December 2000, 10 December 2000 (tiebreaks on 11 December 2000) Round 6: 12 December 2000 – 15 December 2000 (tiebreaks on 16 December 2000) Round 7: 20 December 2000 – 26 December 2000, with a rest day on 23 December 2000 (tiebreaks on 27 December 2000) Results, rounds 1–4 Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Section 8 Results, rounds 5–7 Championship final The final match of the FIDE World Championship featured Viswanathan Anand, the pre-tournament favorite and No. 1 seed, and Alexei Shirov, who had previously been denied a chance to challenge Garry Kasparov for the Classical World Championship despite winning a candidates' match two years earlier. After an uneventful 34-move draw in Game 1, the two players exchanged pieces quickly in Game 2, leading to a relatively even rook-and-pawn endgame after 30 moves. But Shirov gave Anand an opening with 47... Ke5?, allowing the latter to preserve two passed pawns and turn them into a winning advantage. Anand would strike again in the third game – with Shirov on the attack, Anand held a strong defensive position until 27... Qg5! followed by 28. Qf3?! from Shirov gave him a solid advantage. In the decisive Game 4, Shirov played a sharp attacking game, knowing a victory was required to stay in contention for the championship. But he faltered with 19... Qf6?, missing a sound queen sacrifice that would have led to an equal endgame with winning opportunities (19... Qxe2 20. Bxe2 Bf2 21. Rh1 e5) and followed with 20... Qxc3?, leaving his h-file bishop hanging. Anand was able to translate the resulting advantage into a winning position. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+FIDE World Chess Championship Final 2000 |- ! !! Rating !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! Points |- | align=left | || 2746 | ½ ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 0 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || ½ |- | align=left | || 2774 |style="background:black; color:white"| ½ || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 1 || 1 || 3½ |} References External links World Chess Championship, 2000 FIDE Knockout Matches 2000 FIDE 2000 in chess Chess Chess 2000 in Indian sport 2000 in Iranian sport 2000s in Delhi 20th century in Tehran Chess in India Chess in Iran