in the quarter finals of the Chess World Cup 2009. He finished second behind Grischuk at the year-ending Russian Superfinal scoring 6/9. 2010 was a much quieter year for Svidler with eighth place at Amber (5.5/11 Blindfold, 6/11 Rapid). At the Astrakhan Grand Prix held in May, Svidler came 11th with 6/13. He won matches against Peter Heine Nielsen, 4.5-1.5 at rapid, 7-3 blitz (1.b3 the starting position), then drew 5-5 at regular blitz as part of the Politiken Cup in August. He scored 5.5/10 for the losing "Experienced" team at NH Chess Tournament, then led Russia to team silver at the Chess Olympiad. In November, Svidler finished ninth in the World Blitz Championship with 19.5/38. Svidler ended the year with fourth place on tiebreak in the Russian Superfinal. Svidler came eighth on tiebreak at the European Individual Championship in March 2011 with 8/11, half a point behind winner Vladimir Potkin. At the World Team Championships in July Russia slipped to fourth place after losing to India in the last round, Svidler losing to Surya Shekhar Ganguly on board three. In a shortened Russian Championship in August Svidler won his sixth title with 5/7, though he lost his last game against Morozevich. World Cup 2011 winner At the Chess World Cup held in September in Khanty-Mansiysk, Svidler beat Darcy Lima 1.5-0.5, Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen 4-2 after blitz tiebreaks, Fabiano Caruana 4-2 after rapid tiebreaks, Kamsky 2-0 then Judit Polgar 1.5-0.5 to reach the semi-finals. After avenging his 2001 World Championship loss against Ponomariov 1.5-0.5, he defeated Grischuk in the final 2.5-1.5 to claim the World Cup title. Svidler struggled at the European Team Championships in November, scoring 3.5/8 as Russia finished fifth. He came seventh in the Tal Memorial with 4,5/9. Svidler finished 12th at the Gibraltar Masters in January–February 2012, part of a 17-player group on 7/10, then defeated David Navara 3-1 in a Cez Trophy match held in Prague in June. In July's World Rapid and Blitz Championships held in Astana, Svidler finished eighth in both sections scoring 7.5/15 and 15/30 respectively. At the Russian Superfinal in August, Svidler shared first place with five other players on 5/9 after defeating Grischuk in the final round, leading to a play-off round-robin (25m+10s games). He placed third, behind winner Dmitry Andreikin and Karjakin. In October he was pipped to first place at the St Petersburg Rapid Cup by Lenier