Svidler placed tenth on tiebreak at the World Blitz Cup with 16.5/22 in January 2000, came third on tiebreak at the Wydra Rapidplay with 9/14, before being beaten by Jeroen Piket 1.5-0.5 in the semi-final of the Kasparovchess Grand Prix. he came third at the Ordix Open with 11.5/15, scored 15/16 in a simul in Mainz and shared first scoring 6.5/9 with Mikhail Gurevich at July's North Sea Open, Svidler dominated at Biel Chess Festival, finishing two points ahead of joint runners-up Loek van Wely and Ruslan Ponomariov, followed by Boris Gelfand, before his form collapsed with 3.5/9 at Polanica Zdroj, Rubinstein Memorial in August (Gelfand won). After tying for second place in the C group of the preliminary stage of the 1st FIDE World Cup, held in Shenyang, Svidler was eliminated after losing a sudden death tiebreak game against Movsesian. He won the Abihome rapid with 9.5/10 in October, before joining Kramnik's team facing Kasparov at the Classical World Championship match in London. He scored 4.5/8 on board three for the gold-medallist Olympiad team in Istanbul, then competed at the FIDE World Championship, eliminated in rapid tiebreaks by Michael Adams in the third round. He finished second with 4.5/7 at December's Keres Memorial Rapid, a point behind Jan Timman.