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 | 7 | 5 | |
| 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 Championship
Famous quotes containing the words world, champions, number, title, match and/or victories:
“The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
“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)
“[The] elderly and timid single gentleman in Paris ... never drove down the Champs Elysees without expecting an accident, and commonly witnessing one; or found himself in the neighborhood of an official without calculating the chances of a bomb. So long as the rates of progress held good, these bombs would double in force and number every ten years.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“I wish not to be given a title or an appointed position. I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large, and I will help best by doing it my way through my communications with people of all ages. First and Foremost I am an entertainer but all I need is the Federal Credentials.”
—Elvis Presley (1935–1977)
““There’s not a man or woman
Born under the skies
Dare match in learning with us two,
And all day long we have found
There’s not a thing but love can make
The world a narrow pound.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
““... Knowledge he shall unwind
Through victories of the mind,
Till, clambering at the cradle-side,
He dreams himself his mother’s pride,
All knowledge lost in trance
Of sweeter ignorance.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)