Short History of the World Chess Championships

(For match tables with all results and biographical data see below this introduction.)1866 - 1948 It is generally considered thatWilhelm Steinitz (Austria) became World Chess Champion in 1866 by defeating the German Adolf Anderssen. However, the first match in which both players agreed that the World Championship title was at stake was Steinitz-Zukertort, 1886. FIDE contests began in 1948.

Wilhelm Steinitz was the first official World Chess Champion. In 1886 he defeated Johannes Hermann Zukertort by 12,5-7,5 points, and he hold his title up to 1894. 

Emanuel Lasker (Germany) deprived Steinitz of his title and remained champion for 27 years - a unique record in the chess history. The next World Chess Champions were

José Raoul Capablanca (Cuba),

Alexander Alekhine (a Russian émigré living in France),

Max Euwe (Netherlands) and again Alekhine until to his death in 1946.


1948 - 1993

Since 1948 World Chess Federation FIDE started to organize the Championships. After Alekhine´s death the throne was vacant. Thus, there was a tournament with five top players where

Mikhail Botvinnik (USSR) became the winner. Since that time, the reigning Champion should defend his title in a match against a challenger. Botvinnik lost his title twice, but was also the only one to win it back twice, against

Vassily Smyslov and

 

Mikhail Tal. All World Chess Champions of that period 1948-1969 came from the Soviet Union.

1963 Tigran Petrosian took the title from Botvinnik and defended it 1966

to Boris Spassky, who defeated him 1969. In 1972,

Robert James Fischer (USA) broke through the dominance of the Soviet players by defeating Boris Spassky in Reykjavik. In 1975 Fischer refused to fight for his title, as he disagreed with FIDE about the regulations for the World Championships. Thus, his challenger

Anatoly Karpov was appointed as new Champion. Karpov - who played two times against Viktor Korchnoi and five times against Garry Kasparov - kept his title until November 1985.

1993 - 2006

In 1993 Kasparov refused to defend his title under the conditions provided by FIDE - and together with his challenger Nigel Short (England) the World Champion decided to leave FIDE by holding the Championship match under the auspices of his new founded "Professional Chess Association" (PCA). When Kasparov won the match against Short he retained the title "Classical World Champion". In 1995 he defended his crown against Viswanathan Anand (India) in the New York World Trade Center. Kasparov"s era ran out in 2000 when

Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) dethroned him. Kramnik, at that time 25 years old, became the 14th Classical World Chess Champion. He defended his title in 2004 versus Peter Leko (Hungaria) and in 2006 - the socalled unification match - against Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria). In spite of Kasparov"s boycott FIDE held its own world championship cycle in 1993-96, when Karpov defeatedGata Kamsky in the Final. Negotiations were held for a reunification match between Kasparov and Karpov in 1996-97, but nothing came of them. FIDE, meanwhile, scrapped the Interzonal and Candidates system, instead having a large knock-out event in 1998 in which a large number of players contested short matches against each other over just a few weeks. Very fast games were used to resolve ties at the end of each round, a format which some felt did not necessarily recognize the highest quality play: Kasparov refused to participate in these events, as did Kramnik after he won Kasparov"s title in 2000. In the first of these events, champion Karpov was seeded straight into the final, but subsequently the champion had to qualify like other players. Karpov defended his title in the first of these championships in 1998, but resigned his title in anger at the new rules in 1999. Alexander Khalifman took the title in 1999, Anand in 2000, Ruslan Ponomariov in 2002 and Rustam Kasimdzhanov won the event in 2004. By 2002, not only were there two rival champions, but Kasparov"s strong results - he had the top Elo rating in the world and had won a string of major tournaments after losing his title in 2000 - ensured even more confusion over who was World Champion. So in May 2002, American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan led the organisation of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunite the world championship. Kramnik had organised a candidates tournament (won later in 2002 by Peter Leko) to choose his challenger. So it was decided that Kasparov played the FIDE champion (Ponomariov) for the FIDE title, and the winners of the two titles played for a unified title. However, the matches proved difficult to finance and organise. The Kramnik-Leko match, now renamed the Classical World Chess Championship, did not take place until late 2004 (it was drawn, so Kramnik retained his title). Meanwhile, FIDE never managed to organise a Kasparov match, either with 2002 FIDE champion Ponomariov, or 2004 FIDE champion Kasimdzhanov. Partly due to his frustration at the situation, Kasparov retired from chess in 2005, still ranked #1 in the world. Soon after, FIDE dropped the short knockout format for World Championship and announced the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005, a double round robin tournament to be held in San Luis, Argentina between eight of the leading players in the world. However Kramnik insisted that his title be decided in a match, and declined to participate. The tournament was convincingly won by the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, and negotiations began for a Kramnik-Topalov match to unify the title. 2006 - 2012 Part of the unification plan between FIDE and Kramnik was the World Championship tournament in Mexico City in September 2007, where

Viswanathan Anand (India) became the reigning and undisputed World Champion. In October 2008, Anand defended his crown against Kramnik, who so far had been undefeated in his World Championship matches. Anand convincingly defended his title in 11 games with 6½?4½. The World Chess Championship 2010 took place in April and May 2010, whereAnand defeated 2005 FIDE champion Veselin Topalov (who defeated Chess World Cup 2007 winner Gata Kamsky in a match in February 2009 to determine Anand"s challenger) to defend the title for the second time. FIDE has announced that after that, there will be a championship cycle every two years, beginning with the World Chess Championship 2012. The first stage of 2012 qualification, the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2010, began in April 2008. The final stage of qualification ended in May 2011, with Boris Gelfand emerging as the winner of the Candidates Tournament and the right to challenge Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012. Unofficial World Champions (before 1886)

Name	Years	Country
François-André Danican Philido (*1726-1795†)	~1747-1795	France
Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (*1797-1840†) 1834: La Bourdonnais-McDonnell (+45 -27 =13)	~1820-1840	France
Howard Staunton (*1810-1874†) 1843: Staunton - Saint-Amant (+11 -6 =4) 1846: Staunton-Horwitz (+14 -7 =3)	1843-1851	England
Adolf Anderssen (*1818-1879†)	1851-1858 1862-1866	Germany
Paul Morphy (*1837-1884†) 1858: Morphy-Anderssen (+7 -2 =2)	1858-1862	USA
Wilhelm Steinitz (*1836-1900†) 1866: Steinitz-Anderssen (+8 -6 =0)	1866-1878	Austria

World Champions 1886-2008

	Name	Years	Country
1	Wilhelm Steinitz (*1836-1900†) 1886: Steinitz- Zukertort (+10 -5 =5) 1989: Steinitz-Chigorin (+10 -6 =1) 1890/91: Steinitz-Gunsberg (+6 -4 =9) 1992: Steinitz-Chigorin (+10 -8 =5)	1886-1894	Austria USA
2	Emanuel Lasker (*1868-1941†) 1894: Lasker-Steinitz (+10 -5 =4) 1896/97: Lasker-Steinitz (+10 -2 =5) 1907: Lasker-Marshall (+8 -0 =7) 1908: Lasker-Tarrasch (+8 -3 =5) 1910: Lasker-Schlechter (+1 -1 =8) 1910: Lasker-Janowski (+8 -0 =3)	1894-1921	Germany
3	José Raúl Capablanca (*1888-1942†) 1921: Capablanca-Lasker (+4 -0 =10)	1921-1927	Cuba
4	Alexander Alekhine (*1892-1946†) 1927: Alekhine-Capablanca (+6 -3 =25) 1929: Alekhine-Bogoljubow (+11 -5 =9) 1934: Alekhine-Bogoljubow (+8 -3 =15) 1937: Alekhine-Euwe (+10 -4 =11)	1927-1935 1937-1946	France (Russian emigrant)
5	Magchielis (Max) Euwe (*1901-1981†) 1935: Euwe-Alekhine (+9 -8 =13)	1935-1937	Netherlands
6	Mikhail Botvinnik (*1911-1995†) 1948: Winner of FIDE WCC Tournament (5 players) 1951: Botvinnik-Bronstein (+5 -5 =14) 1954: Botvinnik-Smyslov (+7 -7 =10) 1958: Botvinnik-Smyslov (+7 -5 =11) 1961: Botvinnik-Tal (+10 -5 =6)	1948-1957 1958-1960 1961-1963	Soviet Union Russian SFSR
7	Vasily Smyslov (*1921) 1957: Smyslov-Botvinnik (+6 -3 =13)	1957-1958	Soviet Union
8	Mikhail Tal (*1936-1992†) 1960: Tal-Botvinnik (+6 -2 =13)	1960-1961	Soviet Union Latvian SSR
9	Tigran Petrosian (*1929-1984†) 1963: Petrosian-Botvinnik (+5 -2 =15) 1966: Petrosian- Spassky (+4 -3 =17)	1963-1969	Soviet Union Armeniam SSR
10	Boris Spassky (*1937) 1969: Spassky-Petrosian (+6 -4 =13)	1969-1972	Soviet Union Russian SFSR
11	Robert J. Fischer (*1943-2008†) 1972: Fischer-Spassky(+7 -3 =11)	1972-1975	USA
12	Anatoly Karpov (*1951) 1975: Karpov-Fischer (by default) 1978: Karpov-Korchnoi (+6 -5 =21) 1981: Karpov-Korchnoi (+6 -2 =10) 1984/85: Karpov-Kasparov (+5 -3 =40) (aborted)	1975-1985	Soviet Union Russian SFSR
13	Garry Kasparov (*1963) 1985: Kasparov-Karpov (+5 -3 =16) 1986: Kasparov-Karpov (+5 -4 =15) 1987: Kasparov-Karpov (+4 -4 =16) 1990: Kasparov-Karpov (+4 -3 =17) 1993: Kasparov-Short (+6 -1 =13) 1995: Kasparov-Anand (+4 -1 =13)	1985-1993 1993-2000	Soviet Union Azerbaijan SSR Russian SFSR / Russia
14	Vladimir Kramnik (*1975) 2000: Kramnik-Kasparov (+2 -0 =13) 2004: Kramnik-Lékó (+2 -2 =10) 2006: Kramnik-Topalov (+3 -3 =6) Kramnik wins after tie-break	2000-2007	Russia
15	Viswanathan Anand (*1969) 2007: Winner of FIDE WCC Tournament (8 players) 2008: Anand-Kramnik (+3 -1 =7) 2010: Anand-Topalov (+3 -2 =7)	2007-	India

World Champions by number of title match victories

(source: wikipedia) The table below organises the world champions in order of championship wins, and is current through the World Chess Championship 2012. (For the purpose of this table, a successful defence counts as a win, even if the match was drawn.) The table is made more complicated by the split between the "Classical" and FIDE world titles between 1993 and 2006.