★★★ INTRO ★★★

The 2007 World Chess Championship was an 8 player double round robin. It was between 37 year old Viswanathan Anand of India, 32 year old Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, 39 year old Boris Gelfand of Israel, 28 year old Peter Leko of Hungary, 31 year old Peter Svidler of Russia, 30 year old Alexander Morozevich also of Russia, 24 year old Levon Aronian of Armenia and 23 year old Alexander Grischuk of Russia.

★★★ QUALIFICATION ★★★

After the world chess championship title was reunited for the first in 13 years, FIDE announced that the 2007 Championship would be an 8 player round robin. Kramnik, as the defending champion, was invited, along with the top 4 finishers at the 2005 Championship (see Game Collection: 2005 FIDE World Chess Championship for games and more info): Anand, Svidler and Morozevich. However, since Topalov lost the 2006 Championship, he would not get to play in this match, but instead, receive an advantage later on.

To determine the remaining 4 players, FIDE held a World Cup (see World Cup (2005) for games). In a knockout format, they invited 128 players to play until the top 16 remained. The World Cup was continued as normal, but from then on, the players eliminated would be reseeded to find out the final standings, with the top 10 players making it. Aronian (1st), Ruslan Ponomariov (2nd), Etienne Bacrot (3rd), Grischuk (4th), Evgeny Bareev (5th), Gelfand (6th), Sergei Rublevsky (7th), Mikhail Gurevich (8th), Gata Kamsky (9th) and Magnus Carlsen (10th) made the final 10. Missing out were Vladimir Malakhov (11th), Francisco Vallejo Pons (12th), Francisco Vallejo Pons (13th), Loek van Wely (14th), Joel Lautier (15th) and Konstantin Sakaev (16th).

The above 10 were joined by the bottom 4 from the 2005 Championship (Leko, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Michael Adams and Judit Polgar) and the top 2 players via. rating that did not already qualify (Alexey Shirov and Bacrot). However, since Bacrot would later qualify via. the World Cup, 11th place finisher (Malakhov) qualified.

The 16 players were seeded by rating, except for Aronian who got the first seed for winning the World Cup. All matches were best of 6, with 4 rapid games, 2 blitz games and 1 armageddon game to follow as necessary. In Round 1, Aronian beat Carlsen 7-5 on tiebreaks (see World Championship Candidates (2007) for games), Shirov downed Adams 5 1/2-3 1/2 (see bad tournament link for games), Leko clobbered Gurevich 3 1/2-1/2 (see bad tournament link for games), Bareev defeated Polgar (see bad tournament link for games), Rublevsky edged Ponomariov 3 1/2-2 1/2 (bad tournament link for games), Grischuk bested Malakhov 3 1/2-1 1/2 (see bad tournament link for games), Gelfand outdueled Kasimdzhanov 5 1/2-3 1/2 on tiebreaks (see bad tournament link for games) and Kamsky pulverized Bacrot 3 1/2-1/2 (see bad tournament link for games).

The above 8 players would play one more match, with the 4 remaining getting to play directly for the championship. In this round, Aronian knocked out Shirov 3 1/2-2 1/2 (see bad tournament link for games), Leko ousted Bareev 3 1/2-1 1/2 (see bad tournament link for games), Gelfand crushed Kamsky 3 1/2-1 1/2 (see bad tournament link for games) and Grischuk conquered Rublevsky 5 1/2-3 1/2 on tiebreaks (see bad tournament link for games). Those 4 players (Aronian, Leko, Gelfand and Grischuk) would compete in the 2007 World Championship.

★★★ CONDITIONS ★★★

The tournament would be an 8 player double round robin, where each player faces each other player twice (once with each colour). The winner would be the one with the most points after 14 rounds. If there was a tie between 2 or more players, head to head, most wins followed by NS score would be the tiebreakers. If Kramnik lost his title in this tournament, he would get a rematch against the winner next year. The first round was played on September 12th, 2007.

★★★ NOTABLE GAMES ★★★

Round 2: Kramnik vs Morozevich, 2007

Round 2: Aronian vs Anand, 2007

Round 11: Anand vs Morozevich, 2007

★★★ FINAL ★★★

The final round was played on September 30th, 2007. Entering Round 14, Anand lead with 8 1/2 points over his nearest competitor, Gelfand, who had 7 1/2. Anand needed just a draw with white against Leko or Gelfand to not beat Morozevich with black in order to clinch the title without any tiebreakers.

Round 14: Anand vs Leko, 2007

With the draw, Anand had became the 15th undisputed world champion, and just the 2nd to win an undisputed title in a double round robin (the other being Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948, see Game Collection: 1948 World Chess Championship for games and more info).

★★★ MINI TABLE ★★★

Anand 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 (4 wins, 0 losses, 10 draws) <1st, 64.3% score>

Kramnik 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 (3 wins, 1 loss, 10 draws) <2nd, 57.1% score>

Gelfand 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 (3 wins, 1 loss, 10 draws) <3rd, 57.1% score>

Leko 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 1 1/2 (2 wins, 2 losses, 10 draws) <4th, 50% score>

Svidler 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 (1 win, 2 losses, 11 draws) <5th, 46.4% score>

Morozevich 1/2 0 1 1/2 0 0 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 0 1 1 0 1/2 (3 wins, 5 losses, 6 draws) <6th, 42.9% score>

Aronian 1/2 0 1/2 1 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 0 0 1/2 0 (2 wins, 4 losses, 8 draws) <7th, 42.9% score>

Grischuk 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 0 0 1 0 1/2 0 1/2 0 (2 wins, 5 losses, 7 draws) <8th, 39.3% score>

★★★ OTHER LINKS ★★★

See also: World Championship Tournament (2007)

Head to Head Records Prior to 2007:

Anand - Kramnik: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (18 wins, 12 losses and 84 draws in favour of Anand)

Anand - Gelfand: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (14 wins, 5 losses and 38 draws in favour of Anand)

Anand - Leko: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (17 wins, 4 losses and 31 draws in favour of Anand)

Anand - Svidler: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (7 wins, 2 losses and 23 draws in favour of Anand)

Anand - Morozevich: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (7 wins, 7 losses and 8 draws for both players)

Anand - Aronian: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (1 win, 0 losses and 3 draws in favour of Anand)

Anand - Grischuk: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (5 wins, 3 losses and 7 draws in favour of Anand)

Kramnik - Gelfand: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (11 wins, 5 losses and 34 draws in favour of Kramnik)

Kramnik - Leko: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (10 wins, 7 losses and 55 draws in favour of Kramnik)

Kramnik - Svidler: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (10 wins, 6 losses and 15 draws in favour of Kramnik)

Kramnik - Morozevich: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (5 wins, 4 losses and 9 draws in favour of Morozevich)

Kramnik - Aronian: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (1 win, 0 losses and 2 draws in favour of Kramnik)

Kramnik - Grischuk: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (2 wins, 0 losses and 2 draws in favour of Kramnik)

Gelfand - Leko: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (7 wins, 2 losses and 19 draws of Gelfand)

Gelfand - Svidler: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (9 wins, 5 losses and 18 draws in favour of Svidler)

Gelfand - Morozevich: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (6 wins, 4 losses and 12 draws in favour of Morozevich)

Gelfand - Aronian: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (3 wins, 1 loss and 10 draws in favour of Gelfand)

Gelfand - Grischuk: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (5 wins, 3 losses and 12 draws in favour of Grischuk)

Leko - Svidler: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (8 wins, 3 losses and 21 draws in favour of Svidler)

Leko - Morozevich: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (7 wins, 5 losses and 14 draws in favour of Leko)

Leko - Aronian: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (2 wins, 1 loss and 4 draws in favour of Aronian)

Leko - Grischuk: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (2 wins, 2 losses and 9 draws for both players)

Svidler - Morozevich: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (6 wins, 5 losses and 7 draws in favour of Svidler)

Svidler - Aronian: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (3 wins, 2 losses and 5 draws in favour of Aronian)

Svidler - Grischuk: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (5 wins, 3 losses and 7 draws in favour of Svidler)

Morozevich - Aronian: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (3 wins, 1 loss and 0 draws in favour of Morozevich)

Morozevich - Grischuk: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (5 wins, 4 losses and 8 draws in favour of Morozevich)

Aronian - Grischuk: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... (2 wins, 1 loss and 3 draws in favour of Aronian)

Previous World Championship: Game Collection: 2006 World Chess Championship

Next World Championship: Game Collection: 2008 World Chess Championship