List of World Chess Championships

Emanuel Lasker (left) facing incumbent champion Wilhelm Steinitz (right) in Philadelphia during the 1894 World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship has taken various forms over time, including both match and tournament play. While the concept of a world champion of chess had already existed for decades, with several events considered by some to have established the world's foremost player, an event explicitly held to decide a world champion did not take place until 1886. World Championships were initially privately organized matches, with each requiring the consent of the incumbent champion to take place. After 1948, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) began organizing the Championship under its auspices. The championship was fixed to a three-year cycle, with each challenger decided by a Candidates Tournament. In 1993, the short-lived Professional Chess Association (PCA) split from FIDE, and as a result there were two competing World Championship titles between 1993 and 2006.

Key

Key to symbols and headers

Date	The year the event took place, further disambiguated as needed
†	Event was a tournament, as opposed to a match.
‡	Event resulted in a draw, with the champion retaining the title.
#	Scheduled event did not take place.
✻	Event began, but was abandoned without any result.
Winner	The winner of the event, or the champion otherwise retaining the title. Numerals denote the updated number of event wins or title defences by the champion.
Score	The performance of the eventual champion. Segments such as tiebreaks are listed sequentially. Head-to-head tournament results are given in a footnote.
Runner-up	The second-place finisher of the event, or the challenger for a match without a winner
Ref	References and footnotes corresponding to the event

Predecessor events (before 1886)

Chess was first introduced to Europe during the 9th century. In the early modern era, following the solidification of the modern rules of chess, the game continued to carry consistent prestige and public interest. While numerous players have been characterized as the game's strongest over the centuries, the idea of an international chess match or tournament did not occur until the 18th century, and did not materialize until the 19th century. While the following events did not have the title of World Champion at stake, they have been recognized either at the time or in retrospect as indicating the world's leading player.

Predecessor events prior to 1886

Date	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Format	Ref
1834	London	Louis de La Bourdonnais	18‍–‍7 4‍–‍5 6½‍–‍5½ 11½‍–‍6½ 7½‍–‍4½ 4‍–‍5	Alexander McDonnell	Casual play
1843	Paris	Howard Staunton	13‍–‍8	Pierre Saint-Amant	First to 11 wins
1851†	London	Adolf Anderssen	15‍–‍6	Marmaduke Wyvill	Single-elimination tournament with 16 players
1858	Paris	Paul Morphy	8‍–‍3	Adolf Anderssen	First to 7 wins
1862†	London	Adolf Anderssen	11½‍–‍1½	Louis Paulsen	Round-robin tournament with 14 players
1866	London	Wilhelm Steinitz	8‍–‍6	Adolf Anderssen	Best of 15
1883†	London	Johannes Zukertort	22‍–‍4	Wilhelm Steinitz	Double round-robin tournament with 14 players

Privately organized matches (1886–1946)

With both Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort seen as plausible claimants, the two played a match for the first World Championship in 1886. While Steinitz would later claim that he had been the World Champion since the 1860s, no match before 1886 was played for any formal title. From then until after World War II, championship matches were privately organized, and the champion was not formally obliged to face an opponent. An agreement had to be reached between the champion, the challenger, and the patrons sponsoring each match, which included providing the funds for the prize pool. Lasker's 27-year reign as World Champion is the longest in the history of organized chess since 1886, but featured two separate 10-year spans during which he did not defend his title.

Privately organized matches (1886–1946)

Date	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Format	Ref
1886	New York City (1–5) St. Louis (6–9) New Orleans (10–15)	Wilhelm Steinitz	12½‍–‍7½	Johannes Zukertort	First to 10 wins
1889	Havana	Wilhelm Steinitz (2)	10½‍–‍6½	Mikhail Chigorin	Best of 20, tiebreak if required
1890–1891	New York City	Wilhelm Steinitz (3)	10½‍–‍8½	Isidor Gunsberg
1892	Havana	Wilhelm Steinitz (4)	10‍–‍10 2½‍–‍½	Mikhail Chigorin
1894	New York City (1–8) Philadelphia (9–11) Montréal (12–19)	Emanuel Lasker	12‍–‍7	Wilhelm Steinitz	First to 10 wins
1896–1897	Moscow	Emanuel Lasker (2)	12½‍–‍4½	Wilhelm Steinitz
1907	New York City (1–6, 15) Philadelphia (7–8) Washington, D.C. (9) Baltimore (10) Chicago (11) Memphis (12–14)	Emanuel Lasker (3)	11½‍–‍3½	Frank Marshall	First to 8 wins
1908	Düsseldorf (1–4) Munich (5–16)	Emanuel Lasker (4)	10½‍–‍5½	Siegbert Tarrasch
Jan–Feb 1910‡	Vienna (1–5) Berlin (6–10)	Emanuel Lasker (5)	5‍–‍5	Carl Schlechter	Best of 10
Nov–Dec 1910	Berlin	Emanuel Lasker (6)	9½‍–‍1½	Dawid Janowski	First to 8 wins
1921	Havana	José Raúl Capablanca	9‍–‍5	Emanuel Lasker	Best of 24
1927	Buenos Aires	Alexander Alekhine	18½‍–‍15½	José Raúl Capablanca	First to 6 wins
1929	Wiesbaden (1–8, 24–25) Heidelberg (9–11) Berlin (12–17) The Hague (18–19, 23) Rotterdam (20) Amsterdam (21–22)	Alexander Alekhine (2)	15½‍–‍9½	Efim Bogoljubow	First to both 6 wins and 15 points
1934	12 cities	Alexander Alekhine (3)	15½‍–‍10½	Efim Bogoljubow
1935	12 cities	Max Euwe	15½‍–‍14½	Alexander Alekhine
1937	9 cities	Alexander Alekhine (4)	15½‍–‍9½	Max Euwe
Title vacant from 1946 to 1948, following the death of Alekhine.

FIDE World Championships (1948–1990)

From right to left: World Champion Anatoly Karpov, former World Champion and FIDE President Max Euwe, and Euwe's wife Caro Bergman. Photo taken in 1976.

In 1946, Alexander Alekhine died while still holding the title of World Chess Champion. The International Chess Federation (FIDE), which had been founded in 1924, had been attempting to directly participate in organizing the World Championship since at least 1935. By the late 1940s, around half of the plausible contenders for the World Championship were Soviet citizens, and in 1947, the Soviet Chess Federation joined FIDE after decades of declining to do so. FIDE based the 1948 World Chess Championship on the 1938 AVRO tournament that had been organized in part to select a challenger for Alekhine. The tournament ultimately featured five players, three of them Soviet citizens—including the winner, Mikhail Botvinnik. Botvinnik would go on to win or retain in four further championship matches. At the same time, FIDE established the rules for the championship going forward. It would be organized around a 3-year cycle, during which a series of Zonal and Interzonal tournaments would be held, with their highest-scoring performers invited to a Candidates Tournament. The winner of the this tournament would in turn play the champion in a match for the title. A defeated champion was entitled to a rematch the following year, after which the 3-year cycle would resume; Botvinnik benefited from this rule twice, in 1958 and 1961.

With the exception of the American Bobby Fischer in 1972, Soviet citizens won every championship from 1948 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. With the further exception of Viktor Korchnoi, who had defected from the USSR in 1976, each challenger was also a Soviet citizen. Following his victory, Fischer never played another game organized by FIDE. Disagreements between the two parties—which included Fischer's insistence on a format that required the victor to get a certain number of wins, as opposed to the number of games in a match being fixed—led to his forfeiting the title in 1975. In the absence of a match, FIDE declared Anatoly Karpov, winner of the 1974 Candidates Tournament, to be the World Chess Champion by default.

While the issue had played a role in Fischer's forfeit, FIDE ultimately did change the match format going forward, such that the first to win 6 games would be champion. Under these rules, Karpov twice defended his title against Korchnoi. The next match—which began in September 1984 and featured the 21-year-old Garry Kasparov as Karpov's challenger—ultimately saw 48 games played over the span of five months, with neither player able to get to 6 wins. In an unprecedented step, FIDE president Florencio Campomanes stepped in and declared the match to have ended with no result. A new match, which would revert to having a set number of games, was to be played later in 1985. After nearly being knocked out early in 1984, Kasparov defeated Karpov in their rematch. Over the following decade, the two would play three more championship matches, with Kasparov narrowly retaining the title in each.

FIDE World Championships (1948–1990)

Date	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Format	Ref
1948†	The Hague (1–10) Moscow (11–20)	Mikhail Botvinnik	14‍–‍6	Vasily Smyslov	Quintuple round-robin tournament with 5 players
1951‡	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik (2)	12‍–‍12	David Bronstein	Best of 24
1954‡		Mikhail Botvinnik (3)	12‍–‍12	Vasily Smyslov
1957		Vasily Smyslov	12½‍–‍9½	Mikhail Botvinnik
1958		Mikhail Botvinnik (4)	12½‍–‍10½	Vasily Smyslov
1960		Mikhail Tal	12½‍–‍8½	Mikhail Botvinnik
1961		Mikhail Botvinnik (5)	13‍–‍8	Mikhail Tal
1963		Tigran Petrosian	12½‍–‍9½	Mikhail Botvinnik
1966		Tigran Petrosian (2)	12½‍–‍11½	Boris Spassky
1969		Boris Spassky	12½‍–‍10½	Tigran Petrosian
1972	Reykjavík	Bobby Fischer	12½‍–‍8½	Boris Spassky
1975#	Manila	Anatoly Karpov	—	Bobby Fischer
1978	Baguio	Anatoly Karpov (2)	16½‍–‍15½	Viktor Korchnoi	First to 6 wins
1981	Merano	Anatoly Karpov (3)	11‍–‍7	Viktor Korchnoi
1984–1985✻	Moscow	Anatoly Karpov	25‍–‍23	Garry Kasparov
1985		Garry Kasparov	13‍–‍11	Anatoly Karpov	Best of 24
1986	Moscow (1–12) London (13–24)	Garry Kasparov (2)	12½‍–‍11½	Anatoly Karpov
1987‡	Seville	Garry Kasparov (3)	12‍–‍12	Anatoly Karpov
1990	New York City (1–12) Lyon (13–24)	Garry Kasparov (4)	12½‍–‍11½	Anatoly Karpov

Split title (1993–2006)

Play between Garry Kasparov (left) and Viswanathan Anand (right) in the Top of the World observation deck of 2 World Trade Center during the 1995 PCA World Chess Championship

In 1993, following Nigel Short's victory in the Candidates Tournament, FIDE president Campomanes announced that that year's Championship would take place in Manchester, England. Both Kasparov and Short claimed that FIDE had made this decision without consulting either player, in violation of FIDE's regulations regarding the championship. Kasparov and Short responded by splitting from FIDE and forming the Professional Chess Association (PCA), which organized a World Championship match between the two, played in London later that year. Meanwhile, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title and organized a championship match between Karpov and Jan Timman, who had finished second and third in the Candidates Tournament. For the 13 years between 1993 and 2006, there were two rival titles. While the PCA itself would fold after only a couple of years, Kasparov would retain what is referred to as "Classical" title, which would be inherited by Vladimir Kramnik upon defeating Kasparov in 2000.

Meanwhile, FIDE once again began experimenting with the championship format. Beginning with the 1998 championship, the system of Zonal, Interzonal, Candidates, and Championship stages was replaced with one single-elimination tournament featuring dozens of players competing for the championship. For the next event in 1999, the incumbent World Champion would not automatically qualify for the finals. Due to this additional change, Karpov—who had won three additional titles during the schism—declined to participate going forward. Each of the four Classical Championships retained a traditional match format.

Classical World Chess Championships (1993–2006)

Date	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Format	Ref
1993	London	Garry Kasparov (5)	12½‍–‍7½	Nigel Short	Best of 24
1995	New York City	Garry Kasparov (6)	10½‍–‍7½	Viswanathan Anand	Best of 20
2000	London	Vladimir Kramnik	8½‍–‍6½	Garry Kasparov	Best of 16
2004‡	Brissago	Vladimir Kramnik (2)	7‍–‍7	Peter Leko	Best of 14

FIDE World Chess Championships (1993–2006)

Date	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Format	Ref
1993	Zwolle (1–3) Arnhem (4–6) Amsterdam (7–12) Jakarta (13–24)	Anatoly Karpov (4)	12½‍–‍8½	Jan Timman	Best of 24
1996	Elista	Anatoly Karpov (5)	10½‍–‍7½	Gata Kamsky	Best of 20
1998†	Lausanne	Anatoly Karpov (6)	3‍–‍3 2‍–‍0	Viswanathan Anand	Single-elimination tournament with 100 players
1999†	Las Vegas	Alexander Khalifman	18½‍–‍11½	Vladimir Akopian
2000†	New Delhi (rounds 1–6) Tehran (round 7)	Viswanathan Anand	14‍–‍6	Alexei Shirov
2002†	Moscow	Ruslan Ponomariov	19‍–‍9	Vasyl Ivanchuk	Single-elimination tournament with 128 players
2004†	Tripoli	Rustam Kasimdzhanov	20‍–‍10	Michael Adams
2005†	Potrero de los Funes	Veselin Topalov	10‍–‍4	Viswanathan Anand	Double round-robin tournament with 8 players

FIDE World Championships (2006–present)

Ian Nepomniachtchi (left) and Magnus Carlsen (right) beginning game 11 of the 2021 Championship

Following a period of negotiation, in 2006 the Classical Champion Vladimir Kramnik played a match against the FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov to reunify the World Championship. Since then, the championship has remained under the auspices of FIDE. The Candidates Tournament returned, and with the exception of the 2007 tournament, FIDE would return to a match format for the World Championship. Instead of the previous system of Zonals and Interzonals to provide candidates, the system was redesigned around the Chess World Cup. Later, means for selecting candidates would variously include the FIDE Grand Prix, the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament, selection by rating, and wild cards selected by the venue hosting the event.

While shorter matches had taken place at various points, the block of 12 classical games was much shorter than matches had been for much of the 20th century. In the 2018 match, all 12 classical games resulted in draws for the first time in the history of the championship. Following this, the number of games was increased to 14. Citing a lack of motivation and interest in the format, incumbent five-time champion Magnus Carlsen declined to defend his title in 2023. Instead, the match featured the two best performers in the Candidates, with Ding Liren defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi to become the new World Champion. Carlsen later declined his spot in the 2024 Candidates Tournament.

FIDE World Championships (2006–present)

Date	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Format	Ref
2006	Elista	Vladimir Kramnik (3)	6‍–‍6 2½‍–‍1½	Veselin Topalov	Best of 12, tiebreaks if necessary
2007†	Mexico City	Viswanathan Anand (2)	9‍–‍5	Vladimir Kramnik	Double round-robin tournament with 8 players
2008	Bonn	Viswanathan Anand (3)	6½‍–‍4½	Vladimir Kramnik	Best of 12, tiebreaks if necessary
2010	Sofia	Viswanathan Anand (4)	6½‍–‍5½	Veselin Topalov
2012	Moscow	Viswanathan Anand (5)	6‍–‍6 2½‍–‍1½	Boris Gelfand
2013	Chennai	Magnus Carlsen	6½‍–‍3½	Viswanathan Anand
2014	Sochi	Magnus Carlsen (2)	6½‍–‍4½	Viswanathan Anand
2016	New York City	Magnus Carlsen (3)	6‍–‍6 3‍–‍1	Sergey Karjakin
2018	London	Magnus Carlsen (4)	6‍–‍6 3‍–‍0	Fabiano Caruana
2021	Dubai	Magnus Carlsen (5)	7½‍–‍3½	Ian Nepomniachtchi	Best of 14, tiebreaks if necessary
2023	Astana	Ding Liren	7‍–‍7 2½‍–‍1½	Ian Nepomniachtchi
2024	Singapore	Ding Liren 1½‍–‍½ Gukesh Dommaraju (ongoing)

Unrecognized championship events

In 1909, amid discussions that would ultimately culminate with the World Championship match played the following year, Emanuel Lasker played a casual match with Dawid Janowski in Paris. This was reported in later decades as being a World Championship match. However, research by Edward Winter has demonstrated that the title was not at stake.

Unrecognized championship events

Date	Location	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Format
1909	Paris	Emanuel Lasker	8‍–‍2	Dawid Janowski	Best of 10, casual play

See also

• Fischer–Spassky (1992 match) – rematch between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Belgrade 20 years after their first match, considered by Fischer to be and billed as a World Chess Championship

References

Works cited

• Bareev, Evgeny; Levitov, Ilya (2007). From London to Elista. Alkmaar: New in Chess. ISBN 978-90-5691-219-2.
• Capablanca, José Raúl; Chernev, Irving (1977) [1921, 1928]. World's Championship Matches, 1921 and 1927. New York: Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-23189-1.
• Harding, Tim (2012). Eminent Victorian Chess Players: Ten Biographies. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-6568-2.
• Horowitz, Al (1973). The World Chess Championship: A History. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-7134-2762-2.
• Kasparov, Garry (2008). Modern Chess Part 2: Kasparov vs. Karpov 1975–1985. Translated by Neat, Kenneth Philip. London: Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-433-9.
• ——— (2009). Modern Chess Part 3: Kasparov vs. Karpov 1986–1987. Translated by Neat, Kenneth Philip. London: Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-625-8.
• ——— (2010). Modern Chess Part 4: Kasparov vs. Karpov 1988–2009. Translated by Neat, Kenneth Philip. London: Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-652-4.
• Kažić, B. M. (1974). International Championship Chess: A Complete Record of FIDE Events. New York: Pitman. ISBN 978-0-273-07078-8.
• Keene, Raymond; Goodman, David (1986). The Centenary Match: Kasparov–Karpov III. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-5343-0.
• Murray, H. J. R. (2012) [1913]. A History of Chess (Original reprint ed.). New York: Skyhorse. ISBN 978-1-63220-293-2.
• Plisetsky, Dmitry; Voronkov, Sergey (1994). Russians versus Fischer. Chess World. ISBN 978-5-900767-01-7.
• Sergeant, Philip W. (1934). A Century of British Chess. Philadelphia: David McKay. OCLC 1835573.
• Verhoeven, Robert G. P.; Skinner, Leonard M. (1998). Alexander Alekhine's Chess Games, 1902–1946. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0117-8.
• Wilson, Fred, ed. (1975). Classical Chess Matches: 1907–1913. New York: Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-23145-7.
• Winter, Edward, ed. (1981). World Chess Champions. Oxford: Pergamon. ISBN 978-0-08-024117-3.
• ——— (3 April 2023). "Early Uses of 'World Chess Champion'". chesshistory.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
• ——— (29 July 2023) [1988]. "The Termination". New in Chess. Archived from the original on 14 January 2024. Retrieved 6 January 2024 – via chesshistory.com.
• Winter, William (1954). Kings of Chess: Chess Championships of the Twentieth Century. London: Pitman. ISBN 978-4-87187-828-9.

Further reading

• Davidson, Henry A. (1981) [1949]. A Short History of Chess (1st pbk. ed.). New York: McKay. ISBN 978-0-679-14550-9.
• Golombek, Harry (1976). Chess: A History. New York: Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-11575-2.
• Winter, Edward (ed.). "World Chess Championship Rules". Retrieved 9 January 2024 – via chesshistory.com.

External links

• "World Champions Timeline". FIDE World Championship.