1.3 PCA (Classical) World Champions

• Garry Kasparov, 1993-2000
• Vladimir Kramnik, 2000-date

1.4 FIDE World Champions since 1993

• Anatoly Karpov, 1993-99
• Alexander Khalifman, 1999-2000
• Viswanathan Anand, 2000-2002
• Ruslan Ponomariov, 2002-2004
• Rustam Kasimdzhanov, 2004-date

See also List of chess world championship matches.

2 History of the World Chess Championship

2.1 Three Pioneering Titans

The first match proclaimed by the players as for the world championship was the match that Wilhelm Steinitz won against Johannes Zukertort in 1886. However, a line of players regarded as the strongest (or at least the most famous) in the world extends back hundreds of years beyond them, and these players are sometimes considered the world champions of their time. They include Ruy López de Segura around 1560, Boi and Leonardo da Cutri around 1575, Alessandro Salvio around 1600, and Gioacchino Greco around 1620.

In the 18th and early 19th century, French players dominated, with Legall de Kermeur ( 1730- 1747), Francois-André Philidor ( 1747- 1795), Alexandre Deschapelles ( 1800- 1820) and Louis de la Bourdonnais ( 1820- 1840) all widely regarded as the strongest players of their time. La Bourdonnais played a series of six matches - and 85 games - against the Irishman Alexander McDonnell, with many of the encounters having been annotated by the American Paul Morphy.

The Englishman Howard Staunton's match victory over another Frenchman, Pierre-Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, in 1843 is considered to have established him as the world's strongest player ( 1840- 1850). When he only finished third in the 1851 London tournament, he is considered to have relinquished the role to the tournament's winner, Adolf Anderssen ( 1851- 1858). About the same time ( 1850), von der Lasa was considered Anderssen's equal.

Anderssen was himself decisively defeated in an 1858 match against the American Paul Morphy, after which Morphy was toasted across the chess-playing world as the world chess champion. Morphy retired from chess the following year, but many, including Steinitz, considered him the world champion until his death in 1884. Morphy himself, however, soon after defeating Anderssen, declared that he was retired from public chess play.

This left Anderssen again as possibly the world's strongest active player, a reputation he re-enforced by winning the strong London tournament of 1862. He was narrowly defeated in an 1866 match against Wilhelm Steinitz, and some commentators regard this to be the first "official" world championship match. The match was not declared to be a world championship at the time, however. It was only after Morphy's death in 1884 that such a match was declared. The 1886 match between Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, won by Steinitz, though not held under the aegis of any official body, is widely regarded as the first official World Chess Championship match, with Steinitz the game's first official World Champion.

The championship was conducted on a fairly informal basis through the remainder of the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth: if a player thought he was strong enough, he would challenge the reigning world champion to a match. If he won, he would become the new champion. There was no formal system of qualification. However, it is generally regarded that the system did on the whole produce champions who were the strongest players of their day. The players who held the title up until World War II were Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, and Max Euwe, each of them defeating the previous incumbent in a match.

2.2 A Time of Change

Lasker was the first champion after Steinitz; though there were criticisms that he played infrequently, he did string together an impressive run of tournament victories and dominated his opponents. His success is largely due to the fact that he almost never blundered, and perhaps his worst mistake was giving up a pawn to Akiba Rubenstein in 1914. He held the title from 1894 to 1921, a reign (27 years) unlikely even to be approached by any modern champion.

In 1921, he lost the title to a sensational young Cuban named Jose Raul Capablanca. Capablanca was the last and greatest of the "natural" players: he prepared little for his matches, but won them brilliantly. He possessed an astonishing insight into positions simply by glancing at them. Renowned for his ability to gradually convert the tiniest advantages into victory, Capablanca was one of the most feared players in history. From 1916 to 1923 he was undefeated.

However, in 1927, he was shockingly upset by a new challenger, Alekhine. Before the match, no one gave Alekhine a chance against the dominant Cuban. However, Alekhine set a standard for future grandmasters by his incredible preparation. His hard work (especially opening analysis, which became a hallmark of all future grandmasters) and unmatched drive eventually overcame Capablanca's natural skill. Alekhine was helped by his fearsome tactical skill, which complicated the game (Capablanca preferred simple positions). In 1935, he briefly lost the title to Max Euwe. He is reputed to have been drinking heavily through this match. In 1937, a sober Alekhine won his title back. He then held the title until his death in 1946.

2.3 Soviet Dominance

His death threw the chess world into chaos. The previous informal system could not deal with this unlikely eventuality. FIDE stepped in to organise a match tournament in 1948 between five of the world's strongest players: Mikhail Botvinnik, Max Euwe, Paul Keres, Samuel Reshevsky, and Vasily Smyslov ( Reuben Fine was also invited, but declined to take part due to his doctorate degree requirements). Botvinnik won the tournament, and thus the championship, and FIDE continued to organise the championship thereafter.

In place of the previous informal system, a new system of qualifying tournaments and matches was arranged. The world's strongest players were seeded into "Interzonal tournaments", where they were joined by players who had qualified from "Zonal tournaments". The leading finishers in these Interzonals would go on the "Candidates" stage, which was initially a tournament, later a series of knock-out matches. The winner of the Candidates would then play a match against the reigning champion (who did not have to qualify through this process) for the championship. If a champion was defeated, he had a right to play a rematch one year after his loss. This system worked on a three-year cycle.

The winner of the 1948 tournament, Mikhail Botvinnik, successfully defended his title twice over the next six years, beating off both David Bronstein and Vasily Smyslov. Both the matches were drawn 12-12 but Botvinnik retained the title by virtue of being defending champion. The latter, however, won the title in 1957 by a score of 12.5 - 9.5, only to lose it once more to Botvinnik in 1958. At the time, Smyslov had the dubious pleasure of being the shortest-reigning world champion; but this 'honour' soon switched hands, to the 'Magician from Riga', Mikhail Tal.

Tal's daring, sacrificial style had brought him success in 1960, overcoming Botvinnik by a score of 12.5 - 8.5. But once more, Botvinnik was not content, and won back his title the following year in a rematch, by the score of 13 - 8, after Tal fell ill. Botvinnik has said: "If Tal would learn to program himself properly, he would have been impossible to play." Unfortunately, he did not, and Tal remains to this day the shortest-lived champion.

Botvinnik, having been a constant presence in championship matches for more than ten years, would play just one more world championship match, against the Armenian Tigran Petrosian, losing it 12.5 - 9.5. There was no rematch, because FIDE abolished the rematch rule. Petrosian then successfully defended his title in 1966 against Boris Spassky, winning by the narrowest of margins (12.5 - 11.5) in Moscow, but three years later (once more in Moscow) he lost 12.5 - 10.5 to the same challenger.

2.4 The Fischer Tragedy and the K-K Archrivalry

The next championship, held in Reykjavík ( Iceland) in 1972, saw the first non-Soviet finalist since before World War II (the first under FIDE), the young American, Bobby Fischer. Having annihilated his Candidates opponents Bent Larsen, Mark Taimanov, and Tigran Petrosian by scores of 6-0, 6-0, and 6.5-2.5, respectively, Fischer was easily qualified to challenge Spassky. The so-called Match of the Century, possibly the most famous in chess history, had a shaky start: having lost the first game, Fischer defaulted the second after he failed to turn up, complaining about playing conditions. There was concern he would default the whole match rather than play, but he duly turned up for the third game and won it brilliantly. Spassky won only one more game in the rest of the match and was eventually crushed by Fischer by a score of 12.5 - 8.5.

A line of unbroken 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 in 1975, however, when reigning champion Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when Fischer's demands were not met. Fischer abandoned his FIDE title, but maintained that he was still World Champion. He went into seclusion and did not play chess in public again until 1992, when he offered Spassky a rematch, again for the World Championship. The general chess public did not take this claim to the championship seriously, since both of them were well past their prime, shadows of their former selves. In addition, Karpov dominated the 1970s and '80s with an incredible string of tournament successes. He convincingly demonstrated that he was the strongest player in the world by defending his title twice against ex-Soviet Viktor Korchnoi.

He eventually lost his title to a fiery player who was equally convincing over the board: Garry Kasparov. The two of them fought five incredibly close world championship matches, in 1984 (which was controversially terminated without result, see Anatoly Karpov's article for details), 1985 (which Kasparov won 13-11), 1986 (which Kasparov squeaked by with a victory 12.5-11.5), 1987 (which was drawn 12-12 and Kasparov kept the title), and 1990 (which Kasparov narrowly won 12.5-11.5). The two of them fought numerous titanic battles, and though Karpov dominated at first, Kasparov took over soon after. As of May 2004, according to ChessGames, in their 235 formal games played, Karpov has 23 wins, Kasparov has 33 wins, and they share 179 draws.

2.5 Turmoil

Not long after Kasparov became champion, the Soviet Union collapsed, freeing Kasparov from the grip of the Soviet state. This set the stage for a more lasting set-back to FIDE's system when in 1993, Kasparov and challenger Nigel Short complained of corruption and a lack of professionalism within FIDE and split from FIDE to set up the Professional Chess Association (PCA), under whose auspices they held their match. The event was orchestrated largely by Raymond Keene, who has been at the centre of much off-the-board chess activity for a long time now. Keene brought the event to London (FIDE had planned it for Manchester), and Britain was whipped up into something of a chess fever: Channel Four broadcast some 81 programmes on the match, the BBC also had coverage, and Short appeared in television beer commercials. However, Short lost by five points, and the interest in chess in the UK soon died down.

At the same time, FIDE held a championship match between Karpov (who had been champion before Kasparov) and Jan Timman (who had been defeated by Short in the Candidates final) in the Netherlands and Jakarta. Karpov emerged victorious. Ever since that time there have been two simultaneous World Champions and World Championships.

Kasparov went on to defend his PCA title against Viswanathan Anand, who had qualified through a series of events similar to those in the old FIDE system. It seemed his next challenger would be Alexei Shirov, who won a match against Vladimir Kramnik to apparently secure his place. However, plans for a match with Shirov never materialised, and he was subsequently omitted from negotiations, much to his disgust. Instead, Anand was lined up to play Kasparov once more, but here too, plans fell through (in somewhat disputed circumstances). Instead, Vladimir Kramnik was given the chance to play Kasparov in 2000. Against all expectations, Kramnik won.

FIDE, meanwhile, after one more traditional championship cycle which resulted in Karpov successfully defending his title against Gata Kamsky in 1996, largely scrapped the old system, instead having a large knock-out event in which a large number of players contested short matches against each other over just a few weeks. In the first of these events, champion Karpov was seeded straight into the final (as in previous championships), 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 and Ruslan Ponomariov in 2002.

This left a chess world with two distinct championships: one extending the Steinitzian lineage in which the current champion plays a challenger in match format (a series of many games); the other following FIDE's new format of a tennis-style elimination--or "Knockout"--tournament with dozens of players competing.

In May 2002, under the terms of the so-called "Prague Agreement" masterminded by Yasser Seirawan, several leaders in the chess world met in Prague and signed a unity agreement which intended to ensure the crowning of an undisputed world champion before the end of 2003, and restore the traditional cycle of qualifying matches by 2005.

The semifinalists for the 2003 championship were to be Ruslan Ponomariov vs. Gary Kasparov, and Vladimir Kramnik vs. Peter Leko. The former match, organised by FIDE, had been scheduled to take place in Yalta beginning on September 18, 2003, but was called off on August 29 after Ponomariov refused to sign his contract for it.

There is a proposal that Kasparov will instead play a match in 2004 or 2005 against Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who won the FIDE World Chess Championship, 2004, in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, an event which ran from June 18 to July 13, 2004, and which was sponsored by Libyan leader Moammar al-Qadhafi. This choice of venue was extremely controversial: no Israeli players took part in the championships, several other prominent players withdrew and groups including the Association of Chess Professionals and the Anti-Defamation League have criticised FIDE's choice. FIDE announced that the Kasparov-Kasimdzhanov would be held in the United Arab Emirates in January 2005, although a press release from Kasparov [1] makes this seem highly unlikely.

The Kramnik-Leko match was originally to be held in Budapest, but funding collapsed and it was called off. The match was rescheduled as a fourteen game match to be held in Brissago , Switzerland from September 25 to October 18, 2004 and billed as the Classic World Chess Championship sponsored by the cigar company Dannemann. The match was drawn (and was surprisingly exciting, leading to a final game which Kramnik needed to win and did), which meant that Kramnik retained the title. Afterwards, Kramnik cast doubt on the reunification process, suggesting that rather than a Kasparov-Kasimdzhnov match to determine who would play him for the unified title, there should be a match tournament involving Kasparov, Kasimdzhanov, Ponomariov and Anand [2].

2.6 The greatest of all time

There is no consensus on who is the greatest player of all time. Strictly from FIDE ratings, Kasparov is far and away the top player in all of history. FIDE ratings, however, have become inflated over time, so that a rating of 2700 does not mean as much as it once did. Moreover many great players lived and died before there were any FIDE ratings, and projecting ratings backward is a rather speculative proposition.

It is generally agreed that if Anderssen (or someone of his era) came back to play Kasparov (or any modern champion) without preparation, Anderssen would be crushed because chess understanding has advanced over time, and modern grandmasters analyze openings much more deeply than ever before. These considerations alone, however, do not mean that Anderssen was not as great a player as Kasparov, they only mean that Kasparov has advantages due to living later. Perhaps Anderssen would be able to quickly absorb modern theory and rise to the top again.

One possible criterion for all-time greatness is the amount by which a player exceeded his contemporaries. For example, Morphy was head and shoulders above the competition of his day in a way that Botvinnik never was. But should Botvinnik be considered less great a player for having worthy rivals? And by another criterion, namely length of time at the top of the chess world, Botvinnik's achievements must be considered far greater than Morphy's. In particular, Lasker was the undisupted champion for 27 years, a reign no other player has even approached. However, he played infrequently, and there was no standardized system for championship matches: champions played challengers whenever both agreed to a match. Especially in today's world, with hundreds of possible challengers to the championship, longevity is a poor determinant of skill.

Yet another complication in determining who was the greatest is the dichotomy between talent and hard work. Capablanca's natural gift for chess was arguably unrivaled, but he lost his title to Alekhine because Alekhine prepared much more diligently for their match. Is this evidence that Capablanca was in fact a better player who lost due to laziness, or evidence that due to his laziness Capablanca was in fact the inferior player?

Hence, it is extremely unclear who truly is "the best", but nearly all lists of the best include at least the following ten champions (in chronological order):

• Adolf Anderssen
• Paul Morphy
• Emanuel Lasker
• José Raúl Capablanca
• Alexander Alekhine
• Mikhail Botvinnik
• Mikhail Tal
• Bobby Fischer
• Anatoly Karpov
• Garry Kasparov

3 Women's World Championship

The Women's World Championship was established by FIDE in 1927 as a single tournament held alongside the Chess Olympiad. The winner of that tournament, Vera Menchik, did not have any special rights as the men's champion did - instead she had to defend her title by playing as many games as all the challengers. She did this successfully in every other championship in her lifetime (1930, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1937 and 1939).

Menchik died as champion in 1944. The next championship was another round-robin tournament in 1949-50 and was won by Ludmilla Rudenko . Thereafter a system similar to that of the men's championship was established, with a cycle of Candidates events (and later Interzonals) to pick a challenger to face the reigning champion.

This system remained in place until 2000 when a knock-out event, won by reigning champion Xie Jun, was held alongside the men's championship. In 2001 a similar event determined the champion, Zhu Chen. Another knock-out, this one held separately from the men's event, in Elista, the capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia (of which FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is president), from May 21 to June 8, 2004, produced Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova as champion.

Judit Polgar, by far the highest rated female chess player ever, has refused to take part in the women-only competitions.

3.1 List of Women's World Champions

• Vera Menchik, 1927-1944
• Ludmilla Rudenko , 1950-1953
• Elisabeth Bikova , 1953-1956
• Olga Rubzowa , 1956-1958
• Elisabeth Bikova , 1958-1962
• Nona Gaprindashvili, 1962-1978
• Maya Chiburdanidze, 1978-1991
• Xie Jun, 1991-1996
• Zsuzsa Polgar, 1996-1999
• Xie Jun, 1999-2001
• Zhu Chen, 2001-2004
• Antoaneta Stefanova, 2004-present

4 Junior and Senior World Champions

The Junior and Senior Champions have always been determined by a single tournament each year (initially every other year in the case of the Juniors). See World Junior Chess Championship.

5 External link

• Mark Weeks' pages on the championships

Chess

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