Early champions (pre-1886) Before 1851 and
Pierre Saint-Amant, on 16 December 1843 The game of chess in its modern form emerged in Spain in the 15th century, though rule variations persisted until the late 19th century. Before
Wilhelm Steinitz and
Johannes Zukertort in the late 19th century, no chess player seriously claimed to be champion of the world. The phrase was used by some chess writers to describe other players of their day, and the status of being the best at the time has sometimes been awarded in retrospect, going back to the early 17th-century Italian player
Gioachino Greco (the first player where complete games survive). Philidor wrote an extremely successful chess book (
Analyse du jeu des Échecs) and gave public demonstrations of his blindfold chess skills. However, some of Philidor's contemporaries were not convinced by the analysis Philidor gave in his book (e.g. the
Modenese Masters), and some more recent authors have echoed these doubts. In the early 19th century, it was generally considered that the French player
Alexandre Deschapelles was the strongest player of the time, though three games between him and the English player
William Lewis in 1821 suggests that they were on par. After Deschapelles and Lewis withdrew from play, the strongest players competing in France and Britain respectively were recognised as
Louis de la Bourdonnais and
Alexander McDonnell. La Bourdonnais visited England in 1825, where he played many games against Lewis and won most of them, and defeated all the other English masters despite offering
handicaps. He and McDonnell contested
a long series of matches in 1834. These were the first to be adequately reported, and they somewhat resemble the later world championship matches. Approximately 85 games (the true number is up for historical debate) were played, with La Bourdonnais winning a majority of the games. In 1839,
George Walker wrote "The sceptre of chess, in Europe, has been for the last century, at least, wielded by a Gallic dynasty. It has passed from
Legalle [Philidor's teacher, whom Philidor regarded as being a player equal to himself, according to Deschapelles] to La Bourdonnais, through the grasp, successively, of Philidor, Bernard, Carlier [two members of
La Société des Amateurs], and Deschapelles". In 1840, a columnist in ''
Fraser's Magazine'' (who was probably Walker) wrote, "Will Gaul continue the dynasty by placing a fourth Frenchman on the throne of the world? the three last chess chiefs having been successively Philidor, Deschapelles, and De La Bourdonnais." After La Bourdonnais' death in December 1840, Englishman
Howard Staunton's match victory over another Frenchman,
Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, in 1843 is considered to have established Staunton as the world's strongest player, The earliest recorded use of the term "World Champion" was in 1845, when Staunton was described as "the Chess Champion of England, or ... the Champion of the World".
From 1851 to 1886 An important milestone was the
London 1851 chess tournament, which was the first international chess tournament, organised by Staunton. It was played as a series of matches, and was won convincingly by the German
Adolf Anderssen, including a 4–1 semi-final win over Staunton. This established Anderssen as the world's leading player. In 1893,
Henry Bird retrospectively awarded the title of first world chess champion to Anderssen for his victory, but there is no evidence that he was widely acclaimed as such at the time, and no mention of such a status afterwards in the tournament book by Staunton. Indeed, Staunton's tournament book calls Anderssen "after
Heydebrand der Laza [Tassilo von der Lasa, another of the Berlin Pleiades], the best player of Germany": von der Lasa was unable to attend the 1851 tournament, though he was invited. In 1851, Anderssen lost a match to von der Lasa; Von der Lasa did not compete in tournaments or formal matches because of the demands of his diplomatic career, but his games show that he was one of the world's best then: he won series of games against Staunton in 1844 and 1853. Anderssen was himself decisively beaten in an 1858 match against the American
Paul Morphy (7–2, 2 draws). In 1858–59 Morphy played matches against several leading players, beating them all. This prompted some commentators at the time to call him the world champion: Gabriel-Éloy Doazan, who knew Morphy, wrote that "one can and...must place [him] in the same bracket" as Deschapelles and La Bourdonnais, who Doazan had played years before, and that "his superiority is as obvious as theirs". But when Morphy returned to America in 1859, he abruptly retired from chess, though many considered him the world champion until his death in 1884. His sudden withdrawal from chess at his peak led to his being known as "the pride and sorrow of chess". After Morphy's retirement from chess, Anderssen was again regarded as the world's strongest active player, a reputation he reinforced by winning the strong
London 1862 chess tournament. Anderssen narrowly won a match against Kolisch in 1861, and drew against Paulsen in 1862. and he again placed second at the
Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament, which was the strongest that had been held to date (Anderssen came first, and won twice against Steinitz). Steinitz confirmed his standing as the world's leading player by winning the London 1872 tournament, winning a match against
Johannes Zukertort in 1872 (7–1, 4 draws), winning the
Vienna 1873 chess tournament and decisively winning a match over
Joseph Henry Blackburne 7–0 (0 draws) in 1876. Apart from the Blackburne match, Steinitz played no competitive chess between the
Vienna 1873 chess tournament and
Vienna 1882 chess tournament. During that time, Zukertort emerged as the world's leading active player, winning the
Paris 1878 chess tournament. Zukertort then won the
London 1883 chess tournament by a convincing 3-point margin, ahead of nearly every leading player in the world, with Steinitz finishing second. This tournament established Steinitz and Zukertort as the best two players in the world, and led to a match between these two, the
World Chess Championship 1886, won by Steinitz. There is some debate over whether to date Steinitz's reign as world champion from his win over Anderssen in 1866, or from his win over Zukertort in 1886. The 1886 match was clearly agreed to be for the world championship, There is also no known evidence of Steinitz being called the world champion after defeating Anderssen in 1866. (Morphy died in 1884.) There are a number of references to Steinitz as world champion in the 1870s, the earliest being after the first Zukertort match in 1872.
Emanuel Lasker in 1908 all do the same. Many modern commentators divide Steinitz's reign into an "unofficial" one from 1866 to 1886, and an "official" one after 1886. By this reckoning, the first World Championship match was the
World Chess Championship 1886, and Steinitz was the first official World Chess Champion.
Champions before FIDE (1886–1946) Reign of Wilhelm Steinitz (1886–1894) dominated chess from 1866 to 1894. Some commentators date his time as World Champion from 1866; others
from 1886. Following the Steinitz–Zukertort match, a tradition continued of the world championship being decided by a match between the reigning champion, and a challenger: if a player thought he was strong enough, he (or his friends) would find financial backing for a match purse and challenge the reigning world champion. If he won, he would become the new champion. Steinitz successfully defended his world title against
Mikhail Chigorin in
1889,
Isidor Gunsberg in
1891 and Chigorin again in
1892. In 1887, the
American Chess Congress started work on drawing up regulations for the future conduct of world championship contests. Steinitz supported this endeavor, as he thought he was becoming too old to remain world champion. The proposal evolved through many forms (as Steinitz pointed out, such a project had never been undertaken before), and resulted in the
1889 tournament in New York to select a challenger for Steinitz, rather like the more recent
Candidates Tournaments. The tournament was duly played, but the outcome was not quite as planned: Chigorin and
Max Weiss tied for first place; their play-off resulted in four draws; and neither wanted to play a match against Steinitz – Chigorin had just lost to him, and Weiss wanted to get back to his work for the
Rothschild Bank. The third prizewinner,
Isidor Gunsberg, was prepared to play Steinitz for the title in New York, so this match was played in 1890–1891 and was won by Steinitz. The experiment was not repeated, and Steinitz's later matches were private arrangements between the players. Lasker
won the 1894 match and succeeded Steinitz as world champion.
Emanuel Lasker (1894–1921) was the World Champion for 27 years consecutively from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of a World Champion. During that period, he played seven World Championship matches. Lasker held the title from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign (27 years) of any champion. He won a
return match against Steinitz in 1897, and then did not defend his title for ten years, before playing four title defences in four years. He comfortably defeated
Frank Marshall in
1907 and
Siegbert Tarrasch in
1908. In 1910, he almost lost his title in a
short tied match against
Carl Schlechter, although the exact conditions of this match are a mystery. He then defeated
Dawid Janowski in the most one-sided title match in history
later in 1910. Lasker's negotiations for title matches from 1911 onwards were extremely controversial. In 1911, he received a challenge for a world title match against
José Raúl Capablanca and, in addition to making severe financial demands, proposed some novel conditions: the match should be considered drawn if neither player finished with a two-game lead; and it should have a maximum of 30 games, but finish if either player won six games and had a two-game lead (previous matches had been won by the first to win a certain number of games, usually 10; in theory, such a match might go on for ever). Capablanca objected to the two-game lead clause; Lasker took offence at the terms in which Capablanca criticized the two-game lead condition and broke off negotiations. Further controversy arose when, in 1912, Lasker's terms for a proposed match with
Akiba Rubinstein included a clause that, if Lasker should resign the title after a date had been set for the match, Rubinstein should become world champion. Capablanca
won their 1921 match by four wins, ten draws and no losses. The only match played under those rules was Capablanca vs Alekhine in
1927, although there has been speculation that the actual contract might have included a "two-game lead" clause. Alekhine, Rubinstein and
Aron Nimzowitsch had all challenged Capablanca in the early 1920s but only Alekhine could raise the US$10,000 Capablanca demanded and only in 1927. This system evolved out of the wagering of small stakes on club games in the early 19th century. Lasker introduced the practice of demanding that the challenger should provide the whole of the purse, and his successors followed his example up to World War II. This requirement made arranging world championship matches more difficult, for example:
Frank James Marshall challenged Lasker in 1904 but could not raise the money until 1907; in 1911 Lasker and
Akiba Rubinstein agreed in principle to a world championship match, but this was never played as Rubinstein could not raise the money. In the early 1920s, Alekhine, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch all challenged Capablanca, but only Alekhine was able to raise the US$10,000 that Capablanca demanded, and not until 1927.
FIDE title (1948–1993) FIDE, Euwe and AVRO became the World Champion by defeating
Alexander Alekhine in 1935 but lost a rematch in 1937. Attempts to form an international chess federation were made at the time of the 1914
St. Petersburg, 1914
Mannheim and 1920
Gothenburg Tournaments. While negotiating his 1937 World Championship rematch with Alekhine, Euwe proposed that if he retained the title, FIDE should manage the nomination of future challengers and the conduct of championship matches. FIDE had been trying since 1935 to introduce rules on how to select challengers, and its various proposals favoured selection by some sort of committee. While they were debating procedures in 1937 and Alekhine and Euwe were preparing for their rematch later that year, the
Royal Dutch Chess Federation proposed that a super-tournament (AVRO) of ex-champions and rising stars should be held to select the next challenger. FIDE rejected this proposal and at their second attempt nominated
Salo Flohr as the official challenger. Euwe then declared that: if he retained his title against Alekhine he was prepared to meet Flohr in 1940 but he reserved the right to arrange a title match either in 1938 or 1939 with Capablanca, who had lost the title to Alekhine in 1927; if Euwe lost his title to Capablanca then FIDE's decision should be followed and Capablanca would have to play Flohr in 1940. Most chess writers and players strongly supported the Dutch super-tournament proposal and opposed the committee processes favoured by FIDE. While this confusion went unresolved: Euwe lost his title to Alekhine; the
AVRO tournament in 1938 was won by
Paul Keres under a tie-breaking rule, with
Reuben Fine placed second and Capablanca and Flohr in the bottom places; and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut short the controversy.
Birth of FIDE's World Championship cycle (1946–1948) Alexander Alekhine died in 1946 before anyone else could win against him in match for the World Champion title. This resulted in an
interregnum that made the normal procedure impossible. The situation was very confused, with many respected players and commentators offering different solutions. FIDE found it very difficult to organise the early discussions on how to resolve the
interregnum because problems with money and travel so soon after the end of World War II prevented many countries from sending representatives. The shortage of clear information resulted in otherwise responsible magazines publishing rumors and speculation, which only made the situation more confusing. The proposals which led to the 1948 Championship Tournament also specified the procedure by which challengers for the World Championship would be selected in a three-year cycle: countries affiliated to FIDE would send players to Zonal Tournaments (the number varied depending on how many good enough players each country had); the players who gained the top places in these would compete in an Interzonal Tournament (later split into two and then three tournaments as the number of countries and eligible players increased); the highest-placed players from the Interzonal would compete in the
Candidates Tournament, along with whoever lost the previous title match and the second-placed competitor in the previous Candidates Tournament three years earlier; and the winner of the Candidates played a title match against the champion. The first two world championships under this system were drawn 12–12 – Botvinnik-Bronstein in 1951 and Botvinnik-Smyslov in 1954 – so Botvinnik retained the title both times. In 1956 FIDE introduced two apparently minor changes which Soviet
grandmaster and chess official
Yuri Averbakh alleged were instigated by the two Soviet representatives in FIDE, who were personal friends of reigning champion
Mikhail Botvinnik. A defeated champion would have the right to a return match. FIDE also limited the number of players from the same country that could compete in the
Candidates Tournament, on the grounds that it would reduce Soviet dominance of the tournament. Averbakh claimed that this was to Botvinnik's advantage as it reduced the number of Soviet players he might have to meet in the title match. Botvinnik lost to
Vasily Smyslov in 1957 but won the return match in 1958, and lost to
Mikhail Tal in 1960 but won the return match in 1961. Thus Smyslov and Tal each held the world title for a year, but Botvinnik was world champion for rest of the time from 1948 to 1963. The return match clause was not in place for the 1963 cycle.
Tigran Petrosian won the 1962 Candidates and then
defeated Botvinnik in 1963 to become world champion.
FIDE system (1963–1975) After the 1962 Candidates,
Bobby Fischer publicly alleged that the Soviets had colluded to prevent any non-Soviet—specifically him—from winning. He claimed that Petrosian,
Efim Geller and
Paul Keres had prearranged to draw all their games, and that
Viktor Korchnoi had been instructed to lose to them.
Yuri Averbakh, who was head of the Soviet team, confirmed in 2002 that Petrosian, Geller and Keres arranged to draw all their games in order to save their energy for games against non-Soviet players. Both these Candidates cycles were won by
Boris Spassky, who lost the title match to Petrosian in 1966, but won and became world champion in 1969. In the 1969–1972 cycle Fischer caused two more crises. He refused to play in the 1969 US Championship, which was a Zonal Tournament. This would have eliminated him from the 1969–1972 cycle, but
Pal Benko was persuaded to concede his place in the Interzonal to Fischer. FIDE President
Max Euwe accepted this maneuver and interpreted the rules very flexibly to enable Fischer to play, as he thought it important for the health and reputation of the game that Fischer should have the opportunity to challenge for the title as soon as possible. Fischer crushed all opposition and won the right to challenge reigning champion
Boris Spassky. An unbroken line of FIDE champions had thus been established from 1948 to 1972, with each champion gaining his title by beating the previous incumbent. This came to an end when
Anatoly Karpov won the right to challenge Fischer in 1975. Fischer objected to the "best of 24 games" championship match format that had been used from 1951 onwards, claiming that it would encourage whoever got an early lead to play for draws. Instead he demanded that the match should be won by whoever first won 10 games, except that if the score reached 9–9 he should remain champion. He argued that this was more advantageous to the challenger than the champion's advantage under the existing system, where the champion retained the title if the match was tied at 12–12 including draws. Eventually FIDE deposed Fischer and crowned Karpov as the new champion. Fischer privately maintained that he was still World Champion. He went into seclusion and did not play chess in public again until 1992, when Spassky agreed to participate in an unofficial rematch for the World Championship. Fischer won the
1992 Fischer–Spassky rematch decisively with a score of 10–5.
Karpov and Kasparov (1975–1993) After becoming world champion by default, Karpov confirmed his worthiness for the title with a string of tournament successes from the mid 70s to the early 80s. He defended his title twice against ex-Soviet
Viktor Korchnoi, first in
Baguio in
1978 (6–5 with 21 draws) and in
Merano in
1981 (6–2, with 10 draws). In the
1984 World Chess Championship, Karpov played against
Garry Kasparov. Karpov retained the title after the tournament went for more than five months and was terminated with Karpov leading with five wins to Kasparov's three and 40 draws after 48 games. Karpov eventually lost his title in
1985 to Kasparov, who won the title by a scoreline of 13–11. The two played three more subsequent championships in
1986 (won by Kasparov, 12½–11½),
1987 (drawn 12–12, Kasparov retained the title) and
1990 (won by Kasparov, 12½–11½). In the five matches, Kasparov and Karpov played a total of 144 World Championship games with 104 draws, 21 wins by Kasparov and 19 wins by Karpov.
Split title (1993–2006) In 1993,
Nigel Short broke the domination of Kasparov and Karpov by defeating Karpov in the candidates semi-finals followed by
Jan Timman in the finals, thereby earning the right to challenge Kasparov for the title. Before the match took place, however, both Kasparov and Short complained of FIDE's mishandling of the prize pool in organising the match, corruption in the leadership, and FIDE's failure to abide by their own rules, and split from FIDE to set up the
Professional Chess Association (PCA), under whose auspices they held their match. In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title and held a championship match between Karpov and Timman. For the first time in history, there were two World Chess Champions:
Kasparov defeated Short and
Karpov beat Timman. FIDE and the PCA each held a championship cycle in 1993–1996, with many of the same challengers playing in both. Kasparov and Karpov both won their respective cycles. In the PCA cycle, Kasparov defeated
Viswanathan Anand in the
PCA World Chess Championship 1995. Karpov defeated
Gata Kamsky in the final of the
FIDE World Chess Championship 1996. Negotiations were held for a reunification match between Kasparov and Karpov in 1996–97, but nothing came of them. Soon after the 1995 championship, the PCA folded, and Kasparov had no organisation to choose his next challenger. In 1998 he formed the World Chess Council, which organised a candidates match between
Alexei Shirov and
Vladimir Kramnik. Shirov won the match, but negotiations for a Kasparov–Shirov match broke down, and Shirov was subsequently omitted from negotiations, much to his disgust. Plans for a 1999 or 2000 Kasparov–Anand match also broke down, and Kasparov organised a match with Kramnik in late 2000. In a major upset, Kramnik
won the match with two wins, thirteen draws and no losses. At the time the championship was called the Braingames World Chess Championship, but Kramnik later referred to himself as the Classical World Chess Champion. Meanwhile, FIDE had decided to scrap the Interzonal and Candidates system, instead having a large knockout event in which a large number of players contested short matches against each other over just a few weeks (see
FIDE World Chess Championship 1998).
Rapid and blitz games were used to resolve ties at the end of each round, a format which some felt did not necessarily recognise the highest-quality play: Kasparov refused to participate in these events, as did Kramnik after he won the Classical title in 2000. In the first of these events, in 1998, champion Karpov was seeded directly into the final, but he later had to qualify alongside the other players. Karpov defended his title in the first of these championships in 1998, but resigned his title in protest at the new rules in 1999.
Alexander Khalifman won the FIDE World Championship in
1999, Anand in
2000,
Ruslan Ponomariov in
2002 and
Rustam Kasimdzhanov 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. 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. It was agreed that Kasparov would play the FIDE champion (Ponomariov) for the FIDE title, and the winner of that match would face the winner of the Kramnik–Leko match for the unified title. The matches, however, proved difficult to finance and organise. The
Kramnik–Leko match 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. Kasparov's frustration at the situation played a part in his decision to retire from chess in 2005, still ranked No. 1 in the world. Soon after, FIDE dropped the short knockout format for a 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.
Reunified title (since 2006) Kramnik (2006–2007) The
World Chess Championship 2006 reunification match between Topalov and Kramnik was held in late 2006. After much controversy, it was won by Kramnik. Kramnik thus became the first unified and undisputed World Chess Champion since Kasparov split from FIDE to form the PCA in 1993. This match, along with all subsequent world championships, was administered by FIDE.
Anand (2007–2013) Kramnik played to defend his title at the
World Chess Championship 2007 in Mexico. This was an 8-player double round robin tournament, the same format as was used for the
FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. This tournament was won by
Viswanathan Anand, thus making him the World Chess Champion. Because Anand's World Chess Champion title was won in a tournament rather than a match, a minority of commentators questioned the validity of his title. Kramnik also made ambiguous comments about the value of Anand's title, but did not claim the title himself then. (In a 2015 interview Kramnik dated the loss of his world championship title to his 2008 match against Anand rather than the 2007 tournament, and he likewise did not contradict an interviewer who dated it thus in a 2019 interview.) Subsequent world championship matches returned to the format of a match between the champion and a challenger. The following two championships had special clauses arising from the 2006 unification. Kramnik was given the right to challenge for the title he lost in a tournament in the
World Chess Championship 2008, which Anand won. Then Topalov, who as the loser of the 2006 match was excluded from the 2007 championship, was seeded directly into the Candidates final of the
World Chess Championship 2010. He won the Candidates (against
Gata Kamsky) to set up a match against Anand, who again won the championship match. The next championship, the
World Chess Championship 2012, had short knock-out matches for the Candidates Tournament. This format was not popular with everyone, and
Magnus Carlsen withdrew in protest.
Boris Gelfand won the Candidates. Anand won the championship match again, in tie breaking rapid games, for his fourth consecutive world championship win.
Carlsen (2013–2023) Since 2013, the
Candidates Tournament has been an eight-player double round robin tournament, with the winner playing a match against the champion for the title. Norwegian
Magnus Carlsen won the 2013 Candidates and then convincingly defeated Anand in the
World Chess Championship 2013. Beginning with the 2014 Championship cycle, the World Championship has followed a 2-year cycle: qualification for the Candidates in the odd year, the Candidates tournament early in the even year, and the World Championship match later in the even year. This and the next two cycles resulted in Carlsen successfully defending his title: against Anand in
2014; against
Sergey Karjakin in
2016; and against
Fabiano Caruana in
2018. Both the 2016 and 2018 defences were decided by tie-break in rapid games. The
COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the
2020 Candidates Tournament, and caused the next match to be postponed from 2020 to 2021. Carlsen again successfully defended his title, defeating
Ian Nepomniachtchi in the
World Chess Championship 2021.
Ding (2023–2024) Soon after the 2021 match, Carlsen indicated that he would not defend the title again. This was confirmed in an announcement by FIDE on 20 July 2022. As a consequence, the top two finishers of the Candidates Tournament,
Ian Nepomniachtchi and
Ding Liren, played in the
2023 championship in
Astana, Kazakhstan, from 7 April to 30 April 2023. Ding won in rapid tiebreaks, making him the first World Chess Champion from China. FIDE referred to Ding as the "17th World Champion"; thus the "Classical" line of Champions during the split has been
de facto legitimised over the FIDE line by FIDE itself.
Gukesh (2024–present) became the World Champion in
2024 after defeating
Ding Liren. 2024 saw a return to the pre-COVID timetable, with the
Candidates tournament played in early 2024, and the
championship match in late 2024, from 25 November to 12 December in
Singapore.
Gukesh Dommaraju was the surprise winner of the Candidates, then defeated Ding Liren in the championship match, by 7½ to 6½. At 18 years old, Gukesh became the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion. ==Format==