With the recent World Chess Championship reunification match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov ending in victory for Kramnik, there was a lot talk that the post-1993 FIDE World Champions were not "real" champions. Karpov (1993-1999) is of course one of the greatest players ever, but was considered second-best to Kasparov and not the champ. After Karpov refused to defend his title in 1999, it was won by Alexander Khalifman, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, and Rustam Kasimdzhanov before being taken by Veselin Topalov. These are all top players, some stronger than others, but they were never regarded as "real" champions by most of the chess public.People forget that Rustam Kasimdzhanov, the 2003 FIDE World Champion, had to eliminate several of the best players in the world to get this honor, and that he is a very strong player, with a 2700+ rating.
Uzbekistan's greatest player helped his legacy a bit by winning the Corsica Masters rapid knockout tournament. 16 strong GMs competed, playing a set of two-game matches with tiebreaks if necessary. After the first round, 8 remained; 4 remained after the second round; and Kasimdzhanov and Viswanathan Anand—the undisputed best rapid player in the world for a decade. Anand had, in fact won this event five consecutive times: 2000-2004, before it was won by Vadim Milov of Switzerland last year.
Kasimdzhanov won the first game with Black, then held Anand to a draw in the second game to win the tournament. The total prize fund was 100,000 euros.
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