Format
The format was a knockout tournament of short matches. This was similar in style to that used at the FIDE World Chess Championship 1998, and had the same advantages and disadvantages - see FIDE World Chess Championship 1998#Controversies.
A change from the 1998 championship was that incumbent champion (Anatoly Karpov) had no special privileges, other than that he (like a number of leading players) was seeded into the second round. In protest at this, Karpov refused to play.
Read more about this topic: FIDE World Chess Championship 1999