World Champions

In 1969, Boris Spassky defeats Tigran Petrosian by a 12 - 10 score.  A child prodigy, Spassky became an International Master at the age of 16 and in 1955, at age 18, he became an International Grandmaster.

Bobby Fischer ended the Russian domination of the World Championship. He defeated Boris Spassky in 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland by a score of 12 to 8 and becoming the first American to win the title.

In 1975, Karpov won the World Championship by default when Fischer refused to agree to the terms for a match.  His series of matches against Kasparov has set a record for most games by two opponents.  

In 1985, Kasparov wins Karpov for the title by a 13-11 score. He defeats Karpov again in 3 more attempts for the title in '86, '87 and '90.  In 1993, he splits with FIDE to form PCA.  Was stripped of FIDE title in '93.

Russian Grandmaster Alexander Khalifman won the FIDE World Championship in 1999. He defeated 8 players in a knockout event held at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada from July 31 to August 29.

Viswanathan Anand won the FIDE World Chess Title on Christmas Eve 2000, in a match held in Teheran, Iran and New Delhi, India. He beat Alexei Shirov in the final game by a score of 3 - .

Ruslan Ponomariov became the youngest Chess Grandmaster in history. At the age of 18, (born Oct. 11, 1983) he won the World Chess Championship by beating Vasilly Ivanchuk in Moscow by 4 1/2 - 2 1/2.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov GM from Uzbekistan, won the FIDE title in 2004 beating a string of world-class players like Almsi, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Topalov and Adams. This match was held in Tripoli, Libya. 

Veselin Topalov finished undefeated with 10 points on this match held in San Luis, Argentina with 1.5 points ahead of the runner-up GM Viswanathan Anand.  Topalov's performance rating was 2890.

Vladimir Kramnik defeats GM Veselin Topalov in a twelve game match held in Elista, the Capital of Kalmykia southern Russia. After four extra rapid tie break games, Kramnik wins with a final 9-8 score.