Generally recognized world chess champions
championship reign name nationality
1866-94 Steinitz, Wilhelm Austrian
1894-1921 Lasker, Emanuel German
1921-27 Capablanca, José Raúl Cuban
1927-35 Alekhine, Alexander Russian-French
1935-37 Euwe, Max Dutch
1937-46 Alekhine, Alexander Russian-French
1948-57 Botvinnik, Mikhail Moiseyevich Russian
1957-58 Smyslov, Vasily Russian
1958-60 Botvinnik, Mikhail Moiseyevich Russian
1960-61 Tal, Mikhail Nekhemyevich Latvian
1961-63 Botvinnik, Mikhail Moiseyevich Russian
1963-69 Petrosyan, Tigran Vartanovich Georgian
1969-72 Spassky, Boris Vasilyevich Russian
1972-75 Fischer, Robert (Bobby) American
1975-85 Karpov, Anatoly Yevgenyevich Russian
1985- Kasparov, Gary Russian
Other notable chess personalities: Anderssen, Adolf Loyd, Sam Morphy, Paul Nimzowitsch, Aron Philidor, François-André Réti, Richard Staunton, Howard Tarrasch, Siegbert

Generally recognized world chess champions:

Steinitz, Wilhelm
born May 18, 1836, Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire [now in Czech Republic]
died Aug. 12, 1900, Wards Island, N.Y., U.S.

Austrian chess master who is considered to have been the world champion longer than any other player, winning the championship in 1866 from Adolph Anderssen and losing it in 1894 to Emanuel Lasker.
Steinitz learned to play chess from a schoolmate when he was about 12 years old. In 1858 he entered the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna but soon dropped out of school and occupied himself with chess full-time. In 1862 he represented Austria in his first National tournament. Later that year, he moved to England and in 1883 to the United States, where he was finally defeated by Lasker.
A superb defensive player, particularly in his later years, he sought to systematize chess and devoted much time and effort to arguing his theories. Following his defeat by Lasker, Steinitz suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized in Moscow. He recovered for a time but fell ill again and died a pauper.


Lasker, Emanuel
born Dec. 24, 1868, Berlinchen, Prussia [Ger.]
died Jan. 11, 1941, New York, N.Y., U.S.

German chess master, the world champion from 1894 to 1920, who is often regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
The son of a Jewish cantor, Lasker first left Prussia in 1889 and only five years later won the world chess championship from Wilhelm Steinitz. He went on to a series of stunning wins in St. Petersburg, Nürnberg, London, and Paris before concentrating on his education. In 1902 he received his doctorate for research on abstract algebraic systems.
In 1904 Lasker resumed his chess career, publishing a magazine, Lasker's Chess Magazine, for four years and winning against the top masters. Though the championship title was finally taken from him in 1921 by José Raúl Capablanca, he continued to play successfully until he was 67, considered a unique achievement.
Lasker changed the nature of chess, not in its strategy but in its economic base. After he was financially ruined by the Great Depression, he became the first chess master to demand high fees, thus paving the way to strengthening the financial status of professional chess players. He invented new endgame theories and then retired for some years to study philosophy and to teach and write. At 66, however, he returned to tournament playing and was again successful at several international matches. His book Common Sense in Chess (1896) is considered a classic.


Chess champions José Raúl Capablanca and Emanuel Lasker.

Capablanca, José Raúl

born Nov. 19, 1888, Havana
died March 8, 1942, New York City

Chess master who won the world championship (1921) from Emanuel Lasker and lost it (1927) to Alexander Alekhine.
Capablanca learned the moves at the age of four by watching his father play and defeated Cuba's best player in 1901. He attended Columbia University, New York City, in 1906-07 and in 1913 joined the Cuban diplomatic service, an occupation that facilitated his Chess career by permitting travel. From 1916 until 1924 he did not lose a game. He also played baseball, Bridge, and tennis well. He was felled by a stroke while watching a game at the Manhattan Chess Club and died the next day. His Chess style had a deceptive appearance of simplicity; at his best, he could make the defeat of another master look easy.

Alekhine, Alexander

born Nov. 1, 1892, Moscow
died March 24, 1946, Estoril, Port.
Alekhine also spelled Alekhin, or Aljechin, original name Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Alyokhin
world-champion chess player from 1927 to 1935 and from 1937 until his death, noted for using a great variety of attacks.
Alekhine was a precocious chess player, becoming a master at age 16 and a grand master at age 22. He was playing in a tournament in Mannheim, Ger., when World War I broke out, and he escaped from internment to serve in the Red Cross division of the Russian army.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Alekhine became a naturalized French citizen and studied law at the University of Paris. In 1927, after a contest lasting nearly three months, he won the world championship from José Raúl Capablanca of Cuba. Eight years later he lost the title to Max Euwe of The Netherlands, but he regained it from Euwe in 1937. Alekhine broke the world blindfold chess record in 1924, 1925, and 1933. Among his books is My Best Games of Chess 1908-1923 (1927).

Euwe, Max

born May 20, 1901, Watergrafsmeer, near Amsterdam
died Nov. 26, 1981, Amsterdam
byname of Machgielis Euwe
Dutch chess master who won the world championship (1935) from Alexander Alekhine and lost it to Alekhine in a return match (1937).
Euwe won his first (minor) tournament at the age of 10 but played little thereafter until he had completed his formal education in 1926 at the University of Amsterdam, where he became a professor of mathematics. Known for his vast knowledge of Chess opening theory, numerous books and articles on Chess, and steady rather than spectacular play, he continued in individual competition at the highest level until 1956 and as first board player on The Netherlands team thereafter. In 1959 he became director of The Netherlands Automatic Data Processing Research Centre. From 1961 to 1963 he chaired the Euratom committee studying the feasibility of programming Chess for computers. He was president of the International Federation of Chess from 1970 through 1978.

Botvinnik, Mikhail Moiseyevich

born Aug. 17 [Aug. 4, Old Style], 1911, St. Petersburg, Russia
died May 5, 1995, Moscow

Soviet chess master who held the world championship three times (1948-57, 1958-60, 1961-63).
At the age of 14, less than two years after he had learned the moves of chess, Botvinnik defeated the then-current world champion, José Raúl Capablanca, in one game of an exhibition in which Capablanca played simultaneously against several opponents. In 1931 Botvinnik won the chess championship of the Soviet Union for the first of seven times. He won the world championship in a 1948 tournament held to choose a successor to Alexander Alekhine, whose death in 1946 had left the title vacant. Botvinnik lost the title in 1957 to Vasily Smyslov but regained it the following year; in 1960 he was challenged successfully by Mikhail Tal but once more regained the championship in 1961. After losing to Tigran Petrosyan in 1963, he abandoned competition for the world title, though he continued to play in important tournaments and to write on chess.
Botvinnik's style of play was eclectic, methodical, and rational rather than strongly intuitive. He wrote numerous books on chess, and his scientific approach influenced a generation of Soviet chess players, among them Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov.
Botvinnik graduated as an electrical engineer from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1932 and from 1955 was an associate of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Electrical Energy.

Smyslov, Vasily Vasilyevich

born March 24, 1921, Moscow, Russia

Russian chess master who won the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1957 and lost it to Botvinnik in a return match in 1958. Smyslov was noted for his patient positional style and his precise endgame technique.

Tal, Mikhail Nekhemyevich

born Nov. 9, 1936, Riga, Latvia
died June 28, 1992, Moscow, Russia

Latvian chess grand master who in 1960, at the age of 23, became the youngest world chess champion when he upset the defending champion, Mikhail M. Botvinnik, by a score of 12 1/2 to 8 1/2.
Tal, who learned to play chess at the age of six, was known for his complex and audacious moves. He became a national master and Latvian champion in 1953, at age 16. In 1957, the year he graduated from Riga University, he became an international grand master and won the first of his six titles as champion of the U.S.S.R. He established his right to challenge Botvinnik with impressive victories in the 1958 interzonal and 1959 candidates' tournaments, both held in Yugoslavia. He became seriously ill with kidney disease shortly before he lost to Botvinnik in a 1961 rematch. Despite continuing bouts with liver and kidney ailments, he won five more Soviet titles (1958, 1967, 1972, 1974, and 1978) and numerous international competitions, notably the high-speed world blitz championship in Canada in 1988.

Petrosyan, Tigran V(artanovich)

born June 17, 1929, Tbilisi, Georgian S.S.R.-death reported Aug. 14, 1984, Moscow
Petrosyan also spelled Petrosian
Soviet Chess master of Armenian descent who won the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963, defended it successfully against Boris Spassky in 1966, and was defeated by Spassky in 1969. Petrosyan's play, subtle and tirelessly patient, was designed to weaken an opponent's position gradually rather than to crush it at a single blow. Against masters of comparable strength he played a great many drawn games.
Petrosyan was made a Chess master in 1947. He was educated at Yerevan Teachers' College in the Armenian S.S.R. and continued postgraduate study in philosophy there after becoming world Chess champion. He received a number of decorations for his achievements, and he remained an active member in the Presidium of the Chess Federation of the U.S.S.R. In 1968 Petrosyan published Chess and Philosophy.

Spassky, Boris Vasilyevich

born Jan. 30, 1937, Leningrad

Soviet chess master, world champion from 1969 to 1972.
When Spassky was evacuated from Leningrad during World War II to a children's home in Kirov Region, he learned to play chess. While still in his teens he gained the rank of international master (1953). In 1955 he won the World Junior Championship, and the same year he won the title of international grand master. In the following years, however, he was overshadowed by the rise of the young Riga chess genius Mikhail Tal and also was occupied with his journalism studies at Leningrad University. In 1966, still having little international reputation, Spassky first challenged Tigran Petrosyan for the world title, but he was not successful at taking the title until three years later. Spassky's style was characterized by an adaptability rarely matched in the history of chess. His victory over Petrosyan was narrow (12 1/2-10 1/2), however, and his subsequent tournament results were unremarkable. In 1972 he lost the world title to Bobby Fischer of the United States.

Fischer, Bobby

born March 9, 1943, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
byname of Robert James Fischer
American chess master, the youngest player in the world ever to attain the rank of grand master (1958). His youthful intemperance and brilliant playing drew the attention of the American public to the game of chess.
Fischer learned the moves of chess at age 6 and at 16 dropped out of high school to devote himself fully to the game. In 1958 he won the first of many American championships. In World Championship Candidate matches during 1970-71, Fischer won 20 consecutive games before losing once and drawing 3 times to the former world champion Tigran Petrosyan (Soviet Union) in a final match won by Fischer. At Reykjavík, Ice., in 1972, Fischer became the first American player officially to hold the title of Chess Champion of the World when he defeated the then world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. In doing so he won the $156,000 victor's share of the $250,000 purse.
When playing White, he virtually always opened 1. P-K4. His victories commonly resulted from surprise attacks or counterattacks rather than from the accumulation of small advantages; yet his play remained positionally sound. In 1975, on Fischer's refusing to meet the Soviet challenger, Anatoly Karpov, the International Chess Federation deprived him of his championship and declared Karpov champion by default. Fischer then withdrew from serious play for almost 20 years, returning to defeat Spassky in a privately organized rematch in 1992.

Karpov, Anatoly Yevgenyevich

born May 23, 1951, Zlatoust, Russia, U.S.S.R.

Russian chess master who dominated world competition from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.
Karpov moved to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) with his family early in life. A child prodigy, he learned to play chess at the age of four and was rated a first-category player by the time he was nine. In 1969 he won the World Junior championship at Stockholm, and a year later, at age 19, he became the world's youngest grandmaster. An almost uninterrupted series of successes in tournaments during 1971-74 made him the official challenger to Bobby Fischer of the United States for the 1975 world chess championship. Karpov became world champion that year when Fischer refused to play a match with him under conditions set by the official world chess organization, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE). Karpov narrowly retained his title against the Soviet defector Viktor Korchnoi in 1978 and beat Korchnoi again handily in 1981.
Karpov defended his title against his fellow countryman Gary Kasparov in 1984-85. Karpov gained a commanding lead early in the series, but Kasparov eventually rallied. The match became a grueling endurance contest that stretched to 48 games before it was halted on the grounds that both players were exhausted. In their rematch during 1985 Karpov lost his title to Kasparov after 24 games had been played.
Karpov regained the title in 1993, after Kasparov left FIDE to form a rival organization. In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, which Karpov regained by defeating the Dutch player Jan Timman in a FIDE championship match.
Though slim and of small stature, Karpov had notable powers of endurance. His style of play was without noticeable weaknesses; he tended to prefer positional play to tactical play, inexorably building up minute advantages through flawless but colourless maneuvers to eventually achieve victory.

Kasparov, Gary

born April 13, 1963, Baku, Azerbaijan, U.S.S.R.
in full Garri Kimovich Kasparov, original name Garri Weinstein, or Harry Weinstein
Russian chess master who became the world chess champion in 1985.
Born to a Jewish father and an Armenian mother, Kasparov began playing chess at age six. By age 13 he was the Soviet youth champion, and he won his first international tournament at age 16 in 1979. He became an international grandmaster in 1980. From 1973 to 1978 he studied under former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, and after that his trainer was Aleksandr Nikitin.
Kasparov first challenged the reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov in a 1984-85 match, after he successfully survived the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) series of elimination matches. Kasparov lost four out of the first nine games but then adopted a careful defensive stance, taking an extraordinarily long series of drawn games with the champion. With Kasparov finally having won three games from the exhausted Karpov, FIDE halted the series after 48 games, a decision protested by Kasparov. In the two players' rematch in 1985, Kasparov narrowly defeated Karpov in a 24-game series, thus becoming the youngest champion in the history of the game.
In 1993 Kasparov and the English grandmaster Nigel Short left FIDE, the official world chess organization, and formed a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA). In response, FIDE stripped the title of world champion from Kasparov, who defeated Short that same year to become the PCA world champion.
In 1996 Kasparov defeated a powerful IBM custom-built chess computer known as Deep Blue in a match that attracted worldwide attention. Kasparov and the team of Deep Blue programmers agreed to have a rematch in 1997. Deep Blue's intelligence was upgraded, and the machine prevailed. Kasparov resigned in the last game of the six-game match after 19 moves, granting the win to Deep Blue.


Other notable chess personalities:

Anderssen, Adolf
born , July 6, 1818, Breslau, Prussia
died March 13, 1879, Breslau

Chess master considered the world's strongest player from his victory in the first modern international tournament (London, 1851) until his defeat (1858) by Paul Morphy in match play and, again, after Morphy's retirement (c. 1861) until his defeat by Wilhelm Steinitz (1866). Anderssen was noted for his ability to discover combination plays calculated to force an immediate decision. One of his famous games was dubbed “the Immortal Game.” Anderssen studied mathematics and philosophy and taught mathematics and German at the Friedrichs Gymnasium in Breslau.

Loyd, Sam
born Jan. 31, 1841, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.
died April 10, 1911, New York, N.Y.
byname of Samuel Loyd
American puzzlemaker who was best known for composing chess problems and games, including Parcheesi.
Loyd studied engineering and took a license as a steam and mechanical engineer, but he engaged in a variety of business enterprises until he was able to earn a living exclusively from his chess problems and puzzles.
[[[


White to mate in five moves, a chess composition by Sam Loyd (c. 1861)
With numerous pawns and pieces blocking the advance and promotion of White's b-pawn, it appears the least likely of White's pieces to give mate. Nevertheless, the b-pawn does deliver mate in the main line of play. ]]]
Loyd began inventing chess problems when he was 14 years old, and three years later he was recognized as the foremost American at this skill. From 1860 he was problem editor of the magazine Chess Monthly, edited by leading chess master Paul C. Morphy. He contributed to American Chess-Nuts in 1868 and in 1878 published his own book of problems, Chess Strategy. He later moved from chess problems to puzzles and games, inventing the Fifteen Puzzle, the Trick Donkeys, Pigs in Clover, and Parcheesi. His son joined him in his puzzle adventures, and about 1896 they began publishing a puzzle column that was widely syndicated in newspapers and magazines. The Loyd puzzles are remarkable for their disguised use of simple algebraic formulas.

Morphy, Paul Charles
born June 22, 1837, New Orleans
died July 10, 1884, New Orleans

U.S. Chess master who, during his public career of less than two years, became the world's leading player. Acclaimed by some as the most brilliant player of all time, he was first to rely on the now established principle of development before attack.
Morphy learned Chess at the age of 10. At 19 he was admitted to the Louisiana bar, on condition that he not practice until coming of age. After winning the first American Chess tournament at New York City in 1857, he travelled to Europe, where he defeated Adolf Anderssen of Germany, the unofficial champion, and every other master who would face him-English player Howard Staunton avoided a match. In Paris Morphy played blindfolded against eight strong players, winning six games and drawing two.
He returned to the U.S. in 1859 and issued a challenge, offering to face any player in the world at odds of Pawn and move. When there was no response, Morphy abandoned his public Chess career. After an unsuccessful attempt to practice law, he gradually withdrew into a life of seclusion, marked by eccentric behaviour and delusions of persecution.

Nimzowitsch, Aron
born Nov. 7, 1886, Riga Latvia, Russian Empire
died March 16, 1935, Denmark

Latvian-born chess master and theoretician, renowned for his book My System (1925) but who failed to win a world championship, despite many attempts.
Nimzowitsch learned to play chess from his father, a wholesale merchant, when he was eight years old, but only after he entered the University of Berlin in 1904 did he concentrate on the game. My System, which advocates what came to be called the hypermodern school of chess, remains a classic.
Nimzowitsch is best-remembered for having created a new vocabulary for chess that made the strategy of the masters more intelligible. He also developed several theories of play, including the Nimzowitsch-Indian defense.

Philidor, François-André
born Sept. 7, 1726, Dreux, Fr.
died Aug. 24, 1795, London
original name François-andré Danican
French composer whose operas were successful and widely known in his day and who was a famous and remarkable Chess player. The last member of a large and prominent musical family, François-André was thoroughly trained in music, but at age 18 he turned entirely to Chess competition throughout Europe. He was particularly well received in England, where he published a book on Chess and eventually received a pension from the London Chess Club. In 1754 he returned to Paris and set about composing highly popular operas, such as Sancho Pança dans son isle (1762) and Tom Jones (1765), as well as other dramatic and sacred music. He continued playing Chess and composing for the remainder of his life, travelling regularly to London.

Reti, Richard
born May 28, 1889, Pezinok, Hung.
died June 6, 1929, Prague, Czech. [now Czech Republic]

Hungarian chess master, writer, and theoretician who was one of the chief exponents of the Hypermodern school.

White to play and draw, a chess composition by Richard Réti (c. 1922) 
Réti was an exception among grandmasters, being keenly interested in composing chess problems and studies. His start in chess in Vienna, however, was so inauspicious that he came in last in a 1908 tournament, but by 1912 he was recognized as a brilliant player. In 1920 he switched from playing to writing and became, with his Modern Ideas in Chess (1923) and his columns, a revered writer. Returning to the board, he won the “brilliancy prize” in New York in 1924, awarded for the most brilliant game in the tournament of that year. His Die Meister des Schachbretts (1930; Masters of the Chessboard) was published posthumously.

White to play and draw, a chess composition by Richard Réti (c. 1922)
Initially it appears that White is lost because the Black pawn can outrace the White king to its queening square at h1, while the Black king can easily intercept the White pawn on its way to its queening square at c8. However, by moving the White king diagonally, and thus closer at each move to both pawns, White can eventually force Black to choose between losing the Black pawn or stopping the White pawn. In either case (no pawns or two queens), the result is a theoretical draw.

Encyclopædia Britannica
Staunton, Howard
born 1810
died June 22, 1874, London, Eng.

British chess master who was considered to be the world's leading player in the 1840s. In 1841 Staunton founded the first English chess magazine, and in 1851 he took the lead in organizing the first modern international chess tournament in London, where, however, he came in only fourth.
Little is known about Staunton's early life. He apparently began as an actor and subsequently wrote on William Shakespeare, publishing an edition of his plays in monthly parts. After he won most of a series of 21 games against the top French player, Saint Amant, in 1843, he was proclaimed Europe's leading player, but he refused a match with Paul Morphy in 1858 with the excuse that he was preparing a Shakespeare edition; it is generally believed, however, that he would have been beaten by Morphy. The standard tournament chess piece design was originated in about 1835, and patented in 1849, by Nathaniel Cook. Following Staunton's endorsement and extensive promotion, the design became known as the Staunton pattern.

Tarrasch, Siegbert
born March 5, 1862, Breslau, Prussia [now Wroclaw, Pol.]
died Feb. 17, 1934, Munich, Ger.

German chess master and physician who was noted for his books on chess theories.
For most of his chess career, Tarrasch was not a strong winner, having had only one major victory, in 1898. After 1907 he participated in more than 20 international matches but never placed in the top three positions. Especially disappointing to him was his loss to Emanuel Lasker in 1908 for the world championship. Despite his failures, Tarrasch is best remembered for his books, especially The Game of Chess (1935), that developed and popularized Wilhelm Steinitz's theories, while differing with the master about what constituted a small advantage.