Without the sponsorship of the PCA, Kasparov found he was unable to organise a series of qualifying matches to choose a challenger.

Eventually in 1998, he announced that, based on their ratings and results, Anand and Vladimir Kramnik were clearly the next two best players in the world, and that they would play a match to decide who would challenge for Kasparov's title.

[8] Shirov was chosen because he was next in the PCA rating list,[9][10] and because of his strong performance at the Linares 1998 super tournament.

[20] This time negotiations were successful, and the company Braingames was formed to finance a Kasparov-Kramnik match in October 2000.

[21] However, most supporters of Kasparov's title believe that, despite the unsatisfactory way in which a challenger was chosen, nevertheless the winner of this match would be the true World Champion.

[26] Yasser Seirawan remarked that he had no explanation for the result except that Kramnik played the best chess of his life, and also that he personally knew that Kasparov was going through a divorce which might have affected his game.

[28] Kramnik defended his title in the Classical World Chess Championship 2004 against Peter Leko.