World Chess Championship Match History

The current Kramnik-Anand World Chess Championship match in Bonn is the forty-third match so designated (maybe—see 1910). From 1886 to 1993, new champions were crowned only after defeating the current champion in a match. There were two exceptions: Botvinnik won the WCC title after winning a five player quintuple round-robin (Alekhine had died), and Karpov won the WCC title in 1975 by default when Fischer and FIDE could not agree to terms.

The WCC title was split and in dispute 1993-2006.

I created this chart partly to answer a question of the frequency of a draw in game one as the players orient themselves to weeks or months of intense competition. There have been fifteen draws in the first game. Black has won twelve, and White sixteen. Although predicting a draw in the first game seems almost commonsense, it is far from the norm.

The winner of twenty-one matches has won the first game; seventeen match winners have started with a loss.

*indicates historical note below

Year	Contestants (winner in bold) First player had White in game 1		Game 1 Result	Final Score
1886*	Zukertort	Steinitz	0-1	7.5-12.5
1889	Chigorin	Steinitz	1-0	6.5-10.5
1890	Steinitz	Gunsberg	½-½	10.5-8.5
1892	Chigorin	Steinitz	1-0	10.5-12.5
1894	Lasker	Steinitz	1-0	10-7
1896	Steinitz	Lasker	0-1	4.5-12.5
1907	Marshall	Lasker	0-1	3.5-11.5
1908	Lasker	Tarrasch	1-0	10.5-5.5
1909	Lasker	Janowsky	½-½	8.0-2.0
1910*	Schlechter	Lasker	½-½	5.0-5.0
1910	Lasker	Janowsky	1-0	9.5-1.5
1921*	Capablanca	Lasker	½-½	9.0-5.0
1927	Alekhine	Capablanca	1-0	18.5-15.5
1929	Alekhine	Bogoljubov	1-0	15.5-9.5
1934	Bogoljubov	Alekhine	½-½	10.5-15.5
1935	Alekhine	Euwe	1-0	15.5-14.5
1937	Euwe	Alekhine	1-0	9.5-15.5
1951	Botvinnik	Bronstein	½-½	12.0-12.0
1954	Smyslov	Botvinnik	0-1	12.0-12.0
1957	Botvinnik	Smyslov	0-1	9.5-12.5
1958	Smyslov	Botvinnik	0-1	10.5-12.5
1960	Tal	Botvinnik	1-0	12.5-8.5
1961	Botvinnik	Tal	1-0	13.0-8.0
1963	Petrosian	Botvinnik	0-1	12.5-9.5
1966	Spassky	Petrosian	½-½	11.5-12.5
1969	Spassky	Petrosian	0-1	12.5-10.5
1972	Spassky	Fischer	1-0	8.5-12.5
1978	Korchnoi	Karpov	½-½	15.5-16.5
1981	Korchnoi	Karpov	0-1	7.5-10.5
1984*	Karpov	Kasparov	½-½	25.0-23.0
1985	Kasparov	Karpov	1-0	13.0-11.0
1986	Karpov	Kasparov	½-½	11.5-12.5
1987	Karpov	Kasparov	½-½	12.0-12.0
1990	Karpov	Kasparov	½-½	11.5-12.5
1993*	Kasparov	Short	1-0	12.5-7.5
1993*	Timman	Karpov	0-1	8.5-12.5
1995	Anand	Kasparov	½-½	7.5-10.5
1996	Karpov	Kamsky	1-0	10.5-7.5
1998*	Karpov	Anand	1-0	5.0-3.0
2000	Kasparov	Kramnik	½-½	6.5-8.5
2004	Leko	Kramnik	0-1	7.0-7.0
2006*	Topalov	Kramnik	0-1	7.5-8.5
2008	Kramnik	Anand	½-½

Notes:

1886 After winning game one, Steinitz lost four straight in the first official World Chess Championship match. He lost only one more in the match. In 1889, only one game was drawn.

1910 There is doubt whether this match was a World Championship contest, and concerning the conditions needed for Schlechter to win. See Chess Notes 4144.

1921 Lasker achieved no wins in his loss of the title to Capablanca.

1984 Karpov was leading when the match was suspended. Kasparov had won the last two games.

1993 Kasparov and Short created the Professional Chessplayers Association and held their match outside of FIDE, which stripped Kasparov of his title and held the Timman-Karpov match. The World Championship title was split until the Kramnik-Topalov reunification match.

1998 Karpov-Anand was a six game match at standard time controls; then two rapid play-off games broke the 3.0-3.0 tie.

2006 Topalov-Kramnik played twelve standard time control games (Kramnik forfeited one); then four rapid games broke the 6.0-6.0 tie.

World Champions were selected through tournaments or knock-out matches in 1948, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2007. These differ in fundamental character from a two player match preceded by months of specific preparation for a known opponent.

Corrections

Corrections are welcome. In putting together this data I drew mostly upon three sources: Aleksandar Matanović, Chess is Chess CD (2000); Chess Base, Big Database 2003, updated with The Week in Chess 1-727, and Mark Weeks, The World Chess Championship website. None of these are proper research materials for serious research questions. Every bit of information needs verification.