scoring 7/9 and scored 5/8 for Russia winning the European Team Championship, ahead of Israel. At Cap d'Agde rapid in October, he won the qualifying Group A with 5/7. After beating Topalov, he lost a blitz playoff against Anand in the semi-finals. Svidler started 2004 fourth in the FIDE rankings and subsequently voted second in the Chess Oscar behind Anand, but slipped to ninth after tiebreak at Corus Group A scoring 6/13, then came seventh and fourth respectively in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid sections. He lost to Alexei Shirov in the final of the Leon knockout 3.5-0.5, scored 4/6 for the Rest of World against Armenia and came third at Dortmund after coming second in group A, losing to Kramnik after a long tiebreak semi-final but defeating Leko. He defended his Mainz Chess960 title in August against Aronian 4.5-3.5. He seconded Kramnik during his successful World Championship defence against Leko in September then played at the Olympiad in Calvia, winning team silver and scoring 6.5/9 on board two. He took sixth place on tiebreak at the Russian Championship in November. He ended the year with second on tiebreak at the Konstantin Aseev Memorial rapid and playing for third placed Russia in the Petrosian Internet Memorial. At Corus in January 2005, after a difficult start Svidler recovered to 11th with 6/13 before placing a solid fifth with 5/9 at Poikovsky. At Amber, he came seventh in both Rapid and Blindfold sections. In July, Svidler finished fifth on tiebreak at Dortmund after tying with Topalov, Bacrot and van Wely on 5/9. Russia disappointed at the European Team Championships in August, drifting to 14th. Svidler scored 5.5/8 for board one silver medal before successfully defending his Mainz Chess960 title against Zoltán Almási 5-3. World Championship 2005 At the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 held in San Luis, Argentina between September and October, Svidler placed shared second with Anand (third on number of wins tiebreak) scoring 8½/14 games, 1½ points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov. Alexander Motylev acted as his second. Shortly after the tournament Svidler said: "I only prepared seriously for San Luis, and I think it has paid off. But in general I spend most of my spare time with my wife and kids, so my relative success in 2005 was a pleasant surprise." Crushing China in the last round secured Svidler-led Russia gold at the World Team Championship. He came