World Chess Champions: from Steinitz to Gukesh

The world chess champion isn't decided by one big tournament. Traditionally, a challenger plays a long match against the reigning champion, and the winner takes the title. Since 1886, only a little over a dozen people have ever been official world champion. This article goes through them in order, and when you're done and want to play a game yourself, you can play chess for free.

All the world champions at a glance

Between 1993 and 2006, the world title split into two lines. The table shows the traditional match line, which is explained further down.

The early years: Steinitz to Euwe

• Steinitz: Beat Zukertort in 1886 to become the first official world champion. His idea of "pile up small advantages first, then attack" makes him the father of positional play.
• Lasker: Held the title for 27 years, longer than any other champion. Many people think he paid special attention to his opponent's psychology, choosing moves that made the other player uncomfortable rather than always the objectively best move.
• Capablanca: The Cuban genius whose chess looked effortless, with especially strong endgame technique. When he beat Lasker in 1921, he didn't lose a single game in the whole match.
• Alekhine: Beat Capablanca in 1927 and was famous for complex, ferocious attacks. He lost to Euwe of the Netherlands in 1935, won the title back two years later, and died in 1946 while still champion, the only champion to die holding the title. Today's Alekhine's Defense is named after him.
• Euwe: A math teacher who played chess in his spare time, and later even served as president of FIDE.

The Soviet era

After Alekhine died, FIDE held a multi-player tournament in 1948, won by Botvinnik. For more than twenty years after that, every champion was a Soviet player:

• Botvinnik: Extremely rigorous in study and preparation, he's called the "patriarch of the Soviet school". Back then a champion who lost could demand a rematch the following year, and he used that rule to win the title back twice.
• Smyslov: A natural, harmonious style, and especially strong in endgames.
• Tal: Became champion at just 23, famous for daring sacrifices and attacks, and nicknamed "the Magician from Riga".
• Petrosian: A master of defense, very good at defusing danger before his opponent's attack even got going.
• Spassky: Strong in both attack and defense, he lost to Fischer in Iceland in 1972.

Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov

• Fischer: In 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland, he beat Spassky 12.5–8.5, ending 24 years of Soviet dominance and causing a worldwide sensation during the Cold War. But in 1975 he refused to defend his title under FIDE's conditions, and the title went straight to Karpov.
• Karpov: Slowly squeezed his opponents like a python. He held the title for ten years and is one of the players with the most tournament wins.
• Kasparov: In 1984 he and Karpov played 48 games without a winner, and the match was stopped partway. In the 1985 rematch he won 13–11 and became, at 22, the youngest world champion up to that time. He ruled the chess world for twenty years. His 1997 battle with the computer Deep Blue is covered in computer chess.

Split and reunification

In 1993, Kasparov and his challenger Short broke away from FIDE and organized their own championship match. For more than a decade after that, the world had two "world champions" at once:

• The traditional line: Kasparov kept defending his title until 2000 in London, when he lost 8.5–6.5 to Kramnik. Kramnik used the Berlin Defense of the Ruy Lopez to hold off White, and Kasparov didn't win a single game in the whole match.
• The FIDE line: At first it still used matches, with Karpov defending the title. Later it switched to knockout events or multi-player tournaments, producing several champions in turn, including Anand and Topalov.

In 2006, Kramnik beat Topalov and the two lines were reunited.

Carlsen and the new generation

• Anand: India's first grandmaster. He became undisputed world champion in 2007 and sparked a chess boom in India.
• Carlsen: Beat Anand 6.5–3.5 in Chennai, India, in 2013, then defended his title four times. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. In 2022 he announced he wouldn't defend his title again, so the 2023 championship was contested by others.
• Ding Liren: In the 2023 championship against Nepomniachtchi, the classical games ended 7–7, and he won in the rapid tiebreaks to become China's first men's world champion.
• Gukesh: At the end of 2024 in Singapore, he beat Ding Liren 7.5–6.5 and, at 18, became the youngest undisputed world champion in history.

Women's world champions

The women's world championship began in 1927, and the first champion was the Czech-born British player Menchik. The best known in recent times include China's Hou Yifan, who won at 16 to become the youngest women's champion ever, and Ju Wenjun, a multiple-time champion.

Women can also play in the "open" world championship cycle. Hungary's Judit Polgár never played in the women's world championship. She focused on competing against men and at one point broke into the world top ten.

Frequently asked questions

Give it a try

Every one of these champions started with their first game. Play chess online against the computer and work your way up from Beginner. To find out how chess got to where it is today, read on with the history of chess.

Practise in a game

Read next

• The History of ChessWhere chess came from, when the queen became the strongest piece, and how the rules and tournaments grew into what they are today over 1,500 years.
• Chess Ratings and TitlesHow ratings are calculated, how many points you gain for a win, and what rating you need for titles like grandmaster and international master.
• Computer ChessHow computers play chess, how Deep Blue beat Kasparov, and why today's engines are too strong for any human.