The world's championship
The
first but unofficial chess world master was the German Adolph
Anderssen. He won the first modern chess tournament in London, so he was
allowed to claim for the best chess player in the world. In 1866, he was defeated
by Wilhelm Steinitz who called himself in public
"chess world master". After some tournament winnings in the 70s in the 19th
century he was accepted as best player of the world. At that time the world's
championship was not arranged as we have it today. The world master could
determine himself the conditions of the challenger who wanted to win the title.
The first rules are set in the "Record of London" of 1922. In this record
the conditions of a title match are stipulated. Most of the contents stem
from Capablanca. The "Record of London" scheduled,
that the challenger has to raise 10,000 dollar. This money was the prize for
the winner. That is why Capablanca never defended his title. The first who
raised the money was Aljechin who won over
Capablanca.
The title was vacant after Aljechin's death. Because of World War II there were no world's championship matches and Aljechin did not lose his title. He took it with him into his grave. After that the FIDE assumed the organization of the world's championship. The FIDE organized a tournament in Moskau and Den Haag in 1948 where the new chess world master should be determined. The tournament was won by Michail Botvinnik. The FIDE also set up rules for the defense of the world master title. The challenger was determined in a candidate tournament and every three years there was a match between the challenger and the world master.
In 1993, the world master Garry Kasparov and his challenger Nigel Short decided to play the world's championship with their rules. Therefor they established the PCA, the professional chess association. After that the FIDE disqualified the world master title of Kasparov. The second and the third, Karpov and Timman, fought for the FIDE title which Karpov won.
In 1999 the world's championship system was completely changed by the FIDE.
A tournament was hold in Las Vegas in which the new world master should be
determined; the tournament was played in K.O system. 100 grand masters participated
but several important players, like Kasparov, Viswanathan and Karpov, were
missing. The tournament was surprisingly won by the Russian Alexander Khalifman.
Alexander Khalifman reserves the 29th place
in the ELO-ranking (with 2656,00 points; on May 11, 2000). Kasparov reserves
the first place with 2845,00 points (on May11, 2000). But Khalifman proved
his worth as world master, by playing two draws against Kasparov at the super
tournament in Linares. That shows that ELO ratings are not everything.
Here you can find followed by the text a table of the world masters:
| Playerr |
Year
|
|---|---|
| Adolph Anderssen (Germany) |
1862 - 1866
|
| Wilhelm Steinitz (Austria) |
1866 - 1894
|
| Emanuel Lasker (Germany) |
1894 - 1921
|
| José Raul Capablanca (Cuba) |
1921 - 1927
|
| Alexander Aljechin (France) |
1927 - 1935
|
| Max Euwe (Netherlands) |
1935 - 1937
|
| Alexander Aljechin (France) |
1937 - 1946
|
| Michail Botwinnik (UdSSR) |
1948 - 1956
|
| Wassilij Smyslov (UdSSR) |
1957 - 1958
|
| Michail Botwinnik (UdSSR) |
1958 - 1960
|
| Michail Tal (UdSSR) |
1960 - 1961
|
| Michail Botwinnik (UdSSR) |
1961 - 1963
|
| Tigran Petrosjan (UdSSR) |
1963 - 1969
|
| Boris Spassky (UdSSR) |
1969 - 1972
|
| Bobby Fischer (USA) |
1972 - 1975
|
| Anatoli Karpov (UdSSR) |
1975 - 1985
|
| Garri Kasparov (Russia) (since 1993 WM of the PCA) |
1985 - ****
|
| Anatoli Karpov (Russia) |
1993 - 1999
|
| Alexander Khalifman (Russia) |
1999 - ****
|