Svidler started 2004 fourth in the FIDE rankings and subsequently voted second in the Chess Oscar behind Anand, but slipped to ninth after tiebreak at Corus Group A scoring 6/13, then came seventh and fourth respectively in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid sections. He lost to Alexei Shirov in the final of the Leon knockout 3.5-0.5, scored 4/6 for the Rest of World against Armenia and came third at Dortmund after coming second in group A, losing to Kramnik after a long tiebreak semi-final but defeating Leko. He defended his Mainz Chess960 title in August against Aronian 4.5-3.5. He seconded Kramnik during his successful World Championship defence against Leko in September then played at the Olympiad in Calvia, winning team silver and scoring 6.5/9 on board two. He took sixth place on tiebreak at the Russian Championship in November. He ended the year with second on tiebreak at the Konstantin Aseev Memorial rapid and playing for third placed Russia in the Petrosian Internet Memorial.