[5] He became an International Master in 1991 and the following year tied for first place with Ragim Gasimov and Vadim Zvjaginsev in the last USSR Junior Championship in Yurmala, scoring 8/11.

[11] Svidler also won the Linares Anibal Open, running alongside the invitational event and tied for first with four other players at the St Petersberg Chigorin Memorial.

[28] Svidler won the Torshavn Open in February 1997, half a point ahead of Ivan Sokolov with 7.5/9, and in March was sixth on tiebreak, with Vladimir Epishin and Valery Loginov scoring 5.5/9 in the St Petersburg Championship,[29][30] before slipping to eighth place with 5/11 at a closed event in the same city.

[32] His form continued into the Russian Championship (held as a knockout format) where he won his third title after a long match against Evgeny Bareev, decided after a third pair of tiebreak games.

[34] Svidler was a signatory of a letter published in September which protested the decision of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to change the format of the World Championship.

[35] At Fontys Tilburg in October 1997, Svidler's last round win against Alexander Onischuk enabled him to tie for first with Vladimir Kramnik and Kasparov, scoring 8/11.

[37] At the World Championship in December, Svidler defeated both Utut Adianto and Epishin 1.5–0.5, before taking Michael Adams to rapid tiebreaks in the third round,[38] where he would lose the last three games to crash out of the event.

[39] His successes over the past year saw him given fourth place in the Chess Oscars voting, ahead of Karpov but behind winner Anand, Kasparov and Kramnik.

[41] At Linares, supported by Nigel Short,[42] he showed he could compete at that level of competition with a solid 5.5/12,[43] then came second in Madrid with 5.5/9 in May, a point behind Viswanathan Anand.

[48][49] Svidler led Russia to gold at the 33rd Chess Olympiad, winning the event in the last round with a 3.5–0.5 defeat of the Netherlands, pushing the United States into silver.

[53][54] In a dip in form he lost five games in Linares to finish a disappointing seventh with 5.5/13,[55] then scored 3.5/9 for ninth on tiebreak at Dos Hermanas in April.

[64] he came third at the Ordix Open with 11.5/15,[65] scored 15/16 in a simul in Mainz and shared first scoring 6.5/9 with Mikhail Gurevich at July's North Sea Open,[66][67] Svidler dominated at Biel Chess Festival, finishing two points ahead of joint runners-up Loek van Wely and Ruslan Ponomariov, followed by Boris Gelfand, before his form collapsed with 3.5/9 at Polanica Zdroj, Rubinstein Memorial in August (Gelfand won).

[68][69] After tying for second place in the C group of the preliminary stage of the 1st FIDE World Cup, held in Shenyang, Svidler was eliminated after losing a sudden death tiebreak game against Movsesian.

[70] He won the Abihome rapid with 9.5/10 in October,[71] before joining Kramnik's team facing Kasparov at the Classical World Championship match in London.

[72] He scored 4.5/8 on board three for the gold-medallist Olympiad team in Istanbul,[73] then competed at the FIDE World Championship, eliminated in rapid tiebreaks by Michael Adams in the third round.

[81][82][83] Svidler reached the semifinals of the World Championship 2002, after defeating along the way Alejandro Hoffman, Sarunas Sulkis, Vadim Milov, Michael Adams and Boris Gelfand.

[97] In January 2003, Svidler finished second behind Giovanni Vescovi with 7.5/11 at the Bermuda A Group before tying for first at Aeroflot, the invitation to Dortmund going to tiebreak winner Victor Bologan.

[110] He lost to Alexei Shirov in the final of the Leon knockout 3.5-0.5,[111] 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.

[114] 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.

[125] At the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 held in San Luis, Argentina between September and October, Svidler placed shared second with Anand (third on number of wins tiebreak) scoring 8½/14 games, 1½ points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov.

[131][132] His form collapsed at Amber in March finishing last in the Rapid and sixth on tiebreak in the Blindfold,[133] and put in solid performances in Mtel Masters and Olympiad held in May.

[139] In October 2006 Svidler visited Kramnik during the World Championship match in Elista and released a joint open letter with Evgeny Bareev protesting against the handling of the controversy and calling for the dismissal of FIDE Vice-presidents Georgios Makropoulos and Zurab Azmaiparashvili, who sat on the Appeals Committee at the event.

[153] Svidler finished seventh in the inaugural FIDE Grand Prix event in Baku (invited as presidential nominee) between April–May with 6.5/13 and ninth on tiebreak with 5/11 at Aerosvit.

[159] He tied with Grischuk for third at the World Blitz Championship in November, played in the Dresden Chess Olympiad and ended the year with fourth place, scoring 4.5/10, at Nanjing's Pearl Spring event.

[160][161] Entering 2009, Svidler defeated Carlsen in the Aker Chess Challenge final[162] before winning the Gibraltar Masters after a play-off match against Milov, having tied on 8/10.

[167] Svidler defeated Karpov, Movsesian and Grischuk on the way to the ACP Rapid Cup final in May, losing to Gelfand 3–1, though he had decisive chances in two games.

[172][173] Soon after, he knocked Jean Hebert, Tomi Nyback, Arkadij Naiditsch[174] and Shirov before being eliminated by Vladimir Malakhov in the quarter finals of the Chess World Cup 2009.

[189] Svidler finished 12th at the Gibraltar Masters in January–February 2012, part of a 17-player group on 7/10,[190] then defeated David Navara 3–1 in a Cez Trophy match held in Prague in June.

[192][193] At the Russian Superfinal in August, Svidler shared first place with five other players on 5/9 after defeating Grischuk in the final round, leading to a play-off round-robin (25m+10s games).

Advantage switched between the players but eventually at the blitz time control (5 minutes + 2 seconds per move) Karjakin won both games to take the title.