He came second (with Viswanathan Anand) in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis with 8.5 points out of 14 games, lagging 1.5 points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov. In an interview given for World Chess Network he said: "I only prepared seriously for San Luis, and I think it has paid off. But in general I spend most of my spare time with my wife and kids, so my relative success in 2005 was a pleasant surprise". His San Luis result earned him direct entry to the World Chess Championship series of 2007. In that tournament he scored 6.5 out of 14, placing 5th out of eight players.