World Champions By Number of Title Match Victories
The table below organises the world champions in order of championship wins, and is current through the World Chess Championship 2012. (For the purpose of this table, a successful defence counts as a win, even if the match was drawn.) The table is made more complicated by the split between the "Classical" and FIDE world titles between 1993 and 2006.
| Champion | Total | Undisputed | FIDE | Classical | Years as champion | Years as undisputed champion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emanuel Lasker | 6 | 6 | 27 | 27 | ||
| Garry Kasparov | 6 | 4 | 2 | 15 | 8 | |
| Anatoly Karpov | 6 | 3 | 3 | 16 | 10 | |
| Mikhail Botvinnik | 5 | 5 | 13 | 13 | ||
| Viswanathan Anand | 5 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 6 | |
| Alexander Alekhine | 4 | 4 | 17 | 17 | ||
| Wilhelm Steinitz | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | ||
| Vladimir Kramnik | 3 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 | |
| Tigran Petrosian | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | ||
| José Raúl Capablanca | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | ||
| Boris Spassky | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Bobby Fischer | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Max Euwe | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Vasily Smyslov | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Mikhail Tal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Ruslan Ponomariov | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Alexander Khalifman | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Rustam Kasimdzhanov | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Veselin Topalov | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Read more about this topic: World Chess Championships
Famous quotes containing the words world, champions, number, title, match and/or victories:
““Must we burn Sade?” asks Mme de Beauvoir. Now that you mention it, why not? The world is littered with literature. And Sade teaches us little about human nature which we couldn’t gather from a few minutes of honest introspection.”
—D.J. Enright (b. 1920)
“Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of “the rat race” is not yet final.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)
“Cole’s Hill was the scene of the secret night burials of those who died during the first year of the settlement. Corn was planted over their graves so that the Indians should not know how many of their number had perished.”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“A familiar name cannot make a man less strange to me. It may be given to a savage who retains in secret his own wild title earned in the woods. We have a wild savage in us, and a savage name is perchance somewhere recorded as ours.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You look rather rash my dear your colors don’t quite match your face.”
—Daisy Ashford (1881–1972)
“And, “Better defeat almost,
If seen clear,
Than life’s victories of doubt
That need endless talk-talk
To make them out.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)