Post-war Era (1945 and later)
The chess community began seeking a new world champion after the death of Alekhine in 1946. FIDE (who has all but controlled the title since his death) decided to have a tournament with the games most elite players in 1948. Russian Mikhail Botvinnik won the tournament, beginning an era of Soviet dominance. Until the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, there was only one champion not of Soviet descent (American Bobby Fischer). In n its initial stages, the tournament took on an informal system with the champion deciding which challenger he or she would play against. Then, in order to play the match, the challenger had to get sponsorship for the game. The format was later changed to seed elite players on how they did in “interzonal tournaments.” Interzonal tournaments consisted of these elite players and players who had qualified for it through winning what were called “zonal tournaments.” The top finishers in these tournaments would move up to the “candidates” matches.
The winner of these matches would finally be able to play whoever the reigning champion is. Defeated champions were given the right to replay the new champion the following year, cycling ever 3 years.
Like several players in the early history of chess, Botvinnik played in championship matches for 15 years. After receiving the championship in 1948 and retaining it through ties in 1951 and 1954, he lost it to Vasily Smyslov in 1957. Though he regained it in a rematch the following year, he again lost the title to a 23 year old Latvian prodigy named Mikhail Tal. Botvinnik was able to regain the title again through the rematch rule the next year. After the 1961 event, FIDE decided to abolish the automatic right for a deposed champion to demand a rematch.Botvinnik was known for revolutionizing opening theory. Previously, the theory was for “Black” to strive for equality and neutralize the advantage garnered through “White’s” right to make the 1st move. Playing from the “Black” set, Botvinnik instead strove to take the initiative in the opening phase.
The next champion was Armenian Tigran Petrosian who held the title for 2 cycles from 1963 to 1969. His successor was Russia’s Boris Spassky who held the title for only one cycle from 1969 to 1972. The 1972 championship, also known as the “Match of the Century,” saw the 1st non-Soviet challenger since the 2nd world war, American Bobby Fischer, defeat Spassky and his Candidates opponents by margins not seen since the 1870s. However, Fischer refused to defend his title on the next cycle in 1975 against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when FIDE declined to meet his conditions, forfeiting the title to Karpov by default. Karpov dominated the chess world for a decade until another Soviet player named Garry Kasparov from Azerbaijan defeated him in 1985. Karpov contested Kasparov in 5 world title matches from the span of 1984 to 1990, but never won back the title.
In 1993, Kasparov and Nigel Short broke away from FIDE to start their own title match. The called their organization the Professional Chess Association (PCA). This began a string of 2 separate world championships and champions. The PCA continued to use the format FIDE had used leading to the break off (where champions await a challenger) while FIDE switched to a new format where all players competed in a tournament to determine the champion. Kasparov lost the PCA title in 2000 to Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik.
In 2006, the World Chess Championship unified the titles, with Kramnik defeating the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov. He lost the title a year later in Mexico City in September of 2007 to India’s Viswanathan Anand of India. Anand was able to defend his title in a rematch played in 2008. While Anand is still the champion and will defend his title in 2012, he is not the number one player in the world as ranked through FIDE’s rating system. That title belongs to 19 year-old Magnus Carlsen, who on January 1, 2010 became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked as the number one player in the world.