History of World Chess Championships

The following is a history of World Chess Championships.

Before 1948, the matches were privately organised. After 1948, challengers were usually chosen by a Candidates Tournament.

History of World Chess Championships

Unofficial Championships (before 1886)

These matches and tournaments were not for the world championship, but retrospectively they have been fairly widely recognized as establishing the world's leading player at the time.

Year	Host country	Host city	Winner	Runner(s)-up	Won (+)	Lost (−)	Draw (=)	Format
1834	United Kingdom	London	Louis de La Bourdonnais	Alexander McDonnell	45	27	13
1843	United Kingdom and France	London (6 rounds) Paris (21 rounds)	Howard Staunton	Pierre Saint-Amant	13	9	5
1846	United Kingdom	London	Howard Staunton (2)	Bernhard Horwitz	14	7	3
1851	United Kingdom	London	Adolf Anderssen	Marmaduke Wyvill	4	2	1	single-elimination tournament, best-of-7 final
1858	France	Paris	Paul Morphy	Adolf Anderssen	7	2	2	first to 7 wins
1862	United Kingdom	London	Adolf Anderssen (2)	Louis Paulsen	11	1	1	round robin tournament, 14 players
1866	United Kingdom	London	Wilhelm Steinitz	Adolf Anderssen	8	6	0	best of 15 games
1872	United Kingdom	London	Wilhelm Steinitz (2)	Johannes Zukertort	7	1	4	first to 7 wins
1876	United Kingdom	London	Wilhelm Steinitz (3)	Joseph Henry Blackburne	7	0	0	first to 7 wins
1883	United Kingdom	London	Johannes Zukertort	Wilhelm Steinitz	22	4	0	double round robin tournament, 14 players

Pre-FIDE World Championships (1886–1946)

With Steinitz and Zukertort each having a claim to be the world's best player, the two played a match in 1886 for the first World Championship. From then until 1946, there was no formal system: matches were privately organized between the champion and challenger, and the challenger became the new World Champion if he won.

Year	Host country	Host city	World champion	Runner(s)-up	Won (+)	Lost (−)	Draw (=)	Format
1886	United States	New York City St. Louis New Orleans	Wilhelm Steinitz	Johannes Zukertort	10	5	5	first to 10 wins
1889	Spain	Havana	Wilhelm Steinitz (2)	Mikhail Chigorin	10	6	1	best of 20 games + tiebreak (if required)
1890–1891	United States	New York City	Wilhelm Steinitz (3)	Isidor Gunsberg	6	4	9
1892	Spain	Havana	Wilhelm Steinitz (4)	Mikhail Chigorin	8+2	8	4+1
1894	United States and Canada	New York City Philadelphia Montreal	Emanuel Lasker	Wilhelm Steinitz	10	5	4	first to 10 wins
1896–1897	Russian Empire	Moscow	Emanuel Lasker (2)	Wilhelm Steinitz	10	2	5	first to 10 wins
1907	United States	6 cities New York City Philadelphia Washington, D.C. Baltimore Chicago Memphis	Emanuel Lasker (3)	Frank Marshall	8	0	7	first to 8 wins
1908	German Empire	Düsseldorf Munich	Emanuel Lasker (4)	Siegbert Tarrasch	8	3	5	first to 8 wins
1910	Austria-Hungary and German Empire	Vienna Berlin	Emanuel Lasker (5)	Carl Schlechter	1	1	8	best of 10; disputed whether challenger had to win by 1 or 2 points^[a]^[b]
1910	German Empire	Berlin	Emanuel Lasker (6)	Dawid Janowski	8	0	3	first to 8 wins
1921	Cuba	Havana	José Raúl Capablanca	Emanuel Lasker	4	0	10	best of 24 games;^[a] Emanuel Lasker resigned after 14 games
1927	Argentina	Buenos Aires	Alexander Alekhine	José Raúl Capablanca	6	3	25	first to 6 wins
1929	Germany and Netherlands	6 cities Wiesbaden Heidelberg Berlin The Hague Rotterdam Amsterdam	Alexander Alekhine (2)	Efim Bogoljubow	11	5	9	first to 6 wins and 15 points
1934	German Reich	10 cities Baden-Baden Villingen Freiburg im Breisgau Pforzheim Stuttgart Munich Bayreuth Bad Kissingen Mannheim Berlin	Alexander Alekhine (3)	Efim Bogoljubow	8	3	15
1935	Netherlands	13 cities Amsterdam Delft Rotterdam Utrecht Gouda The Hague Groningen Baarn Den Bosch Eindhoven Zeist Ermelo Zandvoort	Max Euwe	Alexander Alekhine	9	8	13
1937	Netherlands	7 cities The Hague Rotterdam Amsterdam Haarlem Leiden Groningen Delft	Alexander Alekhine (4)	Max Euwe	10	4	11

FIDE World Championships (1948–1990)

Alexander Alekhine died in 1946 while still World Chess Champion, after which the International Chess Federation (FIDE) organized the World Championships. This began with a one-off tournament in 1948. After that there was a 3-year cycle, in which a series of tournaments was held to decide the challenger, who then played the champion in a match for the World Championship.

Year	Host country	Host city	World champion	Runner(s)-up	Won (+)	Lost (−)	Draw (=)	Format
1948	Netherlands and Soviet Union	The Hague Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik	Vasily Smyslov	14 points out of 20			5-player, 5-cycle round-robin tournament
1951	Soviet Union	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik (2)	David Bronstein	5	5	14	best of 24 games^[a]
1954	Soviet Union	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik (3)	Vasily Smyslov	7	7	10
1957	Soviet Union	Moscow	Vasily Smyslov	Mikhail Botvinnik	6	3	13
1958	Soviet Union	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik (4)	Vasily Smyslov	7	5	11
1960	Soviet Union	Moscow	Mikhail Tal	Mikhail Botvinnik	6	2	13
1961	Soviet Union	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik (5)	Mikhail Tal	10	5	6
1963	Soviet Union	Moscow	Tigran Petrosian	Mikhail Botvinnik	5	2	15
1966	Soviet Union	Moscow	Tigran Petrosian (2)	Boris Spassky	4	3	17
1969	Soviet Union	Moscow	Boris Spassky	Tigran Petrosian	6	4	13
1972	Iceland	Reykjavík	Bobby Fischer	Boris Spassky	7	3	11
1975	Philippines	Manila	Anatoly Karpov	Bobby Fischer	by default
1978	Philippines	Baguio	Anatoly Karpov (2)	Viktor Korchnoi	6	5	21	first to 6 wins
1981	Italy	Merano	Anatoly Karpov (3)	Viktor Korchnoi	6	2	10	first to 6 wins
1984–1985	Soviet Union	Moscow	No winner	Anatoly Karpov / Garry Kasparov	5	3	40	first to 6 wins; unfinished match
1985	Soviet Union	Moscow	Garry Kasparov	Anatoly Karpov	5	3	16	best of 24 games^[a]
1986	United Kingdom and Soviet Union	London Leningrad	Garry Kasparov (2)	Anatoly Karpov	5	4	15
1987	Spain	Seville	Garry Kasparov (3)	Anatoly Karpov	4	4	16
1990	United States and France	New York City Lyon	Garry Kasparov (4)	Anatoly Karpov	4	3	17

Split title (1993–2006)

In 1993, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov and challenger Nigel Short split from FIDE, and played their title match under the auspices of the Professional Chess Association. In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title and arranged its own World Championship match between former champion Anatoly Karpov and Candidates finalist Jan Timman. For the next 13 years there were two rival world titles.

Beginning with the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996, FIDE changed its rules and the incumbent World Champion was no longer automatically qualified for the final match; but this tradition was maintained for the Classical title.

Year	Host country	Host city	World champion	Runner(s)-up	Won (+)	Lost (−)	Draw (=)	Format
Classical World Chess Championships (1993–2006)
1993	United Kingdom	London	Garry Kasparov (5)	Nigel Short	6	1	13	best of 24^[a]
1995	United States	New York City	Garry Kasparov (6)	Viswanathan Anand	4	1	13	best of 20^[a]
2000	United Kingdom	London	Vladimir Kramnik	Garry Kasparov	2	0	13	best of 16^[a]
2004	Switzerland	Brissago	Vladimir Kramnik (2)	Peter Leko	2	2	10	best of 14^[a]
FIDE World Chess Championships (1993–2006)
1993	Netherlands and Indonesia	Zwolle Arnhem Amsterdam Jakarta	Anatoly Karpov (4)	Jan Timman	6	2	13	best of 24^[a]
1996	Russia	Elista	Anatoly Karpov (5)	Gata Kamsky	6	3	9	best of 20^[a]
1998	Netherlands and Switzerland	Groningen Lausanne	Anatoly Karpov (6)	Viswanathan Anand	2+2	2	2	single-elimination tournament with finals best of 6 + tiebreaks
1999	United States	Las Vegas	Alexander Khalifman	Vladimir Akopian	2	1	3
2000	India and Iran	New Delhi Tehran	Viswanathan Anand	Alexei Shirov	3	0	1
2002	Russia	Moscow	Ruslan Ponomariov	Vasyl Ivanchuk	2	0	5	single-elimination tournament with finals best of 8 + tiebreaks
2004	Libya	Tripoli	Rustam Kasimdzhanov	Michael Adams	2+1	2	2+1	single-elimination tournament with finals best of 6 + tiebreaks
2005	Argentina	Potrero de los Funes San Luis	Veselin Topalov	Viswanathan Anand Peter Svidler	10 points out of 14			8-player double round-robin tournament

FIDE World Championships (2006–present)

The Classical and FIDE titles were unified with the 2006 match between Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE champion Veselin Topalov. All subsequent championships have been administered by FIDE. Since 2008, FIDE has returned to the format of an incumbent champion playing a challenger.

Year	Host country	Host city	World champion	Runner(s)-up	Won (+)	Lost (−)	Draw (=)	Format
2006	Russia	Elista	Vladimir Kramnik (3)	Veselin Topalov	3+2	3+1	6+1	best of 12 + tiebreaks
2007	Mexico	Mexico City	Viswanathan Anand (2)	Vladimir Kramnik Boris Gelfand	9 points out of 14			8-player double round-robin tournament
2008	Germany	Bonn	Viswanathan Anand (3)	Vladimir Kramnik	3	1	7	best of 12 + tiebreaks
2010	Bulgaria	Sofia	Viswanathan Anand (4)	Veselin Topalov	3	2	7
2012	Russia	Moscow	Viswanathan Anand (5)	Boris Gelfand	1+1	1	10+3
2013	India	Chennai	Magnus Carlsen	Viswanathan Anand	3	0	7
2014	Russia	Sochi	Magnus Carlsen (2)	Viswanathan Anand	3	1	7
2016	United States	New York City	Magnus Carlsen (3)	Sergey Karjakin	1+2	1	10+2
2018	United Kingdom	London	Magnus Carlsen (4)	Fabiano Caruana	0+3	0	12
2021	United Arab Emirates	Dubai	Magnus Carlsen (5)	Ian Nepomniachtchi ^[c]	4	0	7	best of 14 + tiebreaks
2023	Kazakhstan	Astana	Ding Liren^[d]	Ian Nepomniachtchi^[e]	3+1	3	8+3
2024	Singapore	Singapore	Gukesh D.	Ding Liren	3	2	9

Other

Year	Host country	Host city	Winner	Runner(s)-up	Won (+)	Lost (−)	Draw (=)	Format
Non-recognized World Chess Championships
1909	France	Paris	Emanuel Lasker	Dawid Janowski	7	1	2	Best of 10. This match has sometimes been called a world championship match,^[2] but research by Edward Winter demonstrates that the title was not at stake.^[3]
1992	FR Yugoslavia	Sveti Stefan Belgrade	Bobby Fischer	Boris Spassky	10	5	15	First to reach 10 wins, draws not counting. Fischer claimed this was a world championship.^[4]

Multiple-title champions

Unofficial championships are not counted.

Titles	Player	Country
6	Emanuel Lasker	German Empire
	Anatoly Karpov (3 during split title)	Soviet Union Russia
	Garry Kasparov (2 during split title)	Soviet Union Russia
5	Mikhail Botvinnik	Soviet Union
	Magnus Carlsen	Norway
	Viswanathan Anand (1 during split title)	India
4	Wilhelm Steinitz	Austrian Empire United States
4	Alexander Alekhine	France
3	Vladimir Kramnik (2 during split title)	Russia
2	Tigran Petrosian	Soviet Union

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j In the case of a tie, the title defender retains the world championship.
^ There is dispute over whether Lasker would keep the title in the case of a 1 point win by Schlechter, and even question over whether the match was for the world championship. See World Chess Championship 1910 (Lasker–Schlechter) for discussion.
^ Nepomniachtchi is Russian, but competed as a neutral competitor under the Chess Federation of Russia flag, due to WADA sanctions against Russia.^[1]
^ Since Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his World Championship title, the 2023 world championship was contested between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, the winner and runner-up of the Candidates Tournament 2022.
^ Nepomniachtchi is Russian, but competed under the FIDE flag due to the ban of Russian and Belarusian flags by FIDE due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

^ Nepomniachtchi Can't Play Carlsen Under Russian Flag, Peter Doggers, chess.com, April 30 2021.
^ For instance: "From Morphy to Fischer", Israel Horowitz, Batsford 1973, p. 64; "The Centenary Match - Kasparov-Karpov III", Raymond Keene and David Goodman, Batsford 1986
^ Chess Notes 5199, by Edward Winter
^ "World Chess Championship : 1992 Fischer – Spassky Rematch". Mark-weeks.com. Retrieved 1 February 2014.