Garry Kasparov, the defending champion, played Viswanathan Anand, the challenger, in a twenty-game match.

The PCA ran a world championship cycle similar in format to that in use by FIDE at the time.

A number of leading players did not participate, most notably FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov.

The events were held at a similar time as the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996, with many of the same players playing in both.

[2] The top seven from the Qualifying tournament were joined by Nigel Short, the loser of the 1993 PCA championship match against Kasparov.

Kasparov hit back immediately in game 10, with a novelty in the Ruy Lopez Open Defence.