List of chess world championship matches
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The following is a list of world chess championship matches (see World Chess Championship). The winner of each match is listed first. The notation (+x -y =z) means that the first player won x games, lost y games, and drew z games. For example, in the 1858 Morphy-Anderssen match, Morphy (+7 -2 =2) won with seven wins, two losses, and two draws. There were many other matches. In 1862-1868 Anderssen played Zukertort numerous times, at the time when Steinitz played Zukertort in 1866 Anderssen was still considered the better player, in 1872, however Zukertort was considered the best. Steinitz beat him, so this is the year when his championship run started until his defeat by Lasker in 1894. Lasker defeated Steinitz, who was much older now and foolishly agreed to many games in a match which favored the younger opponent.
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[edit] Unofficial events
- 1834 La Bourdonnais-McDonnell
- 1843 Staunton-St. Amant
- 1846 Staunton-Horwitz
- 1858 Morphy-Anderssen (+7 -2 =2)
- 1866 Steinitz-Anderssen (+8 -6 =0)
[edit] Official events
- 1886 Steinitz-Zukertort (+10 -5 =5)
- 1889 Steinitz-Chigorin (+10 -6 =1)
- 1890/91 Steinitz-Gunsberg (+6 -4 =9)
- 1892 Steinitz-Chigorin (+10 -8 =5)
- 1894 Lasker-Steinitz(+10 -5 =4)
- 1896/97 Lasker-Steinitz(+10 -2 =5)
- 1907 Lasker-Marshall (+8 -0 =7)
- 1908 Lasker-Tarrasch (+8 -3 =5)
- 1909 Lasker-Janowski (+7 -1 =2)
- 1910 Lasker-Schlechter (+1 -1 =8)
- 1910 Lasker-Janowski (+8 -0 =3)
- 1921 Capablanca-Lasker(+4 -0 =10)
- 1927 Alekhine-Capablanca(+6 -3 =25)
- 1929 Alekhine-Bogoljubow (+11 -5 =9)
- 1934 Alekhine-Bogoljubow (+8 -3 =15)
- 1935 Euwe-Alekhine (+9 -8 =13)
- 1937 Alekhine-Euwe (+10 -4 =11)
[edit] FIDE-sanctioned events
- 1948 Botvinnik (tournament) (14 points out of 20, five participants, five games round robin) (FIDE)
- 1951 Botvinnik-Bronstein (+5 -5 =14) (FIDE)
- 1954 Botvinnik-Smyslov (+7 -7 =10) (FIDE)
- 1957 Smyslov-Botvinnik (+6 -3 =13) (FIDE)
- 1958 Botvinnik-Smyslov (+7 -5 =11) (FIDE)
- 1960 Tal-Botvinnik (+6 -2 =13) (FIDE)
- 1961 Botvinnik-Tal (+10 -5 =6) (FIDE)
- 1963 Petrosian-Botvinnik (+5 -2 =15) (FIDE)
- 1966 Petrosian-Spassky (+4 -3 =17) (FIDE)
- 1969 Spassky-Petrosian (+6 -4 =13) (FIDE)
- 1972 Fischer-Spassky (+7 -3 =11) (FIDE)
- 1975 Karpov-Fischer (by default) (FIDE)
- 1978 Karpov-Korchnoi (+6 -5 =21) (FIDE)
- 1981 Karpov-Korchnoi (+6 -2 =10) (FIDE)
- 1984 Karpov-Kasparov (+5 -3 =40) (FIDE)
- 1985 Kasparov-Karpov (+5 -3 =16) (FIDE)
- 1986 Kasparov-Karpov (+5 -4 =15) (FIDE)
- 1987 Kasparov-Karpov (+4 -4 =16) (FIDE)
- 1990 Kasparov-Karpov (+4 -3 =17) (FIDE)
[edit] Split title
- 1992 Fischer-Spassky (+10 -5 =15) (Independent)
- 1993 Karpov-Timman (+5 -2 =14) (FIDE)
- 1993 Kasparov-Short (+6 -1 =13) (PCA)
- 1995 Kasparov-Anand (+4 -1 =13) (PCA)
- 1996 Karpov-Kamsky (+6 -3 =9) (FIDE)
- 1998 Karpov-Anand (+2 -2 =2) (FIDE)
- 1999 Khalifman-Akopian (+2 -1 =3) (FIDE)
- 2000 Kramnik-Kasparov (+2 -0 =13) (Braingames)
- 2000 Anand-Shirov (+3 -0 =1) (FIDE)
- 2002 Ponomariov-Ivanchuk (+2 -0 =5) (FIDE)
- 2004 Kasimdzhanov-Adams (+3 -2 =3) (FIDE)
- 2004 Kramnik-Lékó (+2 -2 =10) (ACP)
- 2005 Topalov (10 points out of 14, double round robin tournament, eight participants) (FIDE)
[edit] Unification
[edit] Notes
1858 Morphy-Anderssen: After demolishing Loewenthal (+8 -3 =2), Morphy crushed Anderssen (+7 -2 =2) who was reduced to playing the infamous Anderssen's Opening in the later half of the match (1. a3?). Anderssen was considered by many the best player in the world prior to this encounter. Later in 1858 Morphy issued an open challenge to play anyone at odds of pawn and move, and receiving no challenges, retired undefeated from chess.
1886 Steinitz-Zukertort: This was the first match proclaimed by the players themselves, particularly Steinitz, as for the "World Championship".
1910 Lasker-Schlechter: It is unclear if this match was actually for the world championship. The match was very short, after funds for a longer one could not be secured, and it is not known if Lasker had agreed that the world title was still at stake.
1927 Alekhine-Capablanca: After winning this match in great style, Alekhine hand picked his opponents for all his future matches, and refused to play a rematch with Capablanca. Lasker though, had done the same thing, and so had Capablanca.
1948 World Championship Tournament: The death of Alekhine in 1946 left the World Champion title vacant. FIDE organised a tournament to determine the new champion (the body went on to organise every subsequent match until the 1990s). Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov, Samuel Reshevsky, Paul Keres and Max Euwe took part, with Botvinnik triumphing.
1951 Botvinnik-Bronstein, 1987 Kasparov-Karpov: FIDE originally used rules that stated that upon a tie, the previous WCC, if he was a candidate would retain the title.
1975 Karpov-Fischer: Fischer refused to play, insisting on different match scoring rules (declaring Fischer the winner if he achieved nine wins before Karpov reached ten wins, draws not counting.) Fischer declined to participate in a match held under the same conditions as the previous Fischer-Spassky match, and thus forfeited the title to Karpov. For the following matches from 1978 to 1984, FIDE adopted Fischer's rule of discounting draws, but simply required the winner to achieve six wins.
1984 Karpov-Kasparov: This match was abandoned (Karpov did not win it, but did retain the title). Kasparov was quickly down 4-0 in the first dozen games, then down 5-0 before winning his first. Then he won two out of the last three games, and the FIDE president simply halted the match. The 1985 rematch went back to the previous rules (defending WC needs to reach 12 points before challenger reaches 12.5 points, where draws are worth half a point to both players.)
1992 Fischer-Spassky: Although recognized by very few as a legitimate World Championship, it was billed as a World Championship rematch by Fischer and his hand picked opponent, Spassky. This match took place in Yugoslavia, while under strict US sanctions. The US government forbade Fischer to play in this country, but Fischer rejected this. The US government has since issued an indictment against Fischer.
1993 Karpov-Timman, Kasparov-Short: Both Karpov and Timman were soundly defeated in the candidates pre-matches by Nigel Short, who went on to play Kasparov in a match, but not under the auspices of FIDE. As a result, FIDE chose the two highest finishing remaining candidates, but excluded Yusupov by virtue of having been defeated by Timman in the quarter final match that already occurred in the same cycle.
1998 Karpov-Anand: After a tied match, the FIDE WCC was decided by a couple of rapid play tie breakers both won by Karpov. The match conditions heavily favored the defending champion Karpov over Anand, who was exhausted from the qualifying rounds. Later FIDE knockouts were altered to seed the defending champion into earlier rounds.
2000 Kramnik-Kasparov: Although defeated by Shirov in a candidates match earlier under another World Chess Championship sponsoring organization, Kramnik was hand picked by Kasparov, and was most likely the strongest player besides himself. Of course Kramnik proved to be more than Kasparov's equal by defeating him.
2002 Ponomariov-Ivanchuk: The 2002 FIDE WCC pre-tournament and final match has moved to a much faster time control which by many accounts (comments by Kasparov, and Ivanchuk among others) has significantly and noticeably reduced the quality of the games.
