Chess World Cup 2005

The 2005 World Cup was part of the cycle for the World Chess Championship 2007. The top ten finishers qualified for the 2007 Candidates tournament. However third-placed Étienne Bacrot had already qualified for the Candidates by rating, so eleventh-placed Vladimir Malakhov also qualified.

Three of the players at the World Cup, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand, were successful in the Candidates and qualified for the World Championship tournament, which was held as an eight-player double round-robin event, with Gelfand finishing third.

The four top finishers of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 (Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich) were already invited to the World Championship 2007 and thus exempt from the World Cup.

The tournament was in the style of the FIDE World Chess Championships between 1998 and 2004: each round consisted of a two-game match, followed by tie breaks at faster time controls if required. In rounds 1–3 losing players were eliminated. However, in rounds 4–6 defeated players progressed to the next round, to determine standings of the 16 best players.

The time control for regular games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds added after each move. Tie breaks consisted of two rapid chess games (25 minutes each + 10 seconds per move); followed by two blitz games if required (5 minutes + 10 seconds per move); followed by a single Armageddon chess game if required (white has 6 minutes and must win, black has 5 minutes and only needs to draw).

The following players qualified for the World Cup:

• Three of the four semi-finalists of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 (Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Michael Adams and Teimour Radjabov); the fourth semi-finalist, Veselin Topalov, was the reigning FIDE World Champion and already had a berth in the next championship.
• Women's World Champion 2004 (Antoaneta Stefanova).
• Junior World Champion 2004 (Pendyala Harikrishna).
• 22 players with the highest Elo rating. The average ratings from July 2004 and January 2005 were used.
• 90 players qualified from the continental and zonal championships:
  • 46 players from Europe,
  • 19 players from the Americas,
  • 19 players from Asia and Oceania,
  • 6 players from Africa.
• 8 nominees of the FIDE President.
• 3 nominees of the local Organising Committee.

All players are Grandmasters unless indicated otherwise.

Note: 7th seed Akopian did not show up for his first round match against Lane and lost on forfeit.

The top 11 qualified for the 2007 Candidates Tournament.

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals (best of 2)					Final (best of 2)
	5	Boris Gelfand	2
	4	Alexander Grischuk	4
						4	Alexander Grischuk	1
						9	Ruslan Ponomariov	3
	17	Evgeny Bareev	½
	9	Ruslan Ponomariov	1½
											9	Ruslan Ponomariov	1
											3	Levon Aronian	3
	39	Sergei Rublevsky	½
	2	Étienne Bacrot	1½
						2	Étienne Bacrot	½
						3	Levon Aronian	1½
	3	Levon Aronian	1½
	38	Mikhail Gurevich	½

The losers in rounds 4-6 played further mini matches to establish the places 3–16.

• Official site
• World Cup 2005 regulations