Three teams could have dreamt of 2000 championship: Sankt Petersburg with their new sponsor Lentransgaz company, Siberia Tomsk and University Maykop. The latter though were dropped out in round 4 as they lost to Tomsk 1-5. Sankt Petersburg had some delay at the start as they scored two unsatisfactory 3½-2½'s vs relatively poor teams from Nizhny Tagil and Voronez; but later recovered. In 8th round they won key match vs Tomsk 4-2, thanks to victories of Svidler and Ivanov; with one day to go both teams were tied at 42 points and Sankt Petersburg having superior tie-break. Sankt Petersburg had much weaker opposition but they only managed to win 4-2. Siberia Tomsk made their best to beat Phoenix Moscow with the same 4-2 but that wasn't ample to take the win. Maykop took fortunate third edging out Phoenix Moscow at the last possible moment. Peter Svidler took gold at top board scoring 7½/9.