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- Nathaniel Green
- Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-94) Steinitz is often considered the "father of positional chess." He defeated Johannes Zukertort in the first-ever world championship, held in 1886.
- Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921) Lasker, a highly practical player, was the longest-reigning world champion in chess history. He won the title from Steinitz in 1894 and held it all the way until 1921.
- Jose Raul Capablanca (1921-27) Capablanca, a chess prodigy and one of the best endgame players ever, defeated Lasker 4-0 in 1921 to become world champion.
- Alexander Alekhine (1927-35, 1937-46) Alekhine, known for his attacking play and deep combinations, is the only world champion to die while holding the title.
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Ding Liren, who defeated his opponent Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship. Magnus Carlsen, the previous world champion, had declined to defend his title. The first event recognized as a world championship was the ...
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 ...
- Introduction
- Pre-Steinitz Era
- Era of The Classical Chess Champions
- The ‘Soviet School of Chess’ Era
- PCA and Split of The Title
- Unification of The Title
The title of the World Chess Champion is the highest accolade a chess player can achieve. A number of chess players in the history have been able to climb the chess summit and write their name in the chess history books forever. Since World Chess Championship’s tradition reaches almost 150 years in the past, its history has become quite rich, vast ...
Until the second half of the 19th century, there was no such a thing as a World Chess Championship title. In the early stages of the chess development, there were many players who would become famous many centuries later, such as Gioachino Greco, Sire Kermur de Legal or Francois Andre Philidor. Although they were unofficially recognized as the stro...
Between the official introduction title of the World Chess Champion in 1886 and the end of the World War II, a number of matches for the title were held. This period produced a total of five World Champions and is often referred to as the era of the Classical Chess Champions. The term Classical stems from the character of the play typical for that ...
After Alekhine’s death, the natural question of determining the next World Champion arose. Many believed that Max Euwe, as the last man to beat Alekhine in a match, should be proclaimed as the new/old world champion. However, Soviet delegation, led by Mikhail Botvinnik, was firmly opposed to such a decision. Instead, they proposed the World Champio...
Regardless of the fall of the USSR, FIDE continued to organize its World Championship Matches in three -year cycles. Thus, after the fifth Kasparov – Karpov match, held in 1990, a surprising challenger emerged – the English prodigy Nigel Short. The beginning of the match was set in 1993. However, discontent with the FIDE treatment of the players an...
After Kramnik took the World Championship Title from Kasparov in 2000, the question of the unification of the chess title was opened. In 2002 the infamous Prague Agreement was signed, which envisioned the unification of the chess title. However throughout the years every negotiation about the unification match somehow failed and the status quo rema...
After tough negotiations between both players, in 1886 took place the first officially recognized World Chess Championship. So in the year of 1886 Wilheim Steinitz was proclaimed as the first World Chess Champion. The final result was 10 victories for Steinitz, 5 for Zukertort and 5 draws.
Highly influential analyst and theoretician, the author of positional school in chess, Wilhelm Steinitz became informal #1 in the world after defeating Adolf Andersen in a very close match (London, 1866). Only twenty years later, he won the World Championship match against Zukertort (the USA, 1886) and became the first World Champion.
1. Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-1894) Wilhelm Steinitz, an Austrian-American chess player born in 1836 in Praha, Austria (now Czech Republic), was the first recognized World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1886 to 1894. He defeated Johannes Zukertort in 1886 to become the first official World Chess Champion and defended his title successfully ...
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