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List of all World Chess Championship winners ft. D Gukesh & Magnus Carlsen

The World Chess Championship, a competition conducted by FIDE to determine the world chess champion, so far has 22 players in the history of the sport to hold the official title.

Indian Grandmaster Gukesh D, hailing from Chennai, is the current world champion after defeating Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren. The World Chess Championship 2024 took place in November and December this year at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.

At 18 years, Gukesh went on to emerge as the youngest ever world chess champion, winning the title with 7.5-6.5 points. In April 2024, Gukesh secured the FIDE Candidates title, winning the eight-player competition in Toronto, Canada.

Interestingly, the field in the FIDE Candidates 2024 included legendary players like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. With this win, Gukesh emerged as the challenger for the World Chess Championship match against the reigning champion Ding Liren.

Notably, the first ever event recognized as the World Chess Championship was held in 1886. The World Chess Championship in 1886 had the match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, with the former securing the title to emerge as the first ever world chess champion. Steinitz is regarded as the father of positional chess.

It's important to note that until 1948, all the World Chess Championship competitions were held privately between the players. This had resulted in players arranging for the funding.

After the death of the-then defending champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946, FIDE took over the administration of the championship from 1948. From 1948 to 1993, FIDE conducted a few sets of competitions to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship match.

It’s worth noting that from 1993 to 2006, the title was split after the champion and challenger left FIDE. Six players held the title during those 13 years. From 2014, FIDE decided to conduct the competition on a two-year cycle.

German chess player Emanuel Lasker was the longest serving world chess champion, holding the title for 27 years. Emanuel Lasker, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov have the joint-most title wins (6).

Here is the full list of World Chess Championship winners, from 1886 to present

S.noNameCountryYears
1Wilhelm SteinitzAustria-Hungary and United States1886–1894
2Emanuel LaskerGermany, German Republic1894–1920
3José Raúl CapablancaCuba1920–1927
4Alexander AlekhineFrance1927–1935
5Max EuweNetherlands1935–1937
6Alexander AlekhineFrance1937–1946
Posthumous Champion Until 1948
7Mikhail BotvinnikSoviet Union1948–1957
8Vasily SmyslovSoviet Union1957–1958
9Mikhail BotvinnikSoviet Union1958–1960
10Mikhail TalSoviet Union1960–1961
11Mikhail BotvinnikSoviet Union1961–1963
12Tigran PetrosianSoviet Union1963–1969
13Boris SpasskySoviet Union1969–1972
14Bobby FischerUnited States1972–1975
15Anatoly KarpovSoviet Union1975–1985
16Garry KasparovSoviet Union1985–1993
17Anatoly KarpovRussia1993–1999
18Alexander KhalifmanRussia1999–2000
19Viswanathan AnandIndia2000–2002
20Ruslan PonomariovUkraine2002–2004
21Rustam KasimdzhanovUzbekistan2004–2005
22Veselin TopalovBulgaria2005–2006
23Vladimir KramnikRussia2006–2007
24Viswanathan AnandIndia2007–2013
25Magnus CarlsenNorway2013–2023
26Ding LirenChina2023–2024
27Gukesh DommarajuIndia2024–present

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