The people behind the game
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Won the knockout in Tripoli.
- Born
- 1979
- Country connections
- Uzbekistan
At the board
The games. The ideas.
Explore classic encounters and championship battles. Play every move, or jump straight to the moments that tell the story.
2004 · FIDE world championship · Final · rapid tie-break 1
The rapid breakthrough
The first rapid tie-break game in the 2004 FIDE final. Kasimdzhanov converts an active rook-and-knight ending.
Read the position
Every move sets the scene.
Use the controls to explore the full game, or select an annotated moment below. Each explanation describes the position immediately after its highlighted move.
Complete move list 60 moves
The journey
A remarkable path.
Kasimdzhanov won the Asian championship in 1998 before becoming FIDE world champion in 2004. He subsequently worked as a second for Anand in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 world championship matches and coached other leading players. [1]
Explore the championship record →The championship record
Time with the crown.
- 2004–2005FIDE world championship · split era
Reigns are periods of title ownership, not a count of championship victories. Open-ended reigns reflect the record checked on 18 October 2026.
Sources & credits
Biographical details and title records checked . Country connections describe the player’s career and background, rather than a live federation listing.
Portrait: TheBoburshokh · CC BY 4.0. Displayed in monochrome and cropped.
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