Russian Championship behind Morozevich with 7.5/11. Svidler led Russia to gold at the 33rd Chess Olympiad, winning the event in the last round with a 3.5-0.5 defeat of the Netherlands, pushing the United States into silver. Soon after he finished eighth at Tilburg with 5/11, then came third at the Wydra Memorial Rapid, well behind Anand and Judit Polgar. In January 1999 Svidler tied for sixth with 6.5/13 in the blitz and 6.5/13 for ninth place in the Group A main event at Hoogovens. In a dip in form he lost five games in Linares to finish a disappointing seventh with 5.5/13, then scored 3.5/9 for ninth on tiebreak at Dos Hermanas in April. In early June, Nigel Short introduced Svidler to cricket, a sport for which Svidler is an avid fan, supporting England. At Frankfurt in June–July, Svidler came fourth in the West Masters with 7.5/14 and fifteenth on tiebreak in the Ordix Open (both rapid events). Seeded to round two, he defeated Alexej Alexandrov 1.5-0.5 but lost to Kiril Georgiev by the same score. In November, he drew an internet rapid match with Morozevich 1-1. Svidler rounded off his year with third place at the St. Petersburg Blitz Championship. Svidler placed tenth on tiebreak at the World Blitz Cup with 16.5/22 in January 2000, came third on tiebreak at the Wydra Rapidplay with 9/14, before being beaten by Jeroen Piket 1.5-0.5 in the semi-final of the Kasparovchess Grand Prix. he came third at the Ordix Open with 11.5/15, scored 15/16 in a simul in Mainz and shared first scoring 6.5/9 with Mikhail Gurevich at July's North Sea Open, Svidler dominated at Biel Chess Festival, finishing two points ahead of joint runners-up Loek van Wely and Ruslan Ponomariov, followed by Boris Gelfand, before his form collapsed with 3.5/9 at Polanica Zdroj, Rubinstein Memorial in August (Gelfand won). After tying for second place in the C group of the preliminary stage of the 1st FIDE World Cup, held in Shenyang, Svidler was eliminated after losing a sudden death tiebreak game against Movsesian. He won the Abihome rapid with 9.5/10 in October, before joining Kramnik's team facing Kasparov at the Classical World Championship match in London. He scored 4.5/8 on board three for the gold-medallist Olympiad team in Istanbul, then competed at the FIDE World Championship, eliminated in rapid tiebreaks by Michael Adams in the third round. He finished second with