Akopian as black entered the sixth game trailing by one point and therefore had to throw caution to the winds because if he failed to win this game, the match would be over.

Sam Sloan interviews Grandmaster Alexander Khalifman immediately after Khalifman won the World Chess Championship Photo by Grandmaster Amador Rodriguez

Accordingly, Akopian played the risky Benoni Opening. Khalifman cooperated by playing sharp moves even though as he acknowledged at the press conference after the match he could have avoided complications and played simple dull moves trying to head for a draw.

Indeed, Akopian essayed a theoretical novelty by playing an unusual queen move on move 13, and shortly thereafter Khalifman offered to sacrifice a pawn.

Taking the pawn would have exposed his king to threats, so Akopian did not take it but instead brought his queen to the center, complicating the game.

Most commentators agreed that objectively this gave White the advantage but at the same time was beneficial for Black because the resulting complications gave Black good chances to win.

At the press conference after the match, Khalifman said that he had just decided to play a regular game but when he saw a variation which led to a clear draw he said "Enough is enough", and headed for the draw, which he got.

The draw left Khalifman the match victor by a score of 3.5 - 2.5.

Khalifman said at the press conference that he is an amateur and not a chess professional. He will devote his primary efforts to his grandmaster chess school in St. Petersburg, Russia, which is online at http://www.gmchess.spb.ru/ .

This Knockout tournament for the World Championship started with 100 players. Akopian and Khalifman reached the finals after all other of the 100 players were eliminated.

Here is the final game of the match.

[Event "FIDE World Chess Championship"]
[Site "Las Vegas USA"]
[Date "1999.08.28"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Khalifman,Alexander"]
[Black "Akopian,Vladimir"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Opening "Queen's pawn game"]
[ECO "E10"]
[NIC "BI.03"]
[Time "17:29:18"]
[TimeControl "6000+30"]


1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. Nc3 a6 7. a4 g6 8. Nd2
Nbd7 9. e4 Bg7 10. Be2 O-O 11. O-O Re8 12. Qc2 Rb8 13. Ra3 Qe7 14. h3 h6 15.
a5 g5 16. Nc4 Ne5 17. Nxe5 Qxe5 18. f4 Qd4+ 19. Kh2 b5 20. axb6 Rxb6 21. e5
dxe5 22. fxg5 hxg5 23. Bxg5 e4 24. Na4 Rd6 25. Rg3 Nxd5 26. Bh5 Rf8 27. Nc3
Kh8 28. Rxf7 Rxf7 29. Bxf7 Be5 30. Nxd5 Rxd5 31. Bxd5 Qxd5 32. Qd2 Qxd2 33.
Bxd2 Kh7 34. Bc3 Bf4 35. Be1 e3 36. Kg1 Bxg3 37. Bxg3 a5 38. Bf4 e2 39. Kf2
Bb7 40. Kxe2 Bxg2 {Game drawn by mutual agreement} 1/2-1/2

• Press conference given by Alexander Khaliman after winning the match (Photos include Sam Sloan in the corner behind and to the left of Khalifman).
• All the Games from the FIDE World Championship in PGN
• Last Batch of Checks from FIDE World Chess Championship may be bouncing
• Combined rating lists for July, 1999
• Khalifman wins first game of World Chess Championship match
• Khalifman and Akopian draw second game of World Chess Championship
• Akopian wins fantastic endgame against Khalifman in game 3
• Khalifman wins game 4 of World Chess Championship match
• Khalifman holds draw in game 5 in another long endgame
• Alexei Shirov's gambling style fails him in the long run
• Kasparov - Anand match for the World Chess Championship will not be held this year
• Xie Jun defeats Galliamova in match for Woman's World Chess Championship
• FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov takes the Hard Line
• Emmanuel Omuku, Executive Director of FIDE
• Commentary by Yasser Seirawan and Inside Chess
• Khalifman's Grandmaster Chess School
• Marina Makarytcheva - NTV-Plus Sport from Russia
• CHESSDON by Don Schultz is out
• World Chess Championship Las Vegas player information and photographs
• Las Vegas Review-Journal - Russian edges closer to chess championship
• Las Vegas Sun Editorial - Editorial: Chess tries reining in game's bad boys
• Las Vegas Sun - Two battle for chess crown at Caesars as the grand game makes a move -- toward a new image
• Washington Post - Crapshoot in Vegas - World Chess Championship Gets Lost in the Neon Glow
• Annotations from the Internet Chess Club
• Annotations from Club Kasparov
• Olé web site
• Grandmaster Becerra of Cuba defects
• Hikaru Nakamura, age 11, defeats Grandmaster Alejandro Hoffman in US Open
• Ken Horne, Las Vegas chess organizer, dies in Airplane Crash
• Zaremba and Winer win Denker Tournament of High School Champions
• Gufeld's Greatest Games from the 1999 US Open Chess Championship
• US Open 1999 website
• Denker Tournament of High School Champions Results
• Spanish chess web site
• Karen Birkedahl, 17, Sensation of the 1999 US Open Chess Championship
• Votes for and against OMOV at the 1999 Reno USCF meeting
• World Chess Rating Lists
• World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer Interviewed over the Radio
• Maurice Ashley makes The New York Times
• Hikaru Nakamura makes master at 10 years, 2 months