The first official match for the world chess championship took place in 1886, between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. Steinitz triumphed with ten wins and five losses. In the twelve decades since then there have been only fourteen chess champions of the world. The roll of champions, with their dates of tenure, is as follows:

This entry contains brief biographies of the world title holders. In a supplementary section there are biographies, too, of the earlier 'unofficial' but generally acknowledged champions Adolf Anderssen and Paul Morphy.

Champions' biographies

Wilhelm Steinitz

b.1836 (Prague), d.1900 (New York). In 1866 Wilhelm Steinitz challenged Adolf Anderssen, then reputed to be the strongest active player in the world, and won +8-6 (with no draws!). Steinitz was the era's supreme match player. He came second in two of the greatest tournaments of the epoch, first at Baden-Baden, 1870, half a point behing Anderssen, and then at London, 1883, three clear points behind Johannes Zukertort. This last result led to a match between Steinitz and Zukertort in 1886 to decide officially who was world champion. Quickly +1-4 down after a terrible start, Steinitz eventually came back to win +10-5=5, to become the first official title holder. He twice successfully defended his title against Mikhail Tchigorin. In 1894 he lost the title to the then relatively little-known Emanuel Lasker, after which his play became less consistent - although some of his finest individual games were played in the twilight of his career. He died in poverty in a New York sanitarium, claiming to have successfully given God odds of 'pawn and move' (i.e. playing black, with his 'f' pawn missing). Steinitz was the first chess master to play to scientific principles, and is regarded as the founder of modern chess. His style was mainly positional, and his defeat of Anderssen, whose style was highly romantic, has been seen as symbolic. The game Steinitz-Lasker, St Petersburg, 1896, shows him launching a fine attack against his successor as world champion.

Emanuel Lasker

b.1868 (Berlinchen), d.1941 (New York). Emanuel Lasker won the title from Steinitz in a match in 1894, +10-5=4, cemented his claim with his great tournament victory at St Petersburg, 1896, and defended the title from Steinitz that same year, winning +10-2=4. Over a period of twenty years he was first in every major tournament he played in, and retained his strength well into his sixties. Amongst his other great tournament victories were London, 1899, Paris, 1900, St Petersburg, 1909 (equal with Akiba Rubinstein), St Petersburg, 1914, and New York, 1924. He lost his title to the great Jose Raoul Capablanca in a match in 1921. It is significant, though, that even Capablanca, who had a plus score against Lasker, never came ahead of him in any tournament they both played in. As late as 1935 Lasker came third at Moscow, after Mikhail Botvinnik, but ahead of Capablanca. Lasker was something of a renaissance man; as well as being champion of the world for 27 years, he was a distinguished mathematician (a pupil of Hilbert) and his name is still attached to a theorem in algebraic geometry. Albert Einstein shared a flat with him at one stage, and declared him to be one of the most interesting people he had known. Lasker's belief was that chess was a struggle between two minds, and this fighting spirit won many points for him from difficult positions. It was said that his style was like a glass of limpid pure water - with a dash of poison in it. The game, Euwe-Lasker, Zurich, 1934, was played late in life against a formidable opponent who the next year became world champion, and is a classic masterpiece in Lasker's battling style.

Jose Raoul Capablanca

b.1888 (Havana), d.1942 (New York). Jose Raoul Capablanca burst onto the scene by winning a very strong tournament at San Sebastian, 1911, half a point clear of another championship contender, Akiba Rubinstein. From 1914 onwards he was probably the strongest player in the world (depite Lasker's great victory at St Petersburg that year), but the war delayed his official challenge until 1921, when he beat Lasker +4-0=10. Remarkably, from 1916 to 1924 he did not lose a single serious game, and acquired an aura of invincibility. Perhaps the high watermark of his career was his victory at New York, 1927. However, he lost his title surprisingly that same year, to Alexander Alekhine, and a rematch never materialised. He won several tournaments after this date, including Moscow, 1936, ahead of Mikhail Botvinnik, and Nottingham, 1936 (a very strong tournament), tied with Botvinnik. His style was beautiful to watch, but not easy to imitate. He won many games seemingly without effort. If Steinitz's philosophy was that chess is a science, and Lasker's that chess is a struggle, Capablanca's games remind us that chess can also be viewed as an art. The game Capablanca-Alekhine, Buenos Aires, 1927, 7th match game, is one such effortless win against his successor as world champion.

Alexander Alekhine

b.1892 (Moscow), d.1946 (Lisbon). Alexander Alekhine scored an early success when he finished in the top five places at the elite tournament in St Petersburg, 1914 (won by Lasker ahead of Capablanca). He emerged as a title challenger after coming third at New York, 1924 (after Lasker and Capablanca), winning at Baden-Baden, 1925, and coming second at New York, 1927 (after Capablanca). But it was still a surprise when he took the title by beating Capablanca in 1927, +6-3=25. His strength was still improving, and he won San Remo, 1930, and Bled, 1931, by huge margins. However, in 1935 he was defeated, to general surprise, by Max Euwe. He won his title back again in 1937, +10-4=9. The outbreak of war prevented a title challenge from within the ranks of the rising generation of Soviet masters, and he died in exile in 1946, the only chess player to have died as world champion. The title was vacant until 1948. Alekhine was a brilliant tactical player, who won some of the most beautiful games in the history of chess. It was said that in order to prevail against him one needed to defeat him three times: in the opening, in the middlegame, and in the endgame. Nobody excelled him in the art of winning won games. The game Rubinstein-Alekhine, Semmering, 1926, features a typical tactical thunderbolt in an apparently level position.

Max Euwe

b. 1901 (Amsterdam), d.1981 (Amsterdam). When Max Euwe played Alexander Alekhine in a training match in 1926-27, Euwe lost only by the odd game. However, when nine years later in 1935, Euwe beat Alekhine, +9-8=13, there was general surprise. He lost the title back to the same opponent two years later. During the second world war or shortly afterwards Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine all died, and Euwe was therefore one of the few links between pre-war and post-war chess at the very highest level (others were Mikhail Botvinnik and Paul Keres). He came equal first at Hastings, 1934, ahead of Capablanca and Botvinnik. He came fourth at the AVRO tournament in Rotterdam, 1938, behind Keres and Botvinnik, but level with world champion Alekhine and ahead of Capablanca - this was perhaps the strongest tournament ever. After the war he was second to Botvinnik at Groningen, 1946, ahead of Vasily Smyslov. However, at the elite tournament organised at The Hague and Moscow to settle the world championship in 1948 he was clearly out of form and finished last (Botvinnik won, ahead of Smyslov and Keres). Euwe was multi-talented; he had a doctorate in maths and qualified, sometimes highly, in accountancy, swimming, boxing and aviation. He was fluent in six languages, and is said to have planned his whole existence on mathematically efficient lines. He completed a unique double when from 1970-1978 he was President of FIDE (Federation Internationale Des Echecs). Among the events he oversaw was the famous match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer in 1972. Euwe's playing style was logical and clear, although he was also at home in incalculable positions where intuition was required. The game Euwe-Alekhine, Zandvoort, 1935, shows him overcoming his great opponent in such a game (known as the 'Pearl of Zandvoort').

Mikhail Botvinnik

b.1911 (Kuokkala, now Repino), d.1995 (Moscow). Mikhail Botvinnik was first noticed when at the age of fourteen he beat Capablanca in a simultaneous display. He won various strong tournaments in the 1930s, and won the world championship in 1948 by winning the elite tournament at The Hague and Moscow, ahead of Vasily Smyslov, and the more widely fancied Paul Keres. In 1951 he drew a title match with David Bronstein, +5-5=14 (he stayed champion; a draw maintains the status quo). In 1954 he drew a title match with Smyslov, +7-7=10, but in 1957 Smyslov beat him. However, at that time the champion had the right to a re-match, which he won, +7-5=11. In 1960 he lost to the 23 year-old prodigy Mikhail Tal, but beat him the following year, +10-5=6. In 1963 he lost to Tigran Petrosian, and by then the rules had changed; the champion no longer had the right to a re-match. He won the Soviet championship six times, and also the very strong tournament at Moscow, 1956 (equal with Smyslov). Botvinnik's style was scientific and logical. He sought unbalanced positions where his superior positional skills would prevail over the opponent's. He trained hard, under deliberately adverse conditions. In his autobiography he reveals how in 1948 he was confident that he would beat his rival Keres, having methodically diagnosed his weaknesses in advance. Nonetheless he was an amateur (in the same sense as other great players like Euwe and Lasker), working as a engineer. After 1970 he worked in the development of chess playing computers. The game, Botvinnik-Capablanca, Rotterdam, 1938, shows his positional attacking style at its best.

Vasily Smyslov

b.1921 (Moscow). Vasily Smyslov came second in the World Championship tournament in 1948 (won by Botvinnik). He was USSR co-champion in 1949, with David Bronstein. He won the celebrated Candidates' tournament at Zurich, 1953 (ahead of Keres, Bronstein and Petrosian), but only drew (and thus failed to win) the following title match against Botvinnik in 1954. In 1955 he came equal first in the USSR championship for the second time, and then won at Moscow, 1956 (equal with Botvinnik). In 1956 he won the Candidates' tournament at Amsterdam/Leeuwarden (ahead of Keres, Bronstein, Petrosian and the up-and-coming Boris Spassky), and in the title match defeated Botvinnik, +6-3=13. He lost the title back to Botvinnik a year later, but over the three matches he had a plus score with the world champion. As well as being one of a select group of grandmasters to have won more than one candidate's tournament (the others are Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov), Smyslov kept his playing strength for many years. As late as 1983 he reached the finals, only to be defeated by Gary Kasparov. Smyslov's style was positional, and he was renowned for his technique in the endgame. However, the game, Botvinnik-Smyslov, game 14 from the 1954 match, shows he could play brilliantly in the middlegame too.

Mikhail Tal

b.1936 (Riga), d.1992 (Moscow). Mikhail Tal was still very young when he won the Soviet championship in 1957 and 1958, and came first at Zurich, 1959. He then won the candidates' tournament at Bled, 1959-60, in the process beating the even younger Bobby Fischer four times out of four. In 1960 he beat Botvinnik in one of the best championship matches, +6-2=13 (which he wrote up in a fine book) and became world champion at the age of 23 - at that time, the youngest ever. However, he became the youngest person to lose the title when he was defeated by Botvinnik - and perhaps bad health - in the rematch in 1961. Despite chronic illness, Tal remained one of the strongest players in the world until his early death in 1992 of kidney failure. He won the Soviet Championship six times (a record he shares with Botvinnik), and several other top flight tournaments, including Montreal, 1979 (equal with Karpov), but he never again challenged for the world title. Popularly known as the 'Wizard of Riga', Mikhail Tal had an extraordinarily brilliant attacking style, and his games are full of combinational fireworks. Many games that he played are all-time favourites, and in recognition of this three of them are presented here, all of them attacking victories against world champions: Tal-Fischer, Bled, 1959, Tal-Smyslov, Bled, 1959 and Tal-Petrosian, Moscow, 1974.

Tigran Petrosian

b.1921 (Tblisi), d.1984 (Moscow). Tigran Petrosian won the candidates tournament at Curacao, 1962 (without a single loss), and defeated Botvinnik in 1963, +5-2=15. He defeated the next challenger, Boris Spassky, in 1966, +4-3=17. He thus became the first title holder since Alekhine (in 1934) to win a match in defense of his title (Botvinnik had drawn two). However, his reign came to an end when he lost to Spassky in 1969. In tournament play, he won the Soviet Championship in 1959 and 1961, and came second three times. He won the international tournament at Lone Pine, 1976, and was a regular fixture in the candidates' matches to the end of his career, playing in 1971 (when he lost to Fischer), 1974, 1977 and 1980. Petrosian's style was positional, and sometimes inscrutable. He was expert at manoeuvring in closed positions, and in many of his games (some of them beautiful) one has the impression that his opponent was completely out of his depth. He seldom lost a game, but was held to a draw more often than other champions. In the game, Keres-Petrosian, Bled, 1959, lengthy jockeying for position leads to an imaginative sacrifical attack on the king.

Boris Spassky

b.1937 (Leningrad). Boris Spassky came to the attention of the public after a famous game in 1953, when aged only sixteen he beat Vasily Smyslov, then just one year away from challenging Botvinnik for the world title. Spassky became junior world champion two years later. He shared first place in the USSR championship in 1956, took sole first in 1961, and shared first again in 1963. In 1965 he came through the candidates' matches (beating Tal and Keres) to challenge Petrosian for the title, but lost by the narrowest of margins. However, in 1968 he again won the candidates' matches (beating Korchnoi), and in 1969 he defeated Petrosian, +6-4=13. In 1972 he lost his title by some distance to Bobby Fischer; he appeared to be out of form (before the match he had a dominant record against Fischer). In 1973 he bounced back by winning the USSR championship. He played in the candidates matches in 1974 (losing to Karpov, the eventual champion), 1977 and 1980, and won the tournaments at Bugojno, 1981 (equal with Karpov) and Linares, 1983. A popular champion, Spassky's style was elegant and dashing, with a bias towards attack - although in later years he became more cautious. The celebrated game, Spassky-Bronstein, Leningrad, 1960, is a tour de force against a world class opponent, with a remarkable sacrifice on the fifteenth move.

Bobby Fischer

b.1943 (New York). Bobby Fischer won a famous game in 1956 at the age of thirteen, beating a strong US Master, Donald Byrne, in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament, New York. He was US champion 8 times in 8 attempts: 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1966. He withdrew from the Interzonal tournament in Sousse, 1967, while in the lead, after a dispute about playing conditions. Otherwise he rather than Spassky might well have become world champion in 1969. However, he won the Interzonal at Palma de Mallorca in 1970, 3.5 points ahead of the field, and then in 1971 embarked on a remarkable run of victories in the candidates' matches, winning 17 games out of 21 against world class opposition, and crushing former world champion Petrosian in the process, +5-1=3 (these included the only games he failed to win in the entire sequence). He then defeated Spassky in 1972 at Reykjavik, +7-3=11. Immediately afterwards, at the peak of his playing strength, he went into retirement, and thus ceded the title to Anatoly Karpov in 1975. Twenty years later, in 1992, he came out of retirement to play Spassky (still a strong grandmaster), and won again, +10-5=15. Fischer's style is best described as forceful, an adaptable mixture of positional attacking play supported by tactics. The game Fischer-Spassky, Reykjavik, 1972, game 6 of the match that won him the title, shows this concerted style at its best.

Anatoly Karpov

b.1951 (Leningrad). Anatoly Karpov took the title from Fischer by default in 1975, having previously overcome Viktor Korchnoi +3-2=19. Karpov defeated Korchnoi twice in the next two championship finals, first in 1978, +6-5=21, after winning the final game (under new rules the winner was the first to win six games), and then in 1981, +6-2=10. In 1984 Karpov was challenged by a new star, Gary Kasparov. He won four games quickly, then another; but was held by his younger opponent to a series of draws until the match was abandoned. The score was +5-3=40 (Kasparov had just won two games in a row). A replay was arranged for 1985, which Kasparov won. There were succeeding matches in 1986 (won by Kasparov) and 1987 (drawn - which meant that Kasparov kept the title) and 1990 (Kasparov again won). In 2002 he managed to win a brief quick-play exhibition match against his nemesis, +2-1=1. Karpov battled through the Candidate's matches no fewer than three times, in 1974, 1986 and 1989. His stature is proven by his phenomenal tournament record, which is by traditional measures the most successful of all time (although it is under threat from Kasparov). He dominated the chess world from 1975 to 1985, winning at Bugojno, 1978 (equal with Spassky), Montreal, 1979 (equal with Tal), Moscow, 1981, Tilburg, 1983, Brussels, 1988, Skelleftea, 1989 (tied with Kasparov), and the USSR Championship in 1976 and 1983; yet his finest win was a decade later, at Linares, 1994, when he came 2.5 points ahead of Kasparov and other leading players in one of the strongest performances of all time. A positional player, Karpov's style is marked by an attractive clarity and control of the position. The game, Karpov-Korchnoi, 1974, game 2 of the match that effectively won him the title, is a smooth attacking performance against a great opponent.

Gary Kasparov

b.Baku (1963). In 1983 Gary Kasparov defeated Korchnoi and Smyslov to win the right to challenge Karpov for the world championship. After the aborted first match Kasparov won the second, +5-3=16. He won the replay in 1986, +5-4=15. He played Karpov for the third time in 1987, and this time the match was drawn +4-4=16 (Kasparov kept the title). In 1990 Kasparov won again, +4-3=17. In five world championship matches against Karpov his record was +21-19=104. In 1993 he defended his title against a challenge from Nigel Short (who had defeated Karpov in the candidates' match), and won +6-1=13. In 1995 he played a championship match against Viswanathan Anand, winning +4-1=13. In 2000 he lost his title to Vladimir Kramnik in a relatively short match, but remains possibly the strongest player in the world at the time of writing (2005). Kasparov's tournament record is by some measures even more impressive than Karpov's, including victories at Belfort in 1988, Skelleftea in 1989 (tied with Karpov), Wijk aan Zee in 1999, and Linares in 1992, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2000 (tied with Vladimir Kramnik) and 2005 (tied with Veselin Topalov). After this last success he announced his retirement. Several of his tournament victories have been gained by crushing margins. Kasparov's style is aggressive, exciting and often very brilliant. He characteristically steers for highly complex middlegames, where he is peerless. The masterpiece, Karpov-Kasparov, 1985, game 16, is a good advertisement for his approach.

The great series of matches between Kasparov and Karpov produced perhaps the finest set of games on record between any two players. Here are two: Karpov-Kasparov, 1985, game 4, shows Karpov firmly in control, while in Kasparov-Karpov, 1986, game 16, Kasparov prevails after conjuring up wild complications.

Vladimir Kramnik

b.1975 (Tuapse). Vladimir Kramnik played as first reserve for the Russian team at the Chess Olympiad in Manila in 1992, at the age of sixteen. At the time he was not yet a grandmaster. He won at Dortmund, 1995, and then in 1996, 1997 and 1998. By the year 2000 he had played Kasparov a total 23 times, with an 'evens' score (+3-3=17), the only player to have such a record over so many encounters. Kasparov pointed him out as the greatest challenge to his crown. In 2000 the two played a relatively short match for the world championship and Kramnik won, +2-0=13. Since defeating Kasparov he has continued his very strong tournament form, coming first equal at Dortmund in 2000 and 2001, and Linares in both 2000 (with Kasparov) and 2003 (ahead of Kasparov). In 2004 he successfully defended his title, drawing a 14 game match against Peter Leko, +2-2=10. The game, Kramnik-Kasparov, Novgorod, 1997, is a good example of his style.

Wiswanathan Anand

Note dated 22/10/08: entry in preparation for Anand, who is ahead 4.5-1.5 in the world title match against Kramnik.

Supplement

Before Steinitz there were earlier unofficial champions. Steinitz himself reckoned his term not from the first 'official' championship match in 1886 when he defeated Johannes Zukertort, but from a point twenty years earlier.

In 1866 Steinitz defeated the the person who was generally acknowledged as the world's strongest player at the time, Adolf Anderssen. Anderssen had reigned unofficially from 1851, when he won the tournament of the Great London Exhibition, the first of its kind. And in the midst of his time at the top, in 1858, he temporarily lost his crown in a match with the American phenomenon Paul Morphy, who however promptly retired.

Brief biographical notes on these two great players are given below.

Adolf Anderssen

b.1828 (Breslau), d.1879 (Breslau). Adolf Anderssen was the surprise winner at the tournament in London, 1851, and from then until Steinitz beat him in 1866 he was reckoned as the world's leading player - with the exception of the two years when Paul Morphy burst onto the scene (see next entry). He continued to be the best tournament player for years after that, winning the great tournament at Baden-Baden, 1870 (Steinitz came second). However, his amateur status - he was a teacher of mathematics at a secondary school in Breslau - may have prevented him from carrying out the preparation necessary for serious match play, and after losing to Steinitz he lost matches to his protege, Johannes Zukertort (whom he had previously beaten), and the well known theoretician, Louis Paulsen (who had already drawn a match with him in 1862). Anderssen's style remains legendary: he was a wonderful tactical player, and he played perhaps the two most famous games in history (neither of them serious), the 'Immortal' game vs Kieseritzky, London, 1851, and the 'Evergreen' game vs Dufresne, Berlin, 1852. The game Steinitz-Anderssen, Baden-Baden, 1870, shows how Anderssen's romantic style of play could overwhelm even the great Steinitz. As an interesting footnote, in 1851 Anderssen was also regarded as the best draughts player in the world.

Paul Morphy

b.1837 (New Orleans), d.1884 (New Orleans). A qualified lawyer from Louisiana, Paul Morphy's career in chess was brief but astonishing. In 1857 he won a tournament in New York, beating Louis Paulsen +5-1=2 in the process. The following year he toured Europe and defeated everyone he played, including Anderssen, +7-2=2 - although it has to be said that Anderssen appears to have been off form, to judge from the match games. After this achievement Morphy returned to New Orleans and retired from chess. Morphy's style is pleasant on the eye; he was a fine tactical player, but his combinations were underpinned by a positional awareness that was foreign to Anderssen's generation, and was not articulated until years later by Steinitz. Morphy's most famous game, Paulsen-Morphy, New York, 1857, shows him demolishing a strong opponent with a surprising queen sacrifice.