At Fontys Tilburg in October 1997, Svidler's last round win against Alexander Onischuk enabled him to tie for first with Vladimir Kramnik and Kasparov, scoring 8/11. He also defeated an overly ambitious Kasparov - who had started with 5.5/6 - in their individual game. This results propelled him to 9th in the PCA rankings. In October at the World Team Championship in Lucerne, Svidler claimed board two gold with 4.5/7 for the gold medallists Russia. At the World Championship in December, Svidler defeated both Utut Adianto and Epishin 1.5-0.5, before taking Michael Adams to rapid tiebreaks in the third round, where he would lose the last three games to crash out of the event. His successes over the past year saw him given fourth place in the Chess Oscars voting, ahead of Karpov but behind winner Anand, Kasparov and Kramnik.