El-Gindy's success at the African Chess Championship of 2003 earned him a spot in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, losing in the first round to Aleksej Aleksandrov -. He qualified for the Chess World Cup six times via the African Championships. His third place on tiebreak in 2007 secured a place at the Chess World Cup 2007 where he scored an upset win in the first round against former FIDE World Champion and eventual quarter-finalist Ruslan Ponomariov, but he went on to lose the match after rapid tiebreaks -. A fourth-place finish in 2009 saw him qualify for the Chess World Cup 2009, going out in the first round to Ponomariov -.