History

The first official World Chess Championship happened in 1886 when Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Johannes Zukertort and became the first official world champion. Following Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, and GM Max Euwe defeated the reigning world champions to steal the crown. Alekhine eventually won his title after a rematch against Euwe, later dying while still occupying the throne.

GM Mikhail Botvinnik then became the next world champion. During his reign, Botvinnik lost and recouped his title twice, first to GM Vasily Smyslov and later to GM Mikhail Tal. Botvinnik finally lost his title for good in a match against GM Tigran Petrosian.

GM Boris Spassky then defeated Petrosian to become the next world champion. In 1972, GM Bobby Fischer emerged from the "Match of the Century" as the new world champion and ended the Soviet hegemony—albeit briefly.

Fischer made demands for his match against GM Anatoly Karpov, which FIDE refused to meet. Fischer then forfeited his title, and Karpov was declared the new world champion. Karpov held the title for 10 years before losing it to GM Garry Kasparov.

Kasparov defeated Karpov in three subsequent matches and then made his own demands for his next world championship match, which FIDE once more denied. Kasparov then parted ways from FIDE and founded a rival international chess organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA). The world champion title was then split, with PCA and FIDE both organizing world championship matches, from 1993 until 2006.

During that period, Karpov, GMs Alexander Khalifman, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Veselin Topalov became FIDE world champions. However, these titles have been disputed for numerous reasons.

At the same time, Kasparov won the PCA world championship matches successfully against GMs Nigel Short and Anand but lost his title to GM Vladimir Kramnik. For this reason, Kramnik is considered the 14th World Champion.

Kramnik first defended his title against GM Peter Leko, then won a "reunification match" against Topalov in 2006—the FIDE world champion. Since then, FIDE has taken sole control of world championship matches. Kramnik kept his title until Anand took it in 2007.

Anand won the next three championship matches before losing his title to Carlsen. The Norwegian kept his crown by defeating Anand in 2014, Sergey Karjakin in 2016, Caruana in 2018, and Nepomniachtchi in 2021. However, upon Ding Liren's 2023 crowning as the next world champion, Carlsen lost that status.