Prominent Non-participants
Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov were ineligible to participate, due to special privileges they already have in the 2008–2009 World Championship cycle.
All other leading players, including world champion Viswanathan Anand, were eligible to participate. However Anand, who is already seeded into the 2008–2009 cycle, elected not to play.
Three other players who had recently competed in the World Chess Championship 2007 in Mexico - Péter Lékó, Aleksandr Morozevich and Boris Gelfand - elected not to play. Lékó and Morozevich refused to take part as a form of protest against the special privileges given for the inclusion of Kramnik and Topalov in the World Chess Championship Cycle.
The only other player from the Top 30 who did not participate was Judit Polgár.
Read more about this topic: Chess World Cup 2007
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