.1 through 2½ Zonals), **19 players from Asia and Oceania (10 from the 6th

Asian Championship An Asian Championship is a top level international sports competition between Asian athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships (Summer Olympic Sports) ;Aquatics * Asia ...

, 9 from the 3.1 through 3.6 Zonals), **6 players from Africa (2007

African Championship An African Championship is a top level international sports competition between African athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships ;Athletics *African Championships in Athl ...

). *5 nominees of the FIDE President (

Sergei Rublevsky Sergei Rublevsky (born 15 October 1974) is a Russian chess grandmaster (1994). He has won four team gold medals and one individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiads. He won the prestigious Aeroflot Open in 2004, and became the 58th Russian chess ch ...

Evgeny Bareev Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (russian: Евгений Ильгизович Бареев; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian chess player and trainer. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989, he was ranked fourth in the FIDE world r ...

Sergei Zhigalko Sergei Zhigalko ( be, Сяргей Жыгалка, ''Syarheĭ Zhyhalka''; born March 28, 1989) is a Belarusian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster. He is a three-time national champion and also a European an ...

Ziaur Rahman Lt. General Ziaur Rahman (19 January 1936 – 30 May 1981), was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981. He was assassinated on 30 May 1981 in Chittagong in an army coup d' ...

, and

Boris Savchenko Boris Savchenko (russian: Борис Савченко; born 10 July 1986) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2007. Chess career Savchenko competed in the FIDE World Cup 2007 as one of the five FIDE pr ...

). *4 nominees of the local Organising Committee ( Evgeny Alekseev, Nikolai Kabanov, Aleksei Pridorozhni, and Vladimir Genba). The individual Zones (for Zonals) are described in the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

handbook.

Participants

All players are Grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. # , 2787 # , 2752 # , 2742 # , 2741 # , 2739 # , 2732 # , 2729 # , 2716 # , 2715 # , 2714 # , 2714 # , 2713 # , 2710 # , 2705 # , 2703 # , 2695 # , 2694 # , 2692 # , 2691 # , 2691 # , 2690 # , 2690 # , 2683 # , 2679 # , 2678 # , 2678 # , 2676 # , 2674 # , 2674 # , 2674 # , 2670 # , 2668 # , 2668 # , 2661 # , 2661 # , 2660 # , 2657 # , 2656 # , 2655 # , 2654 # , 2653 # , 2649 # , 2649 # , 2648 # , 2646 # , 2646 # , 2645 # , 2644 # , 2643 # , 2643 # , 2643 # , 2643 # , 2643 # , 2641 # , 2639 # , 2635 # , 2634 # , 2627 # , 2626 # , 2616 # , 2615 # , 2610 # , 2609 # , 2608 # , 2608 # , 2607 # , 2606 # , 2606 # , 2601 # , 2597 # , 2597 # , 2594 # , 2593 # , 2592 # , 2592 # , 2591 # , 2587 # , 2586 # , 2585 # , 2584 # , 2584 # , 2583 # , 2582 # , 2576 # , 2573 # , 2569 # , 2569 # , 2568 # , 2566, IM # , 2565 # , 2565 # , 2565 # , 2563 # , 2562 # , 2561 # , 2561 # , 2552 # , 2552 # , 2547 # , 2546 # , 2546 # , 2544 # , 2534 # , 2531 # , 2530 # , 2528 # , 2520, IM # , 2517 # , 2515, IM # , 2514, IM # , 2512, IM # , 2511, IM # , 2508, IM # , 2506, IM # , 2503, IM # , 2497 # , 2496, IM # , 2494 # , 2491, IM # , 2484 # , 2480, IM # , 2477, IM # , 2435, IM # , 2429, IM # , 2427, IM # , 2413, IM # , 2389, FM # , 2352, IM ¹ Izoria did not appear at the Cup due to visa problems. Gonzalez Zamora did not appear at the Cup due to illness.

Playing conditions

The tournament is in the style of the FIDE World Chess Championships 1998–2004: each round consists of a two-game match (except for the final round, which will be a four-game match), followed by tie breaks at faster time controls if required. The time control for regular games is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds added after each move. Tie breaks consist of two rapid chess games (25 minutes each + 10 seconds per move); followed by two blitz games if required (5 minutes + 10 seconds per move); followed by a single

Armageddon chess Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz ...

game if required (white has 6 minutes and must win, black has 5 minutes and only needs to draw). The prize money ranged from US$6,000 for players eliminated in the first round to $80,000 for the losing finalist and $120,000 for the winner.

Results, rounds 1–4

Summary

Round 1

Most of the top seeds progressed. From the top 32, the only higher seeded players eliminated were

Pavel Eljanov Pavel Eljanov ( uk, Павло Володимирович Ельянов, translit=Pavlo Volodymyrovych Elyanov; born 10 May 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He has won two team gold medals and one individual silver medal at the Chess Oly ...

(19th seed),

Konstantin Landa Konstantin Landa (; 22 May 1972 – October 2022) was a Russian chess grandmaster. He competed in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 and FIDE World Cup 2007. In 2011 he was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer. Landa's best tournamen ...

(25) and Pendyala Harikrishna (32).Round 1 Tiebreaks
– Chessbase, 26 November 2007.

Round 2

Players in the top 32 eliminated in regular games were

Teimour Radjabov Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov (also spelled Teymur Rajabov; az, Teymur Boris oğlu Rəcəbov, ; born 12 March 1987) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster, ranked number 18 in the world A former child prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaster ...

(seeded 3),

Loek van Wely Loek van Wely (born 7 October 1972) is a Dutch chess player and politician. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1993, and was rated among the world's top ten in 2001 with a rating of 2714. In March 2019, he was elected to the Dutch ...

(24). Top 32 players eliminated in tie breaks were

Rustam Kasimdzhanov Rustam Kasimdzhanov; russian: Рустам Касымджанов (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998. In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzhan ...

(22),

Andrei Volokitin Andrei Volokitin ( uk, Андрій Волокітін, ''Andriy Volokitin''; born 18 June 1986 in Lviv) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He is a two-time Ukrainian champion and has competed in four Chess Olympiads, winning team gold in 2004 a ...

(26) and

Vadim Zvjaginsev Vadim Zvjaginsev (; born 18 August 1976 in Moscow) is a Russian chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1994. He played for the gold medal-winning Russian team in the 1997 World Team Chess Championship and in the 1998 Che ...

(30). This left 24 of the top 32 seeds in the final 32. High seeds needing tie breaks to progress included

Vassily Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk ( uk, Василь Михайлович Іванчук; born March 18, 1969), also transliterated as Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading ...

(1),

(10),

Ruslan Ponomariov Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov ( uk, Русла́н Оле́гович Пономарьо́в; born 11 October 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004. He won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in ...

(14) and Wang Yue (15).

Round 3

After the two regular games, 10 of the 16 matches had decisive results. Players going through on the regular games are:

(seeded 5), Michael Adams (7), Evgeny Alekseev (8),

(10),

(11),

Vladimir Akopian Vladimir Akopian (russian: Владимир Акопян, hy, Վլադիմիր Հակոբյան; born December 7, 1971) is an Armenian-Americans, American chess Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster. Career Akopian was born in Baku, Azerbaijan Sov ...

(12),

(13),

(14), Wang Yue (15) and

Ivan Cheparinov Ivan Cheparinov (; born November 26, 1986) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He is a four-time Bulgarian champion (2004, 2005, 2012, 2018). Cheparinov competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2015 and 2017. In 2018 he switched his na ...

(31). Cheparinov eliminated the number 2 seed

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Shahriyar Hamid oghlu Mammadyarov ( az, Şəhriyar Həmid oğlu Məmmədyarov; born 12 April 1985), known internationally as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. he is ranked No. 1 in Azerbaijan and No. 13 in the world. ...

. The other six matches were decided in the tie breaks. Winners were

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (born 1 August 1976) is a Romanian (until 2014) and German (since 2014) chess grandmaster. His peak FIDE rating was 2707 in October 2005, when he was ranked fifteenth in the world, and the highest rated Romanian player eve ...

(33) (eliminating top seed

Krishnan Sasikiran Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Chess Championship 2013. Chess career Born in Madra ...

(35),

(41),

(4),

(6),

(17).

Round 4

In the regular time control games, Shirov, Ponomariov, Carlsen, Karjakin and Cheparinov won their respective matches against Akopian, Sasikiran, Adams, Nisipeanu and Wang Yue. The other three matches (Jakovenko-Aronian, Svidler-Kamsky and Bareev-Alekseev) proceed to tie breaks,Round four Game two
Chessbase, 4 December 2007. with wins to Jakovenko, Kamsky and Alekseev.

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Results, rounds 5–7

Chessbase reports
Round five Game oneRound five Game twoRound five tie breaksRound six Game one

Final stats

;13 December – 16 December

References

External links

{{Chess World Cups

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