World Championship Candidate
Adams has performed strongly in a number of World Chess Championship tournaments.
In 1993 he finished equal first (with Viswanathan Anand) in the Groningen Interzonal tournament to determine challengers for the PCA World Chess Championship 1995. This took him to the Candidates Tournament matches, where he beat Sergei Tiviakov in the quarter finals, but lost to Anand in the semifinals.
He also qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996, losing to Boris Gelfand in the first round of matches.
In 1997, he took part in the 1997-1998 FIDE World Championship, which, for the first time, was a large knockout event, the winner of which would play a match against reigning champion Anatoly Karpov. This tournament included most of the world's top players (Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Gata Kamsky were the only notable absentees), and Adams won short matches against Tamaz Giorgadze, Sergei Tiviakov, Peter Svidler, Loek van Wely and Nigel Short, before coming up against Anand in the final round. Their four games at normal time controls were all drawn, as were four rapidplay games at quicker time limits, before Anand won the sudden-death game, thereby eliminating Adams from the competition.
The 1999 FIDE World Championship resulted in another semifinal finish for Adams, before losing to Vladimir Akopian. Yet again, he reached the semifinals of the 2000 FIDE World Championship before losing to eventual winner Anand. In the 2002 FIDE World Championship he won his first three rounds before being knocked out in the 'round of 16' by Peter Svidler.
Adams came closest to claiming a world title at the 2004 FIDE Championship, when he reached the final, winning matches against Hussein Asabri, Karen Asrian, Hichem Hamdouchi, Hikaru Nakamura, Vladimir Akopian and Teimour Radjabov. However, he lost to Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the final (3½–4½ after rapidplay tie-breaks, the match having been tied 3–3 after the six standard games).
As runner-up in the 2004 event, Adams was one of eight players invited to the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. He finished in equal sixth–seventh place, with a score of 5½ out of 14.
In May–June 2007, Adams participated in the Candidates Tournament to qualify for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. In the first round he drew 3–3 with Alexey Shirov, and was beaten 2½–½ in the rapidplay playoff.
Read more about this topic: Michael Adams (chess Player)
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