In 1999, Nisipeanu as a clear outsider made it to the semifinals of the
FIDE World Chess Championship by beating
Vasily Ivanchuk in round 4 and
Alexei Shirov in the quarterfinals only to succumb to the eventual champion
Alexander Khalifman. Nisipeanu won the
European Individual Chess Championship 2005 in
Warsaw with 10 points out of 13 games, half a point ahead of runner-up
Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan. In April 2006, Nisipeanu played FIDE World Champion
Veselin Topalov in a four-game match. Topalov won by a score of 3:1. The match was not for any official title. In April 2014, Nisipeanu started playing under the German flag. In April 2023, Nisipeanu returned to playing under the Romanian flag. ==Notable chess games==