Many people probably have this notion that chess is a gentleman's game. And in all respects it should be. But chess is a battle of wits, a competitive game between two minds, and in many cases, a war of egos. So, it shouldn't be a surprise that a game which is supposedly innocuous can actually be quite cutthroat.
This may further be amplified if there is something highly valuable on the line: the title of World Champion, and these days that also comes with some monetary incentive. However, in the early days of the World Chess Championship, challengers cared less about the prize money, and more about the bragging rights.
Now, to clarify one thing, I'm not saying that the elite chess players are all vicious, ruthless, and aggressive. It's just that, in the spirit of competition, these people put their desire to crush their opponent and prove they have the better concept in full display while they are playing over the board. However, for the most part, chess masters are generally innocuous people outside the game of chess. But as with any athlete, their drive and motivation is found in the pursuit of being the best in the world at this one thing.
So, let us go through in passing several peculiar events that happened in connection with the World Chess Championship which nobody would think could ever happen in a sport like this.
Early Days
Back in the days when there was no international organization that held championships to determine who would be considered the best player in the game, people just played as many opponents as they could, and whoever won the most number of games and beat the most players was considered the strongest. At this point, the idea of having a World Chess Champion was still in its nascent stage, but several names were already being floated around in chess circles.
During the 19th century, some of the renowned chess players were the likes of Howard Staunton and Adolf Anderssen, both very strong contenders for the title of world champion. Of course, that was until Paul Morphy entered the scene and upstaged many of his contemporaries. With a brilliant tactical mind and innovative approaches to the game, Morphy rose quickly in the chess scene.
Considered by many as one of the GOATs, Morphy had an intuition unlike many of his peers. And so he dominated the world of chess wherever he went, until he suddenly passed away at the age of 47 from a stroke. Morphy's death left a void in the chess world which would later be filled by the person considered to be the very first World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz.
As mentioned a while ago, in those days, there was no World Chess Federation or FIDE. Strong players just agreed to have matches with each other to figure out who among them is the greatest. After Steinitz, came Lasker, the longest reigning world chess champion in history, who was later defeated by the young Cuban master, José Raúl Capablanca. Capablanca is widely considered as a great technician in the game, excellent in calculation with great depth in positional understanding.
Under FIDE
He was then followed by another master who ranks among the greats, Alexander Alekhine, who was unexpectedly defeated by the Dutch mathematician Max Euwe. After WWII, FIDE took over and things started to become more structured and organized. To decide on who the next World Chess Champion was going to be, FIDE held a tournament joined by five players. It was eventually won by Mikhail Botvinnik, who was perhaps the most cunning world champion in history.
Botvinnik held the title for 15 years, but not consecutively. With his influence on the design of the world championship cycles, he was able to get rematches every time he lost the title. And each time, he would reclaim the title, once from Vasily Smyslov, and another time from Mikhail Tal.
After Botvinnik's defeat to Tigran Petrosian, FIDE changed the automatic rematch rule which made Botvinnik withdraw from entering future World Chess Championship cycles. Petrosian was defeated by Boris Spassky, who would later be challenged by none other than Bobby Fischer, probably the most controversial player to ever grace the world chess stage.
In any case, Fischer defeated Spassky, thus breaking the Soviet stranglehold of chess and bringing the title to the west. But then, Fischer disappeared from the scene when FIDE rejected his terms for the next championship match.
From this point onward, the World Chess Championship would continue to have controversies like The Great Yogurt Controversy between Anatoly Karpov, the successor to Fischer, and his rival Viktor Korchnoi, in which Korchnoi alleged that Karpov and his team was sending him coded messages by giving him blueberry yogurt while they were playing a match.
Then came Garry Kasparov, arguably one of the most famous chess players of all time before Magnus Carlsen. When Kasparov was going to defend his title against Nigel Short, FIDE's prize pool was much lower than expected, and so the two split from FIDE and created the Professional Chess Association.
Reunification
For years, the chess world had two world champions because of this. It wasn't until Vladimir Kramnik, the PCA Champion, had a match against the then-FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov that the two titles would be unified. Ultimately, Kramnik won that match, but not without controversy.
Topalov and his team had accused Kramnik of cheating in what is now called the Toiletgate scandal, as Topalov claimed that Kramnik was getting help from computers when he used the bathroom. Kramnik denied the allegations, they continued the match, and he won thus uniting the two titles.
After Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand became the next World Chess Champion, and for the most part, his tenure as champion was quite peaceful without any disputes or scandals. He defended his title three times until he faced Magnus Carlsen, who would prove himself to be, perhaps, the greatest chess player of all time, bar none.
Defending his title five times in a row, Carlsen found it to be exhausting to continue with the current format of the World Chess Championship, and in 2023, he relinquished his title, which paved the way for Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren to vie for the coveted World Chess Champion distinction.
In that match, Ding secured victory to become the first Chinese grandmaster to become the World Chess Champion. And that, in a nutshell, is the history of the World Chess Championship, and all the twists and turns that came along with it.
(Image credit: Vladimir Barskij/Wikimedia Commons)