World Chess Championship
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. Since 2014, the schedule has settled on a two-year cycle with a championship held in every even year. Magnus Carlsen has been world champion since he defeated Viswanathan Anand in 2013. He successfully defended the title in 2014, 2016 and 2018, and is next due to defend the title in late 2020.
The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in 1886, when the two leading players in the world, Wilhelm Steinitz and Johann Zukertort, played a match, which was won by Steinitz. From 1886 to 1946, the champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat the champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. In 1993, reigning champion Garry Kasparov broke away from FIDE, which led to the creation of the rival Professional Chess Association (PCA) championship. The titles were unified at the World Chess Championship 2006, and since 2006 the championship has again been administered by FIDE.
Though the world championship is open to all players, there are separate events and titles for the Women's World Chess Championship, the World Junior Chess Championship (for players under 20 years of age, though there are younger age events also), and the World Senior Chess Championship (for men above 60 years of age, and women above 50). There are also faster time limit events, the World Rapid Chess Championship and the World Blitz Chess Championship. The World Computer Chess Championship is open to computer chess programs and hardware.
See also
- List of world chess championships
- Development of the World Chess Championship
- Candidates Tournament
- Chess Olympiad
- Comparison of top chess players throughout history
- List of world championships in mind sports
- My Great Predecessors
- Fast chess
- Women's World Chess Championship
- World Junior Chess Championship
- World Chess Solving Championship
- World Correspondence Chess Championship
- Chess World Cup
- FIDE Grand Prix
