The top ten finishers qualified for the candidates matches of the World Chess Championship 2007.

One of them (Étienne Bacrot) had already qualified for the candidates matches via rating, freeing the place for the eleventh player at the World Cup (Vladimir Malakhov).

Three of the players at the World Cup, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand, were successful in the Candidates and qualified for the World Championship tournament, which was held as an eight-player double round-robin event, with Gelfand finishing third.

The tournament was in the style of the FIDE World Chess Championships between 1998 and 2004: each round consisted of a two-game match, followed by tie breaks at faster time controls if required.

Note: 7th seed Akopian did not show up for his first round match against Lane and lost on forfeit.