World Chess Championship

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. The World Champion in Chess is the player who wins The World Chess Championship (WCC).

The first official world championship was in 1886, when the two leading players in Europe and the United States, Johann Zukertort and Wilhelm Steinitz respectively, played a match. From 1886 to 1946, the champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat the champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. In 1993, the reigning champion (Garry Kasparov) broke away from FIDE, which led to the creation of the rival PCA championship. The titles were unified at the World Chess Championship 2006.

This is a list of the world champions since 1886:

Undisputed world champions (1886–1993)

#	Name	Year	Country	Age
1	Wilhelm Steinitz	1886–1894	Austria-Hungary (Bohemia)  United States	50–58
2	Emanuel Lasker	1894–1921	Germany	26–52
3	José Raúl Capablanca	1921–1927	Cuba	33–39
4	Alexander Alekhine	1927–1935 1937–1946	France  Soviet Union Soviet émigré	35–43 45–54
5	Max Euwe	1935–1937	Netherlands	34–36
6	Mikhail Botvinnik	1948–1957 1958–1960 1961–1963	Soviet Union (RSFSR)	37–46 47–49 50–52
7	Vasily Smyslov	1957–1958	Soviet Union (RSFSR)	36
8	Mikhail Tal	1960–1961	Soviet Union (Latvian SSR)	24
9	Tigran Petrosian	1963–1969	Soviet Union (Armenian SSR)	34–40
10	Boris Spassky	1969–1972	Soviet Union (RSFSR)	32–35
11	Bobby Fischer	1972–1975	United States	29–32
12	Anatoly Karpov	1975–1985	Soviet Union (RSFSR)	24–34
13	Garry Kasparov	1985–1993	Soviet Union (Azerbaijan SSR)  Russia	22–30

Undisputed world champions (2006–present)

#	Name	Year	Country	Age
14	Vladimir Kramnik	2006–2007	Russia	31–32
15	Viswanathan Anand	2007–2013	India	38–43
16	Magnus Carlsen	2013–present	Norway	22–23

FIDE world champions (1993–2006)

Name	Year	Country	Age
Anatoly Karpov	1993–1999	Russia	42–48
Alexander Khalifman	1999–2000	Russia	33
Viswanathan Anand	2000–2002	India	31–33
Ruslan Ponomariov	2002–2004	Ukraine	19–21
Rustam Kasimdzhanov	2004–2005	Uzbekistan	25
Veselin Topalov	2005–2006	Bulgaria	30