60 Fun Facts About World Chess Championship

Whom did Wilhelm Steinitz beat in the 1886 match recognised as the first world championship?

Steinitz won and became the first official champion; the two had already met in an 1872 match that Steinitz took 7–1.

For how many years did the longest-serving world champion hold the title?

Emanuel Lasker reigned from 1894 to 1921 and once went ten years without defending the title at all.

Which reigning champion died in 1946, leaving the title vacant and prompting FIDE to take over?

He is still the only champion to die while holding the title, which is why a 1948 tournament rather than a match chose his successor.

How many players actually competed in the 1948 championship tournament that ended the interregnum?

Six were invited from the 1938 AVRO field, but Reuben Fine dropped out to finish a psychology degree, and Botvinnik won convincingly.

Under which new body did Kasparov and Short play their 1993 match after breaking from FIDE?

FIDE responded by stripping Kasparov of its title, and for the first time there were two world champions at once.

In which year were the rival FIDE and Classical titles finally reunified in a single match?

The reunification match ended a 13-year split that began when Kasparov walked out on FIDE.

Since 2014, on what cycle has the championship match been held?

Qualification happens in the odd year, the Candidates early in the even year and the match late in the even year; COVID pushed the 2020 match to 2021.

Who defeated Ding Liren in the 2024 match to become world chess champion?

He had been the surprise winner of the Candidates in Toronto earlier that year.

How old was the winner of the 2024 championship match, the youngest undisputed champion ever?

He clinched it with the black pieces in game 14 after his opponent blundered into a lost king-and-pawn ending.

Where was the 2024 championship match played?

FIDE received two rival bids from India, Chennai and New Delhi, but chose the city-state instead.

Ding Liren's win in the 2023 championship made him the first world champion from which country?

The match was played in Astana, Kazakhstan, and was settled only in rapid tiebreaks.

Why was the 2023 world championship contested by the top two Candidates finishers?

Magnus Carlsen said soon after his 2021 defence that he was not motivated to play another match, and FIDE confirmed it in July 2022.

In which year did Magnus Carlsen first win the world title?

He won the Candidates that year and then beat the defending champion convincingly in Chennai.

Who won the eight-player double round-robin tournament in Mexico in 2007 to become world champion?

Because it was won in a tournament rather than a match, a minority of commentators questioned the title, so a match followed in 2008 which he also won.

What was unprecedented about the classical portion of the 2018 championship match in London?

Carlsen then won three consecutive rapid tiebreak games to keep the title.

Which American challenged Carlsen for the title in London in 2018?

He qualified by winning the Candidates in Berlin, and had lost only 5 of 33 previous classical games to Carlsen.

Who won the eighth game of the 2016 match in New York to take a lead over Carlsen?

Carlsen levelled in game ten and won the rapid tiebreak, finishing with a queen sacrifice on his 26th birthday.

Game 6 of the 2021 Carlsen–Nepomniachtchi match, the longest title game ever, lasted how many moves?

It took nearly eight hours, and the challenger's play collapsed afterwards with one-move blunders in games 8, 9 and 11.

The 2021 championship match was staged inside which international event?

That made it the first sporting event at a world's fair since the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis.

After the all-drawn 2018 match, the 2021 title match was lengthened to a best of how many games?

Best-of-12 had been the standard for every match since 2006.

In which city did Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky in the 1972 'Match of the Century'?

Fischer had agreed to Yugoslavia first, then raised objection after objection until Iceland became the venue.

A phone call from which US official helped persuade Fischer to play the 1972 match?

The Cold War framing meant the White House cared: the Soviets had held the title without interruption since 1948.

Which British financier doubled the prize fund to get Fischer to the board in 1972?

Fischer's objections were mainly about money, and the doubled purse plus diplomatic pressure finally got him on a plane.

Which encounter of the 1972 match did Fischer forfeit by refusing to appear, in a dispute over cameras?

Karpov later speculated the forfeit was a masterstroke designed to unsettle Spassky, who then agreed to play the next game backstage.

What was the final score of the 1972 Fischer–Spassky match?

Fischer won seven games, Spassky three (one by forfeit) and there were eleven draws; Spassky resigned the last game by phone without resuming.

Which of Fischer's seconds talked him out of flying home from Iceland after he fell 2–0 behind in 1972?

A priest and grandmaster, he was the man in Fischer's corner throughout the match.

Fischer refused to defend in 1975 unless the match went to the first player to win how many games?

He also wanted to keep the title if the score reached 9–9; FIDE refused and crowned Karpov by default.

Karpov's 1978 title defence against stateless challenger Korchnoi was held in which city?

The match went to the first to six wins and Karpov clinched it 6–5 after 32 games and 21 draws.

Which defector from the USSR twice challenged Karpov for the title, in 1978 and 1981?

He was stateless during the 1978 cycle and played under the FIDE flag; the Mitrokhin Archive alleges the KGB assembled a team to ensure his defeat.

What did Karpov's team send him mid-game in 1978 that rivals called a possible coded message?

The complaint was later described as a parody of earlier protests, which had included X-raying chairs and a row over a hypnotherapist in the front row.

The marathon 1984 Karpov–Kasparov match was halted without a result after how many games?

It had run for more than five months, with Karpov leading 5–3 in wins with 40 draws when FIDE called it off.

By what score did Kasparov take the title from Karpov in 1985?

At 22 he was the youngest champion to that point, and the two would play three more title matches by 1990.

How many world championship games did Kasparov and Karpov play across their five matches?

104 of them were draws; Kasparov won 21 and Karpov 19.

Who took the Classical title from Kasparov in London in 2000 with two wins and thirteen draws?

It was a major upset; the challenger neutralised Kasparov's white pieces with the Berlin Defence, which has been fashionable ever since.

Which Bulgarian won the 2005 San Luis tournament to become FIDE world champion?

His win set up the 2006 reunification match, which he lost amid the 'toiletgate' controversy.

Who won FIDE's 1999 knockout world championship, the first after Karpov resigned in protest?

The short-match knockout format was so unpopular that Kasparov and later Kramnik simply refused to enter.

Which American grandmaster led the 2002 'Prague Agreement' to reunite the split world title?

The plan called for two matches feeding a unification final, but only one of them was ever played.

Nigel Short earned his 1993 title shot by beating which Dutchman in the Candidates final?

The same Dutchman then lost the rival FIDE title match to Karpov, so both 1993 finals featured him or Short.

Which German master, winner of the 1851 London tournament, did Steinitz narrowly beat 8-6 in 1866?

Some historians date Steinitz's reign from this match rather than from 1886, giving him an 'unofficial' 20-year reign.

Which American, who retired abruptly at his peak in 1859, became known as 'the pride and sorrow of chess'?

Many still regarded him as the world's best until his death in 1884, which may be why Steinitz never claimed the title while he lived.

The earliest recorded use of the phrase 'World Champion' in chess, in 1845, described which Englishman?

He also organised the 1851 London tournament and gave his name to the standard chess set design.

How many games did Lasker win in his 1921 title match against Capablanca?

The Cuban won four, drew ten and lost none; Lasker had already abdicated in his favour the year before.

Under Capablanca's 1922 'London Rules', a champion could refuse a challenge with a purse below what?

Only one challenger managed to raise the sum, and only in 1927, when he shocked everyone by beating the Cuban.

Which Dutch amateur, a mathematics teacher by profession, unexpectedly won the world title in 1935?

He lost the rematch in 1937 but later became president of FIDE, bending the rules to let Fischer into the 1970 Interzonal.

Who beat Botvinnik for the title in 1957, only to lose the return match a year later?

The return-match clause introduced in 1956 let Botvinnik recover his title twice, in 1958 and 1961.

Who ended the Botvinnik era by defeating him in the 1963 title match?

The return-match clause had been dropped for that cycle, so Botvinnik got no rematch.

After Fischer's 1962 Candidates collusion claim, FIDE replaced the round-robin with what format?

Yuri Averbakh confirmed in 2002 that three Soviet players had indeed agreed to draw all their games to save energy.

What score did the 1951 and 1954 title matches both finish at, letting Botvinnik keep his title?

A drawn match went to the champion under the best-of-24 format used from 1951 onwards.

Who was retroactively declared the first Women's World Chess Champion after winning a 1927 tournament?

She won every women's championship from 1927 to 1944 and also played, and beat, top men in open events.

The first women's world champion died in 1944 when her home in Clapham was hit by what?

She was still champion when she died, so the women's title also fell vacant until a 1949–50 tournament.

Which Chinese player won her fifth Women's World Chess Championship title in 2025?

She beat Tan Zhongyi in the 2025 match; by then China had taken 16 of the previous 21 women's titles across six different champions.

Which Soviet republic produced Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze, women's world chess champions?

Gaprindashvili was also the first woman awarded the full Grandmaster title, in 1978.

FIDE was founded on 20 July 1924 by participants at a tournament in which city?

It began as a kind of players' union and did not control the world title until 1948.

What was the prize fund for the 2024 championship match?

The 2018 London match, by comparison, had a fund of 1 million euros.

FIDE called Ding Liren which numbered world champion, endorsing the 'Classical' line?

Counting that way, the winner of the 2024 match is the 18th.

In the 1971 Candidates, Fischer beat Mark Taimanov and which Danish grandmaster by identical 6–0 scores?

His winning streak reached 20 games before it was ended in game 2 of the Candidates final.

Where was game 3 of the 1972 match played, at Fischer's insistence?

Fischer won it, his first ever win against Spassky, and several commentators think Spassky's concession was a psychological mistake.

Whom did Lasker crush in 1910 in what is described as the most one-sided title match in history?

Earlier that same year Lasker had nearly lost the title in a short tied match against Schlechter.

Which Latvian took the title from Botvinnik in 1960, only to lose the return match in 1961?

Botvinnik's right to a return match meant Smyslov and Tal each held the title for just a year.

Which American was persuaded to give up his Interzonal place so Fischer could enter the 1969-72 cycle?

Fischer had refused to play the 1969 US Championship, a Zonal, which would otherwise have eliminated him before his 1972 triumph.