The history of the World Chess Championship is not straightforward – in fact there was no officially recognised champion until Wilhelm Steinitz in 1886. Prior to this there were numerous pretenders to the throne dating back to the 16th century, with players such as the Spanish priest Ruy Lopez and the tragic American genius Paul Morphy being held up as the best of their respective eras.
Between 1886 and 1993 the chess world had a single champion at the head of the game. Initially players were able to challenge the title holder to a match – the problem with this system was that the champion was able to turn down matches thus allowing him to avoid his strongest competitors. However the death of Alexander Alekhine in 1946 lead to FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) taking control of organising the championship. A series of matches were played in 1948 which lead to Mikhail Botvinnik becoming the new undisputed champion.
From 1948 to 1975 there was a period of relative calm which ended with Bobby Fischer refusing to defend his title against Anatoly Karpov who was subsequently crowned champion. Karpov eventually lost the title to Garry Kasparov in 1985 and it was while Kasparov was champion in 1993 that the picture again became more confusing.
Kasparov was due to play Nigel Short in 1993, but both players split from the FIDE organisation and formed the PCA (Professional Chess Association) under which banner their match was played (Kasparov ran out as an easy winner). In response to this, FIDE organised a match between Karpov and Jan Timman which Karpov won to become FIDE champion for a second time, thus leaving the chess world with two champions.
This situation continued until September 2006 – Vaselin Topalov, the reigning FIDE champion (having won the title in a tournament held in 2005), and Vladimir Kramnik is the so-called ‘Classical World Champion’ having won the title from Kasparov in 2000 - played a 12 game unification match.
Kramnik won in a blitz play-off after the standard match ended 6-6. However the match will be remembered more for the ‘Toiletgate’ scandal when the Topalov team accused Kramnik of receiving external help during frequent visits to the bathroom - this one will run and run…..
Between 1886 and 1993 the chess world had a single champion at the head of the game. Initially players were able to challenge the title holder to a match – the problem with this system was that the champion was able to turn down matches thus allowing him to avoid his strongest competitors. However the death of Alexander Alekhine in 1946 lead to FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) taking control of organising the championship. A series of matches were played in 1948 which lead to Mikhail Botvinnik becoming the new undisputed champion.
From 1948 to 1975 there was a period of relative calm which ended with Bobby Fischer refusing to defend his title against Anatoly Karpov who was subsequently crowned champion. Karpov eventually lost the title to Garry Kasparov in 1985 and it was while Kasparov was champion in 1993 that the picture again became more confusing.
Kasparov was due to play Nigel Short in 1993, but both players split from the FIDE organisation and formed the PCA (Professional Chess Association) under which banner their match was played (Kasparov ran out as an easy winner). In response to this, FIDE organised a match between Karpov and Jan Timman which Karpov won to become FIDE champion for a second time, thus leaving the chess world with two champions.
This situation continued until September 2006 – Vaselin Topalov, the reigning FIDE champion (having won the title in a tournament held in 2005), and Vladimir Kramnik is the so-
Kramnik won in a blitz play-
