List of World Chess Championships

The following is a list of World Chess Championships, including the hosting cities.

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

List 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	London	Pierre Saint-Amant	Howard Staunton	3	2	1
1843	France	Paris	Howard Staunton	Pierre Saint-Amant	11	6	4
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
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
1872	United Kingdom	London	Wilhelm Steinitz (2)	Johannes Zukertort	7	1	4
1876	United Kingdom	London	Wilhelm Steinitz (3)	Joseph Henry Blackburne	7	0	0
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 Saint 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 + tiebreak
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
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
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;[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 Bogoljubov	11	5	9	first-to-6 wins AND 15 points
1934	Nazi Germany	10 cities Baden-Baden Villingen Freiburg im Breisgau Pforzheim Stuttgart Munich Bayreuth Bad Kissingen Mannheim Berlin	Alexander Alekhine (3)	Efim Bogoljubov	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[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			first-to-10 wins
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
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[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

Other[]

Year	Host country	Host city	Winner	Runner(s)-up	Won (+)	Lost (−)	Draw (=)	Format
Non-recognized World Chess Championship
1992	FR Yugoslavia	Sveti Stefan and Belgrade	Bobby Fischer	Boris Spassky	10	5	15	First to reach 10 wins, draws not counting. Fischer claimed this was a world championship.[2]

Multiple times champions[]

Unofficial championships are not counted.

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

Notes[]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Davidson, Henry A. (1949, 1981). A Short History of Chess. McKay. ISBN 0-679-14550-8.
• Barcza, Alföldy, Kapu: Die Weltmeister des Schachspiels. Hamburg 1975
• Jens Enevoldsen: Verdens bedste Skak, Politiken (Denmark) 1966