Chess – The Game of Kings – and here’s a look at the dynasty of players who ruled the Chess World.

Chess has been one of the most cerebral games favored by Kings and admired by commoners alike. Many players have immortalized their names with their exceptional play and prowess at the ancient game of Kings.

According to us, we all who take the game very seriously have an opinion on who the greatest chess player in history is. The game of chess has had many legends, world champions, challengers, world-class players, and grandmasters. They have delighted, inspired, and taught chess players for generations.

The concept of a World Chess Champion

First, let’s take a look at how the concept of World Chess Champion took shape.

The concept of a world chess champion started to emerge in the first half of the 19th century, and the phrase “World Champion” first appeared in 1845. Since then, there have been several chess masters to claim the title, officially and unofficially, but for this article, we’ll address only those officially recognized as World Chess Champions.

However, it’s also worth noting that there were several unofficial champions previous to 1886 when the World Chess Championship first occurred, such as Paul Morphy.

World Chess Champions are players who have won a match or tournament for the World Championship at chess. Both men and women can become champions, but no woman has ever been a challenger for the title. There is, however, a separate championship for women. There are also separate championships for specific age groups.

Let’s take a look at the star-studded galaxy with 27 great names of all times.

A note: The names you see are the champions of the Golden Era of the game- starting from 2013 and going backward.

Magnus Carlsen (2013 – Current)

Magnus is a Norwegian Chess Grandmaster and current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion.

Magnus first reached in top FIDE world rankings in 2010 and trailed Gary Kasparov in time spent as the world’s highest-rated player. His peak classical rating is 2882, the highest in chess history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak in classical chess.

A chess prodigy since the age of 13, Carlsen was a GM just short of his 14th Birthday. At 15, he won the Norwegian Chess Championship. He surpassed a rating of 2800 at age 18 and reached number one in the FIDE world rankings, aged 19, the youngest person ever to achieve these feats. By 2013, Magnus became World Chess Champion.

He defeated Viswanathan Anand and retained his title against Anand in 2014 when he won both the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship. He has the unique distinction of holding all three titles simultaneously in that year, and he repeated the same in 2019.

Viswanathan Anand (2007-2013)

Known for his rapid playing speed as a child, Anand earned the nickname “Lightning Kid” as a budding chess player in the 1980s.

Considered by many as the greatest rapid chess player of his generation, Anand won the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003 and 2017 and World Blitz Cup in 2000. The former world chess champion became the first grandmaster from India in 1988. He is one of the few players from the country and fourth in the world history of chess to have surpassed an Elo rating of 2800, a feat he first achieved in 2006.

A five-time world chess champion, Anand defeated Alexei Shirov in a six-game match to win the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship and retained the title till 2002. He was the undisputed world champion in 2007, went on to defeat Vladimir Kramnik in 2008, Veselin Topalov in 2010, and Boris Gelfand in 2012. He lost the title to Magnus Carlsen in 2013, and after winning the 2014 Candidate’s Tournament, he lost to Carlsen again.

Anand also holds the six-longest period on record of holding the number one position for 21 months.

Vladimir Kramnik (2000 – 2007)

The Russian chess grandmaster was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006 and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007.

He has won three team gold medals and three individual medals at Chess Olympiads. Kramnik rose to fame by defeating Garry Kasparov in 2000 to become the Classical World Chess Champion. He defended his title in 2004 against Péter Lékó. In 2006, FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov was a witness to his brilliance in a unification match. This match made Kramnik the first undisputed World Champion holding both the FIDE and Classical titles since Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993.

Kramnik lost the title to Viswanathan Anand in 2007. Kramnik remained a top player despite his losses to Anand in 2008 and reached a peak rating of 2817 in October 2016. The joint-eighth highest-rated player of all time. Kramnik publicly announced his retirement as a professional chess player in January 2019.

He is currently focusing on projects relating to chess for children and education.

Garry Kasparov (1985 – 2000)

Garry Kasparov was the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion of his time in 1985 at the age of 22 when he defeated the then-champion Anatoly Karpov.

He held the official FIDE world title until 1993 when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival chess organization, the Professional Chess Association.
He was the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls in 1997 while playing against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match. He was the reigning Classical World Chess Champion until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000.

Garry Kasparov was ranked world No.1 from 1984 until his retirement in 2005- 255 months overall for his career. His peak rating of 2851 achieved in 1999 was the highest recorded until Magnus Carlsen’s surpass in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).

He was the world’s highest-rated player when he retired from professional chess in 2005.

Anatoly Karpov (1975 – 1985)

Former World Champion Anatoly Karpov is a Russian and was the official world champion for a decade from 1975 to 1985 when Garry Kasparov out throned him.

At the peak of his career, Karpov had an Elo rating of 2780, and his 102 months as World Number 1 is the third-longest of all time in chess history, behind only Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov, since the inception of the FIDE ranking list in 1970. Karpov became the FIDE World Champion once again after Kasparov broke away from FIDE in 1993 and held the title until 1999 when he resigned in protest against FIDE’s new world championship rules.

In 2002, he won a match against Kasparov, defeating him in a rapid time control match 2½–1½. In 2006, he tied for first with Kasparov in a blitz tournament, ahead of Korchnoi and Judit Polgár.

Karpov and Kasparov played a mixed 12-game match from September 21–24, 2009, in Valencia, Spain. It consisted of four rapid (or semi-rapid) and eight blitz games and took place exactly 25 years after the two players’ legendary encounter at the World Chess Championship 1984. Kasparov won the match 9–3.

Bobby Fischer (1972 – 1975)

Bobby Fischer was a famous and notorious chess prodigy. At age 13, he won a game to put him in the chess hall of fame forever.

At 14, he became the youngest ever U.S. Chess Champion. He was the youngest grandmaster (GM) of the time and the youngest candidate at the World Championship by the time he was 15.

The only perfect score in the US Championship history (11/11) is recorded in Fischer’s name, who achieved the distinction in 1963/64 at the age of 20. He won the 1970 Interzonal Tournament by a record 3½-point margin. He won 20 consecutive games in the last seven rounds of the Interzonal and the Candidates Matches, the latter including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps. When the first official FIDE rating list was published in July 1971, Fischer was the highest-rated player by a wide margin.

In 1972, Fischer won the World Chess Championship defeating Boris Spassky, a match dubbed as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR. Fischer refused to agree to FIDE conditions in 1975 and refused to defend his World Champion title, which by default was handed over to Anatoly Karpov, the Soviet GM.

Boris Spassky (1969 – 1972)

The oldest living former World Champion, Boris Spassky, was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972.

He played three world championship matches; first, he lost to Tigran Petrosian in 1966 and then defeated him in 1969 to claim the title. But eventually, he lost to Bobby Fischer in the very famous match of 1972.

Spassky was the winner of the Soviet Chess Championship twice outright (1961, 1973) and twice lost in playoffs (1956,1963). He was a 7-time World Chess Championship candidate in which he won 2 (1965, 1968) and was one of the semi-finalists (1974) and finalist (1977). A champion of Sicilian Defense and Ruy Lopez, Spassky is famous for beating six undisputed World Champions at least twice (not necessarily while they were at their prime), namely Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, and Garry Kasparov.

Tigran Petrosian (1963 – 1969)

“Iron Tigran” was known for his impenetrable defensive playing style that emphasized safety above all else. Tigran Petrosian was a World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969.

Petrosian was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions (1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1971, 1974, 1977, and 1980). He won the World Championship in 1963 against Mikhail Botvinnik and successfully defended it in 1966 against Boris Spassky. He lost his title to Boris Spassky in 1969.

Tigran defended his World Champion or World Championship Candidate titles in ten consecutive three-year cycles, proving his tenacity and brilliance. He was partially deaf, and it is said that on one occasion, he switched off his hearing aid and didn’t hear the opponent offering a draw and went on to win the game.

Mikhail Tal (1960 – 1961)

Mikhail Tal is considered to have been the greatest attacking player of all time. He was the eighth World Chess Champion.

Tal played in 21 Soviet championships, winning it six times, a record only equaled by Botvinnik. He was a member of eight Soviet teams which won the gold medal in the Chess Olympiads. He won the individual gold medal five times.

He holds the records for both the first and second longest unbeaten streaks in competitive chess history. From July 1972 to April 1973, Tal played 86 consecutive games without a loss (47 wins and 39 draws). Between 23 October 1973 and 16 October 1974, he played 95 consecutive games without a loss (46 wins and 49 draws), shattering his previous record.

These remained the two longest unbeaten streaks in modern chess history for over three decades and the longest by a top-flight player until Magnus Carlsen’s 111+ game streak in 2019-2020.

Vasily Smyslov (1957 – 1958)

Vasily Smyslov wasn’t just an eight times World Chess Championship candidate. He was also a concert-level singer.

His delicate sense of humor was as famous as his chess and his baritone singing and fellow grandmaster Taimanov’s piano recitals were famed evening events at many major chess tournaments. He was one of the five players selected to compete for the 1948 World Chess Championship tournament to determine who should succeed the late Alexander Alekhine as champion.

Many questioned this, but his second-place finish only behind Mikhail Botvinnik silenced his critics.

His victories in the double-round Candidates tournaments of 1953 and 1956 were the most incredible tournament wins of the 1950s. He played three 24-game world championship matches against the formidable Botvinnik, drawing the first in 1954, winning the second in 1957 but losing the return match in 1958. His total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an all-time record.

In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won ten gold medals (team and individual). He remained active and successful in competitive chess well into the 1960s and 1970s, and he qualified for the finals of the World Championship Candidates’ matches as late as 1983. Vasily won the first World Senior Chess Championship in 1991.

Mikhail Botvinnik (1948-1957, 1958-1960, 1961-1963)

Three-time World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik was also an electrical engineer, one of the few chess masters to have a distinguished career while playing top-class competitive chess.

Botvinnik was the first world-class player to develop with the Soviet Union. The expectations of an entire nation rode on his shoulders, and he played a significant role in Soviet Chess. Post World War II, Botvinnik was instrumental in the design of the World Chess Championship system.

Based on his strong results during and just after World War II, Botvinnik was one of five players to contest the World Chess Championship 1948, held at The Hague and Moscow. He won the tournament convincingly, with a score of 14/20, three points clear, becoming the sixth World Champion. Botvinnik then held the title, with two brief interruptions, for the next fifteen years, during which he played seven world championship matches.

His retirement also made his foray into chess coaching, and some of the notable names he tutored were Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Vladimir Kramnik.

Max Euwe (1935-1937)

Max Euwe was the 5th World Chess Champion from 1935 to 1937. He was a Dutch chess grandmaster, mathematician, and author.

Against all expectations, Max beat the reigning champion Alexander Alekhine in World Chess Championship in 1935. That Alekhine won the title back two years later is another story.

Max was the best player in Western Europe immediately after World War II era. He played in two world championship candidates’ tournaments. Although he finished 4th in World Championship in 1948, by then, he had already started using his teaching skills for chess. He wrote 20 chess books, most aimed at helping the chess player improve on various topics.

Max invented a subscription-based correspondence course called The Chess Archives, which is universally known as Euwe’s Archives. The course was a comprehensive professional teaching aid on chess openings which were then an area of great weakness for chess players and amateurs alike.

He also served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978 and did excellent work in successfully expanding chess into more countries.

Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935, 1937-1946)

Alexander Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion, with the distinction of being the only chess master to die holding the title.

By the time he was 22, Alexander was considered to be one of the strongest grandmasters. One of the hypermoderns, i.e., a school of chess players who set out to rethink some of the chess openings principles, Alexander won many tournaments with his attacking style. He had a knack for turning an initiative into a win. He was the first world champion to work hard on opening theory. He was also the first full-time dedicated chess professional of the modern type, producing many chess openings.

In 1927, Alekhine became the World Champion by beating Capablanca in a match of 24 games, the longest world championship match held until 1985. Alekhine was defeated by Euwe in 1935 but regained his crown in the 1937 rematch. Soviet chess leaders declared him “one of the founders of the Soviet School of Chess” after his death.

He is still regarded as a fine chess writer; the collections of his games have influenced many players across generations.

Jose Raul Capablanca (1921 – 1927)

José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was World Chess Champion from 1921 to 1927. A child prodigy, Capablanca had an astonishing natural talent for the game.

During eight years spanning from 1916-1924, Capablanca did not lose a single tournament game! His record of 40 wins and 23 draws over this period (where he also became world champion) was unprecedented.

Renowned for his play’s simplicity, legendary endgame prowess, accuracy, and speed, he earned the nickname of the “Human Chess Machine.” Capablanca’s style is well known to consist of fantastic positional, tactical, and endgame skills. He was also known for his quick speed of play and an unmatched ability to look at a position briefly and come up with the best move – almost as if he was a computer.

Emanuel Lasker (1894 – 1921)

Chess player, Mathematician, and Philosopher, Emanuel Lasker was World Chess Champion for 27 years from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognized World Chess Champion in history. Lasker was one of the most assertive and most dominant champions in his prime.

His contemporaries were aware of his psychological hold on a game, and he was known for deliberately playing inferior moves to confuse opponents. However, recent game analyses of the master indicate that his approach was way ahead of his time, and he used a very flexible approach that misguided his opponents.

Lasker published chess magazines and is the author of 5 chess books. He was a research mathematician and a first-class contract bridge player.

Wilhelm Steinitz (1886 – 1894)

A highly influential writer and chess theoretician, William Steinitz was the first official World Chess Champion from 1886 to 1894. Steinitz was unbeaten in match play for 32 years, from 1862 to 1894.

Although Steinitz became “world number one” by winning in the all-out attacking style that was common in the 1860s, he unveiled in 1873 a new “Positional” style of play. He demonstrated that it was superior to the previous style. His new style was controversial, and some even branded it as “cowardly,” but many of Steinitz’s games showed that it could also set up attacks as ferocious as those of the old school.

Steinitz was also a prolific writer on chess and defended his new ideas vigorously. The ferocious and often bitter debates in print on the various new ideas came to be known as the “Ink War.” But by the early 1890s, Steinitz’s approach was widely accepted, and the incoming generation of top players acknowledged their debt to him, notably his successor and World Champion, Emanuel Lasker.

Paul Morphy (1858 – 1860)

As he is often referred to, the “Pride and Sorrow of Chess,” Paul Morphy has been the greatest chess master of his Era and the unofficial second World Chess Champion from 1858-1860.

Morphy earned the moniker because of his brilliant but short chess career that he ended himself while he was still young and in his prime. Bobby Fischer and Viswanathan Anand ranked Morphy among the ten greatest players of all time. Fischer described Morphy as “perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived.”

Morphy’s claim to fame in chess began early when he won the first American Chess Congress in New York City, where strong players like Alexander Meek and

Louis Paulsen were the obvious choices as winners. He was hailed as the chess champion of the United States. Throughout 1857, Morphy won a majority of his game and set his eyes on Europe in 1858. Morphy played almost every strong player in Europe, including the unplayed challenge he threw at then European Champion Howard Staunton, and often won easily.

Returning to New Orleans in late 1859, at the age of 22, Morphy retired from competitive chess.

Adolf Anderssen (1851-1858) (1860-1868)

Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master having won the great international tournaments of 1851 and 1862. However, he lost matches to Paul Morphy (1858) and Wilhelm Steinitz in 1866.

Anderssen became the most successful tournament player in Europe in the pre-World Chess Championship era, winning over half the events he entered, including the formidable Baden-Baden 1870 Chess Tournament.

Most of his achievements came at the advanced age of 50, earning him respect and admiration for generations to come. A likable personality, he was considered an “elder statesman” of the game to whom others turned for advice and arbitration.

Anderssen is famous today for his brilliant sacrificial attacking play, notably the “Immortal Game” (1851) and the “Evergreen Game” (1852).

He was an important contributor to the development of chess problems, driving forward the transition from the “old school” of problem composition to the elegance and complexity of modern compositions.

Howard Staunton (1843 – 1851)

Regarded as the world’s strongest player from 1843 to 1851, owing to his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, Staunton created the Staunton pattern, a set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardized shape still required for competitions. He set the groundwork for popularizing chess in England by organizing the first international chess tournament in 1851.

The 1840s saw Staunton as a leading chess commentator who won matches against most top players. According to modern chess experts, Staunton’s understanding of positional play has been considered to have been far ahead of his contemporaries. HE was not an all-out attacking player but attacked when his preparations were complete. His widely read articles and books further fanned the popularity of chess in the United Kingdom.

Notably, his Chess-Player’s Handbook (1847) as a reference book for decades. The chess openings – English Opening and Staunton Gambit were named after him.

Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (1840-1843)

Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant was a leading French chess master and also the editor of the chess periodical Le Palamède.

Best known for losing a match against Howard Staunton in 1843, which is often considered to have been an unofficial match for the first World Chess Championship.

He led the Paris team in their +2 victory over the Westminster club in 1836, and while visiting England in 1843, he lost a casual match to John Cochrane (+4, =1, -6) but beat Howard Staunton (+3, =1, -2). Later in November of that year, a more formal match took place, Staunton – Saint Amant (1843). Saint-Amant lost (+6, =4, -11), ending 100 years of French supremacy.

Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1821 – 1840)

Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1795–December 1840) was a French chess master, possibly the strongest player in the early 19th century.

He played in an era before a World Chess Championship was established but was considered to be perhaps the strongest player in the world from 1821 — when he became able to beat his chess teacher Alexandre Deschapelles — until he died in 1840.

The most famous match series at that time was the series against Alexander McDonnell in 1834. Kasparov analyzed these matches of 85 games in his book My Great Predecessors.

Other Names Worth Mentioning

Alexander Khalifman (1999-2000)

FIDE awarded Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman the Grandmaster title in 1990.

He was the FIDE World Chess Champion in 1999. With several international and Russian tournament wins under his belt, Khalifman was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the Chess Olympiads for three years and at the 1997 World Team Chess Championship. Khalifman runs a chess academy with his trainer Gennady Nesis in St. Petersburg called the “Grandmaster Chess School.

He is coaching several national and international teams and players, both men and women, since then.

Ruslan Ponomariov (2002-2004)

Ruslan was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004.

A runner-up in the Chess World Cup 2005 and Chess World Cup 2009, Ruslan’s career began early in 1996 when at the age of 12, he won the European Under-18 Championship. By the time he was 14, he had already won the World Under-18 Championship and was awarded the Grandmaster title, making him the youngest ever player at that time to hold the same.

In 2002, he beat his fellow countryman Vassily Ivanchuk in the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 to become FIDE World champion at the age of 18, the first teenager and the youngest person to do so. He finished second in the very strongly contended Linares Tournament, finishing only behind the maestro Garry Kasparov in the same year.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2004 – 2005)

Rustam Kasimdzhanov, the chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05), was also the Asian Champion in 1998.

For the longest time, he was the second to Viswanathan Anand, playing beside the chess great during 2008, 2010, and 2012 World Championship matches. Kasimdzhanov achieved several notable successes as a junior, winning the Asian Championship in 1998, placing second in the World Junior Championship in 1999, and earning a bronze medal for the first board in the 2000 Olympiad.

These and other results propelled him to 11th on the FIDE world ranking list in late 2001. In 2004 he became FIDE World Champion by winning the knockout tournament in Tripoli. In match play, he managed to upset all four of the top seeds: Veselin Topalov, Michael Adams, Vassily Ivanchuk, and Alexander Grischuk. Kasimdzhanov was then scheduled to play a match with Garry Kasparov in 2005, with the ultimate goal of reunifying the world chess champion title.

When Kasparov withdrew from playing the match, Kasimdzhanov was instead given an invitation to compete in that September’s FIDE World Championship Tournament in San Luis, Argentina, where he finished sixth out of eight players. Notably, he helped Viswanathan Anand as a second during the Anand – Kramnik World Championship Match (2008).

Levon Aronian (2000- )

Armenian origin Levon Grigori Aronian is an American chess grandmaster playing for the USA. FIDE awarded him the Grandmaster title in 2000.

In March 2014, FIDE was ranked number two globally with an Elo rating of 2830, making him the fourth-highest rated player in history.

Aronian won the FIDE World Cup twice in 2005 and 2017. He won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012, where he was knocked out in the first round. He was also world champion in Chess960 in 2006 and 2007, in rapid chess in 2009, and in blitz chess in 2010. In 2016, CNN called Aronian the “David Beckham of chess.”

As of March 2021, Levon Aronian was the No. 2 ranked player in the United States and the No. 5 globally, with a FIDE rating of 2781.

Savielly Tartakower (1950 – 1956)

Savielly Tartakower was the first awardee of the title “International Grandmaster in its inaugural year in 1950. Tartakower was most active from 1906 till 1939, winning several tournaments against some of the most distinguished players of the time.

Post-World War I, Tartakower accepted Polish Citizenship and captain and trainer of the Polish Chess team in six international tournaments, winning a gold medal for the country at the Hamburg Olympiad in 1930.

Tartakower relocated to France and started contributing to several chess magazines. His book “Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie” (The Hypermodern Chess Game) was first published in 1924 and has seen almost 100 editions since.

He has five team medals (gold in 1930, two silver in 1931 and 1939, and two bronze in 1935 and 1937) to his credit.

Aron Nimzowitsch (1927- 1931)

Aron Nimzowitsch, chess player and writer, was the foremost figure amongst the hypermodern. His very influential book on chess theory- My System, has been the go-to book for all new generation chess players. In the late 1920s, he was one of the best chess players in the world.

The height of Nimzowitsch’s career was the late 1920s and early 1930s. According to Chessmetrics, he was the third-best player in the world from 1927 to 1931, behind names like Alexander Alekhine and Jose Capablanca. Nimzowitsch never developed a knack for match play, though; his best match success was a draw with Alekhine, but the match consisted of only two games and took place in 1914, thirteen years before Alekhine became world champion.

Nimzowitsch never beat Capablanca but fared better against Alekhine. He even beat Alekhine with the black pieces in their short 1914 match at St. Petersburg. One of Nimzowitsch’s most famous games is his celebrated immortal zugzwang game against Sämisch at Copenhagen 1923. Another game on this theme is his win over Paul Johner at Dresden 1926.

When in form, Nimzowitsch was very dangerous with the black pieces, scoring many fine wins over top players.