A chess player who has passed away as the reigning world champion. Who was the only chess player who passed away with the rank of the current World Championship? Life under occupation

He spoke several European languages, had a doctorate in law, participated in hostilities, suffered injuries, was in prison and miraculously escaped execution. He was married several times, each time to women much older than himself, and one after another suffered defeat in his personal life. He traveled all over the world without feeling at home anywhere. The meaning of his life was chess.

Alexander Alekhin went down in history not only as the fourth world chess champion, but also as the only world champion so far who retained this title until the end of his days.

He was born 120 years ago, on October 31, 1892, in Moscow, into a wealthy aristocratic family. Mother was the daughter of a Moscow manufacturer, the owner of the Trekhgornaya manufactory. Father - the leader of the nobility, a member of the State Duma.

Alexander Alekhin cannot be called a "chess prodigy": by his own admission, he began to seriously study chess only at the age of 12. But by studying theory and gradually gaining experience, by the age of 20 he became one of the strongest chess players in the world.

October 1917 deprived him of his nobility and fortune. And in 1919 in Odessa, where Alekhine came to participate in one of the chess tournaments, he was arrested by the Cheka and sentenced to death. There were rumors in the West that Alekhine had died. But he was released - someone put in a good word for the chess player.

After his release, Alekhin worked for some time in the Odessa provincial executive committee, but with the onset of the offensive of Denikin's troops, he returned to Moscow.

In 1920, he won the All-Russian Olympiad in Moscow, which is considered the country's first championship, and became the first champion of Soviet Russia. And the following year, having married the Swiss journalist Anna Rügg, Alekhine emigrated from the country.

In 1925, Alekhine received French citizenship by naturalization and defended his doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne on "The system of imprisonment in China." But chess remained his life's work. In 1927, the 35-year-old chess player, having won against Capablanca, became the fourth world champion.

Of the 88 tournaments in which Alekhine competed, he was first in 62. He was an adherent of a flamboyant attacking style of play, an artist who created complex and spectacular multi-move combinations. Many of the maestro's parts were awarded prizes for beauty. “For me, chess is not a game, but an art,” he said.

Some noted his forgetfulness and absent-mindedness in everyday trifles, which contrasted sharply with his phenomenal chess memory: he remembered all the games played and even after a few years he could accurately repeat and parse them. According to Capablanca, "Alekhine had the most remarkable chess memory that ever existed."

Alekhine was a great lover of cats. His Siamese cat named Chess (translated from English - "chess") was constantly present at the competitions as a mascot. It is known, for example, that during the match with the Dutchman Max Euwe, the cat sniffed the board before each game.

It was Euwe who in 1935 temporarily took away the chess crown from Alekhine. The Russian champion put his opponent low and paid the price for it. Although with difficulty, the young Dutchman achieved victory, becoming the fifth world champion. However, under the terms of the contract, Euwe had to confirm his title two years later during a rematch. At the indicated time, Alekhine crushed Euwe to smithereens. Having regained the title of champion, he did not concede it to anyone else until his death.

In 1946, at the age of 53, Alekhin died suddenly. They buried him in Paris. The inscription on the monument is extremely simple: “Alexander Alekhine. Chess Genius of Russia and France.

In 1970, when the participants in the "Match of the Century" (USSR versus the rest of the world) were asked to name the best chess player of all time, the majority named Alexander Alekhine.

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Hockey player Gordie Howe, weightlifter Leonid Zhabotinsky and many others. RT remembers the legends and idols of millions and pays tribute to those who have left our world.

Flutter like a butterfly, sting like a bee

In early June, the world lost one of the most outstanding boxers, who was called the greatest during his professional career. On June 3, Mohammed Ali died - a man whose name was known even to that category of people who are not fond of sports in principle.

Already at the age of 18, the born Cassius Clay won the Olympic gold medal. He was proud of his achievement and appeared everywhere with his award. But after one of the establishments in his native Louisville refused to serve Clay, he left Clay in frustration and threw the medal into the Ohio River the same day.

Muhammad Ali globallookpress.com © imago sportfotodienst

Only in 1996, at the home Olympics in Atlanta, the champion was awarded a duplicate gold medal. By this time, the boxer became known to everyone as Mohammed Ali. This happened after he firmly associated himself with the American organization "Nation of Islam".

At 22, he became a world champion, but the refusal to do military service in the United States deprived him of all titles. Ali managed to return to the sport and, in the fight against the great boxers of his time, regain the title of world champion, and his confrontations with Joe Frazier and George Foreman became iconic. Mohammed was not shy about sharp statements, and some of his phrases later became winged. The most famous of them is “Hands work, eyes see. Flutter like a butterfly, pity like a bee.

Mohammed Ali globallookpress.com In 1980, Ali ended his career, and four years later he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which causes a violation of the locomotor system. At the age of 74, the boxer died due to septic shock. One of the most touching posts on social networks was left by the former world boxing champion Mike Tyson. “God has come for his champion. Great for a long time,” Tyson wrote on his Twitter.

God came for his champion. So long great one. @MuhammadAli #TheGreatest #RIP pic.twitter.com/jhXyqOuabi

Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) June 4, 2016

Flying Dutchman

While still a footballer, Johan Cruyff was close to the title of world and European champion, but in 1974 the Dutch lost to the German national team in the final of the world championship, and two years later, at the championship of the continent, they were content with only bronze medals.

Cruyff won title after title with Ajax, while at Barcelona he only managed to celebrate a triumph in the Spanish Championship once. However, becoming a coach, he filled the gap, leading the Catalans to gold medals four times in eight years.

Johan Cruyff

In the 90s, Barcelona became the dominant force and talents like Josep Guardiola, Gheorghe Hadji, Ronald Koeman, Mikael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov were revealed under Cruyff. In the 1991/92 season, Barcelona won the European Cup for the first time in history. But in 1996, the Dutchman left the Spanish team and never returned to coaching.

“Most of all I love to watch the children play in the yard. This is the most sincere football. Exactly the one in which my teams played, ”Cruyff said.

He was a heavy smoker and was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2015. In March 2016, the Dutchman died at the age of 68.

Mister Hockey

Just a week after the death of Muhammad Ali, the sports world suffered another irreparable loss. At the age of 89, Gordie Howe, a hockey legend, has died, after whom a specific hat-trick is named - a situation when a hockey player scores a puck, gives an assist and fights in one game. He was quite aggressive on the ice and good in attack, which provoked not only the appearance of the mentioned term, but also the nickname "Mr. Elbows". However, as soon as Howe crossed the mark of 500 abandoned goals in his career, the nickname "Mr. Hockey" was assigned to him for life.

Gordie Howe globallookpress.com © Doug Ball/STRTCPI

During his 35-year career, he primarily played for Detroit, with whom he won four Stanley Cups. At 43, he announced his retirement, but two years later he returned to big-time sports and joined the Houston Eros, then playing in the WHA. After the merger of the WHA and the NHL, Howe played for the Hartford Whalers, where he ended his professional career in 1980. As a result, Detroit, Hartford and Houston retired Gordy's number 9 as a sign of respect.

In the last years of his life, health problems made themselves felt. He suffered a stroke in 2014 and died two years later.

Idol Schwarzenegger

One of the first losses of the year was the departure of Leonid Zhabotinsky. The weightlifter passed away two weeks before his 78th birthday.

In 1963, he set his first world record by lifting a barbell weighing 165 kg. But at the World Championships in Stockholm, such a result was not enough to win and he became a bronze medalist. In total, during his career, Zhabotinsky set 19 world achievements.

Leonid Zhabotinsky

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A streak of victories overtook Zhabotinsky in the second half of the 1960s. He won two golds - first at the Olympics in Tokyo, and four years later in Mexico City. To two Olympic medals of the highest standard, he added four gold medals from world championships and brought two from continental championships.

The Soviet athlete over the years of his career has become a cult not only for colleagues, but also for bodybuilders. The most famous of them, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has repeatedly called Leonid his idol and role model. “I have been rooting for you since childhood. Even during the Tokyo Olympics, although Shemansky and Gubner competed there. Of course, I was also worried about them, but for some reason I wanted you to win ... ”, Schwarzenegger said to Zhabotinsky during his visit to the United States.

The death of the Brazilian football team

At the end of the year, there was a plane crash in Colombia that killed most of the Brazilian Chapecoense football team. There were 77 people on board, six managed to survive, but the goalkeeper of the club Danilo died in one of the hospitals. Five people survived, of which three players - 24-year-old goalkeeper Jaxon Folmann, 27-year-old defender Alan Ruschel and 31-year-old defensive player Neto.

FC Chapecoense

globallookpress.com © Marco Galvao/ZUMAPRESS.com Chapecoense headed to the first match of the Copa Sudamericana against Atlético Nacional, but that game was not to be. As a result, a proposal was made to declare the Brazilian team the winner of the tournament. The South American Football Confederation accepted it. Matches around the world began with a moment of silence in memory of the dead.

The World Chess Championship match between Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and Russian Sergey Karjakin has become one of the main sporting events of the outgoing year not only in the world of chess. Unfortunately, such grandiose events will not be able to make up for the bitterness of loss in this sport.

On June 6, the legendary grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi passed away. In 1978 and 1981, he twice claimed the chess crown, but on both occasions lost to Anatoly Karpov and never made it into history as a world champion.

Viktor Korchnoi

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During the Karjakin-Carlsen meeting, 90-year-old chess player Mark Taimanov died, and the day before his death, grandmaster, former Russian champion in classical chess Yury Eliseev tragically died at the age of 20 - the young man fell from a great height while trying to climb from the window to the balcony .

Yuri Eliseev

© Russian Chess Federation

At the beginning of the year, 20-year-old Russian chess player Ivan Bukavshin died during a training camp. The cause of the tragedy was a stroke. Successes at a young age made him one of the most promising in his craft, but Bukavshin's dreams were not destined to come true.

Ivan Bukavshin

© ladachess.ru A little more than a month was not enough for Samuil Zhukhovitsky to celebrate his 100th birthday. One of the oldest chess players in the world has died at the age of 99, and one of the rapid chess competitions has become a tournament in his memory.

Samuil Zhukhovitsky

© Wikimedia Commons

Also in the past year, the sports world lost chess player and author Evgeny Gik, who died at the age of 73. In addition, international chess master Mark Dvoretsky passed away. He was 68 years old.

Evgeniy Gik © Wikimedia Commons

Football and hockey

On January 7, the famous football player and coach Sergei Shustikov, the son of the legendary Torpedo football player Viktor Shustikov, passed away. Sergei managed to play abroad, but did not achieve significant achievements in Spain. In 2004, he ended his career, and in 2009 he became the coach of CSKA. He left the capital club after five years.

He died at the age of 45 in the arms of his wife. “We called an ambulance when there was the first attack. When the doctors did not come for a long time, the second happened. I had an earring on my hands. Breathed. I held it. He was weakening, ”said Sergey’s wife Natalya after his death.

Sergei Shustikov (left)

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One of the most talented football players of his generation, Artyom Bezrodny, has died at the age of 37. He was a prominent figure in Spartak, won the Russian championship four times, tried to play in Europe, but injuries and a difficult character did not allow him to prove himself in the German Bayer. Leaving Spartak in 2002 was the last notable milestone in Bezrodny's career. Artyom died in his native Sumy.

Artyom Bezrodny

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In 2016, the football world lost two legends of Soviet football. The 1956 Olympic champions Anatoly Isaev and Anatoly Ilyin, who forged the glory of the Moscow Spartak, have passed away.

Anatoly Isaev and Anatoly Ilyin.

globallookpress.com © Dmitry Golubovich/Russian Look

Two-time Olympic volleyball champion Galina Leontyeva died on February 4. In addition to victories at the Olympics, she twice became the champion of Europe and once the world champion.

Galina Leontieva

© Wikimedia Commons

Soviet athlete Faina Melnik passed away on December 16. She knew no equal in discus throwing at the 1972 Olympics. Melnik won two more continental championships (1971 and 1974).

MOSCOW, 1 December - R-Sport. Norwegian Magnus Carlsen defended his world chess title by beating challenger Russian grandmaster Sergei Karjakin in New York.

The first official match for the World Chess Championship took place in 1886. It is from this moment that it is customary to count the official title of "world chess champion".

The 1990s saw a split in the chess movement. In 1993, the current world champion Garry Kasparov and challenger Nigel Short (England) accused FIDE of corruption, left FIDE and founded the Professional Chess Association (PCHA).

For some time there were two world chess champions at the same time: according to FIDE and according to PCA. In 1996, the PCHA ceased to exist as a result of the loss of a sponsor, after which the PCHA champions began to be called "world champion in classical chess", and the title was transferred according to the system when the champion himself accepted the challenger's challenge and played a match with him.

Emanuel Lasker (1868 1941)- German chess player, second world champion (1894 1921), doctor of philosophy and mathematics. Lasker held his championship for a record-breaking 27 years in the history of chess. From 1907 to 1910, four contenders tried to challenge his championship title: Frank Marshall (1907), Siegbert Tarrasch (1908), David Janowski (1909, 1910) and Karl Schlechter (1910). Winner of international tournaments in New York (1893, 1924), St. Petersburg (1895-96, 1909, 1914), Nuremberg (1896), London (1899), Paris (1900) and others. In 1934-1936 he lived in the USSR, having emigrated from the Nazi Germany, and acted as a representative of the USSR at international tournaments. He spent the last years of his life in the USA.

José Raul Capablanca (1888 1942)- Cuban chess player, third world champion (1921 1927). The biggest successes of Capablanca: winning a match against world champion Emanuel Lasker, first prizes at international tournaments in San Sebastian (1911), London (1922), New York (1927), Moscow (1936) and together with Mikhail Botvinnik in Nottingham (1936). Since 1962, international tournaments in memory of Capablanca have been held in Cuba.

Alexander Alekhin (1892 1946)- Russian chess player, fourth world chess champion - from 1927 (after the victory over Capablanca) to 1935 and from 1937 (after the victory over Max Euwe) to 1946. In 1921 he emigrated to France. Alekhin is a representative of the Russian chess school of Alexander Petrov and Mikhail Chigorin. Brilliant combinational chess player, world record holder in blind play. Alekhine is the only chess player to die while serving as the reigning world champion.

Mahgilis (Max) Euwe (1901 1981)- Dutch chess player, fifth world chess champion (1935-1937). Defeated Alexander Alekhine, but then lost the rematch. International Grandmaster (1950) and International Arbiter (1951). Multiple champion of the Netherlands. Winner and prize-winner of a number of major international tournaments in 1923-1958. In 1940 1950s - one of the contenders for the title of world champion; in 1948 - a participant in the match of the tournament for the world championship, in 1953 - the tournament of applicants. In 1970-1978 he was President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Mikhail Botvinnik (1911 1995)- Soviet chess player, sixth world chess champion, doctor of technical sciences. The first Grandmaster of the USSR (1935), International Grandmaster (1950), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1945). World champion (1948 1957, 1958 1960 and 1961 1963). Six-time champion of the USSR (1931 1952). Author of valuable analyzes in the field of opening and endgame theory. He developed a method of preparing for competitions, which was used by several generations of chess players. Having completed sports performances in 1970, he dealt with problems of artificial intelligence, worked on the Pioneer computer chess program, led the youth chess school of the Trud sports society, where future world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik studied in different years.

Vasily Smyslov (1921-2010)- Soviet chess player, Grandmaster of the USSR (1941), Honored Master of Sports (1948), International Grandmaster (1950), seventh world chess champion in 1957-1958 (in world championship matches he met Mikhail Botvinnik three times: in 1954 - a draw , in 1957 - victory, in 1958 - defeat). Champion of the USSR (1949). Participant of the match-tournament for the world championship in 1948 (2nd place after Botvinnik). He played as part of the USSR national team at nine Chess Olympiads in 1952-1972 and at the European Championships in 1957-1973. Smyslov is the author of several books on chess, including the theory of openings and endgames: "A Beginner's Guide" (1951), "In Search of Harmony" (1979), "The Theory of Rook Endgames" (1985), "The Chronicle of Chess Creativity" (1993) and "My Etudes" (2001). He became the first laureate of the "Life for Chess" award named after the outstanding chess player of the 17th century, Gioachino Greco (established by the Italian Chess Association in 1988).

Mikhail Tal (1936 1992)- Soviet chess player, eighth world chess champion (1960 1961), international grandmaster (1957), honored master of sports (1960), six-time champion of the USSR (1957, 1958, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978), winner of tournaments: interzonal (1958 ), applicants (1959), international - in Zurich (Switzerland, 1959), Bled (Slovenia, 1961), Hastings (Great Britain, 1964, 1974), Sarajevo and Palma (Mallorca Island, 1966) Tallinn (Estonia (1971, 1973), in memory of Mikhail Chigorin in Sochi (1973), etc. In 1960-1970 he was the editor of the magazine "Chess" (Riga)... He won the first unofficial world blitz championship in 1988, beating the reigning world champion Kasparov and ex-champion Karpov.

Tigran Petrosyan (1929-1984)- International grandmaster (1952), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1960), ninth world chess champion (1963 1969), candidate of philosophical sciences. Champion of the USSR (1959, 1961, 1969, 1975). Editor of the monthly "Chess Moscow" (1963-1966), editor-in-chief of the weekly "64" (1968-1977).

Since 1987, youth team tournaments in memory of Petrosyan have been held in Moscow. In 1987, the "Spartak" chess club and public organizations of Armenia instituted a medal in memory of Tigran Petrosyan.

Boris Spassky (born 1937)- Soviet and French chess player, international grandmaster (1955), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1965), champion of the USSR (1961, 1973), world champion among youths (1955), tenth world chess champion (1969 1972). Winner of over 20 major international tournaments. His championship match in 1972 with the American Robert Fischer caused an unprecedented stir and was seen as a confrontation between the Soviet and Western worlds. It was marked by a number of scandals and was on the verge of collapse, but nevertheless it was completed - with the victory of Fischer.

Robert James (Bobby) Fisher (1943-2008)- American chess player, international grandmaster (1958), eleventh world chess champion (1972 1975). Multiple US champion (1957-1970), winner of international tournaments in Argentina (1960), Monaco and Yugoslavia (1967), Israel and Yugoslavia (1968), Yugoslavia and Argentina (1970), interzonal tournaments in Sweden (1962) and Spain (1970). Led the US team at the 1960, 1962, 1966, and 1970 World Olympiads. At the same time, Fischer was known for his difficult nature. In 1975, after the organizers did not fulfill one of the conditions put forward by Fischer, he refused to take part in the match for the championship title with Anatoly Karpov and stopped participating in international tournaments. FIDE stripped Fischer of his world title in 1975. In 1992, he played a commercial match with Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia despite a US government ban. Fisher won over $3.3 million and was declared persona non grata in his country. He later moved permanently to Japan. In July 2004, he was arrested at Tokyo International Airport while trying to leave the country on a US passport that had been canceled by the US authorities. The Japanese authorities agreed to release Fischer after he renounced his American citizenship and became a citizen of Iceland, where chess is hugely popular. The international chess magazine "Chess Informant" recognized Fischer as "the best chess player of the 20th century", placing him above Garry Kasparov and Alexander Alekhine.

Anatoly Karpov (born 1951)- Soviet and Russian chess player, international grandmaster (1970), Honored Master of Sports (1974), twelfth world chess champion (1975-1985), three-time FIDE world champion (1993, 1996, 1998), two-time world champion as part of the USSR national team ( 1985, 1989), six-time winner of chess Olympiads as part of the USSR national team (1972, 1974, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988), three-time USSR champion (1976, 1983, 1988). In 1975, FIDE declared Anatoly Karpov the world chess champion after the current world champion Robert Fischer withdrew from the match. Karpov turned out to be the only world champion in history who not only received the title without playing in a match or tournament for the world championship, but also did not play a single game with the previous champion at all.

In 1994, he set a record, the first in history to win in a hundred chess competitions (the previous record belonged to Alexander Alekhine - 78 tournaments won). Anatoly Karpov is a member of the Union of Journalists of the Russian Federation, is the author of 59 (of which 56 are on chess) books, collections and textbooks, published and translated into many languages ​​of the world. He was the chief editor of the magazine "64 - Chess Review" (1980-1992) and the encyclopedic dictionary "Chess" (1990).

Garry Kasparov (born 1963)- Soviet and Russian chess player, international grandmaster (1980), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1985), world champion among youths (1980), champion of the USSR (1981, 1988), champion of Russia (2004). The thirteenth world champion in the history of chess (1985-1993). He was the initiator and founder of several chess organizations: the International Association of Grandmasters (1988), the Professional Chess Association (PCHA, 1993). Disagreeing with the policy pursued by FIDE, on February 27, 1993, Kasparov and Nigel Short, who won the Candidates cycle, announced that they would play their match without the participation of FIDE and under the auspices of a new body - the Professional Chess Association (PCHA). FIDE as a result excluded Kasparov from their rating lists and annulled his title of world champion. Under the auspices of the PCA, Garry Kasparov won the title of world chess champion in a match against Short in 1993 and defended it in 1995 against Viswanathan Anand. In 2000, Kasparov lost a match to Vladimir Kramnik and lost the title of world chess champion. In 2005, Kasparov announced that he was leaving professional chess in order to

Every few years a new world chess champion appears. We have collected all the champions in one place and made a small description of each.

This article contains a complete list of all world chess champions to date. If the article is not relevant, it means that we have not yet added new information. Please write in the comments. Here is a list for faster navigation:

Chess has been played for over 125 years. During this long time, the conditions of the game have changed many times, and sometimes even her. Therefore, it is quite natural that the criteria for becoming world chess champions in different eras also differed. For example, in the days of Steinitz, tournaments were simultaneously held in several cities at once. Or, for example, the strongest chess player might not agree to accept a challenge to a chess match from a potential new champion if, in his opinion, the opponent does not yet have enough skills and skills to take over the title.

As for today, the conditions and criteria for the inclusion of participants in the fight for the championship title have changed in many ways. A variety of qualifying tournaments are held in several stages, after which the two strongest players meet and compete with each other. Well, now let's look at the list of world chess champions and a brief information about each of them about who went through what on the way to the championship.

1 world chess champion

The first chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz. Place of birth - Prague, year - 1836. Steinitz won this title in 1886, after which he won the game against his main rival - I. Zukertort. Steinitz created a fundamentally new positional game of chess, and also made a great personal contribution to the development of this area.

V. Steinitz began to play at the age of twelve, but the young man did not have the opportunity to show his gift. The first success in chess for Wilhelm was the victory over his father's constant playing partner, a rabbi revered by many. Seriously, the future champion began to play chess only after reaching the age of 23 after graduating from the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna.

2 World Chess Champion

The second world chess champion was Emanuel Lasker. He was born in Poland in 1868 and gained the title of champion in 1894. Lasker was the best player on the planet for 27 years. In addition, he is the author of numerous books on chess.

E. Lasker took over his love for this amazing game from his elder brother Bertolt Lasker, having started playing at the age of 12. However, truly, professionally, the future chess king began to play only during his first year at the university. Endgame and positional flair were considered the strongest sides of the chess player. During his career as a chess player, he repeatedly abandoned the game for several years to study philosophy and mathematics.

He became the world champion based on the results of a match that took place for a long period (from mid-March to the end of May) in 1894 in Philadelphia, Montreal and New York, where, after playing 19 games, he defeated the first champion, Steinitz.

3 World Chess Champion

The third world chess champion was Jose Raul Capablanca who was born in Cuba in 1888. He won his title by defeating Emanuel Lasker during a match in 1921. Often they spoke of him as an outstanding chess machine, since Capablanca was distinguished by his brilliant chess technique. The third champion learned to play already at the age of four, just in the process of watching his father's games.

4 World Chess Champion

The fourth world chess champion was Alexander Alekhin, born in 1892. He learned the rules of the game and the basic moves of Alekhine at the age of seven thanks to his mother and older brother. A. Alekhine was the greatest master of combination and considered chess an art. The chess player achieved his first success during the St. Petersburg tournament in 1909, just then, at the age of sixteen, a gymnasium student from Moscow won and was awarded the title of maestro.

A little later, the chess player begins to take part in professional tournaments of a higher level. Alekhin won the match for the title of world champion against Capablanca in 1927 (Buenos Aires). After that, he defended his title two more times, holding it until his death.

5 World Chess Champion

The fifth world chess champion was Max Euwe, born in 1901 in Amsterdam. He learned the basics of the game at the age of 4, began to play in various amateur tournaments - at the age of twelve he became a member of the chess club in Amsterdam. He started playing professionally at the age of 18. Euwe won the championship match against Alekhine in 1935, but two years later he again lost the championship title to Alekhine.

6 World Chess Champion

The sixth champion was born in 1911. He first got acquainted with the game at the age of 12, after which he began to study from books. Numerous victories in tournaments and championships of the USSR put the young chess player among the best players in the country and soon showed that M. Botvinnik was ready to challenge the title of world champion.

A match-tournament for the championship title took place in 1948 (The Hague-Moscow), and according to its results, Botvinnik became the winner, ahead of the chess player who took second place by 3 points. During the tournament, he confidently outperformed all rivals. For achievements in the field of chess, Botvinnik was awarded numerous orders.

7th world chess champion

The Soviet chess player also became the seventh champion. He learned the rules of the game from his father at the age of six. Smyslov met Botvinnik 3 times during world championship matches. Smyslov received the title of the strongest chess player on the planet in 1957, but a year later he lost to Botvinnik in a rematch.

Smyslov was the winner of a large number of World Olympiads, European team championships, as well as one world championship.

8 World Chess Champion

The eighth world chess champion was, who was born in 1936 in Riga. From early childhood, Tal showed genius in many ways - at the age of three he knew how to read well, at 5 he multiplied three-digit numbers, had an amazing memory, after graduating from the first grade he immediately moved to the third. There were many such achievements in Tal's childhood.

Mikhail Tal learned to play chess at the age of 10, at the age of 16 he became the champion of Latvia, at the age of 21 - the champion of the USSR. Tal became the youngest ever world champion, having won the title in 1960 against Botvinnik. The distinguishing features of Tal's game were aggressiveness and constant willingness to take risks, which allowed him to achieve victory, despite the fact that soon, a year later, he lost again.

9 World Chess Champion

Tigran Petrosyan is the ninth world chess champion. Was born in 1929 in Georgia. The boy learned to play at the age of 11, at the age of 16 he becomes the champion of Georgia in chess. The chess player starts playing professionally after moving to Moscow.

Petrosyan won a victory over M. Botvinnik in 1963, he held his championship title for a period that lasted 6 years. For achievements in chess, Petrosyan was awarded numerous medals and orders.

10 World Chess Champion

Boris Spassky tenth world chess champion. Spassky learned the basics of the game at the age of 5. For the first time he became a participant in the championship of the Soviet Union in 1955, during the same period he was awarded the title of grandmaster (at the age of 17). Thus, the chess player at that time became the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess. In 1969, Spassky won the competition for the championship of the planet over Petrosyan and held the title of the tenth champion for 3 years.

11 World Chess Champion

He received the title of the eleventh world chess champion, who was considered a child prodigy and a genius. He learned to play at the age of six. By the age of twelve, Fischer becomes an American champion, at the age of 15 - an international grandmaster. No one before him at such an early age had achieved such high results. Fischer became world champion in 1972, after he defeated B. Spassky.

12 World Chess Champion

Anatoly Karpov- The twelfth world chess champion. The chess player, born in 1951, learned to play when he was only 4 years old. He became a strong master at the age of 15, at the age of 18 the chess player became the champion in a youth tournament, he received the title of grandmaster at 19. Before Karpov became the world chess champion, he was the winner of many international competitions. He received the title of the 12th world champion in 1975. significantly surpassed other famous players in the history of chess in the number of victories that he won in numerous international tournaments, matches and competitions.

13th world chess champion

Well-known chess player in the USSR and Russia Garry Kasparov is the thirteenth world chess champion. Place of birth - Baku, year - 1963. At the age of thirteen, he became the champion of the country in a youth tournament (in which 18-year-old chess players participated). At the age of 17, Kasparov received the title of grandmaster. The confrontation between the 12th and 13th champions - Karpov and Kasparov was one of the most powerful in the history of chess. In total, these two great chess players played as many as 5 matches for the world title. As a result, according to the results of the match, which lasted from September 1 to November 10, 1985, the chess player defeated Karpov with a score of 13:11, which brought him the title of the 13th world chess champion.

14 World Chess Champion

Vladimir Kramnik is the fourteenth world chess champion. He was born in 1975 in the city of Tuapse (Krasnodar Territory). In 1991, the chess player becomes the world champion in the youth tournament. In the late 90s, the 13th world champion Kasparov himself chose his opponent in the person of Kramnik, who at that time was second in the ratings. Their chess duel took place in 2000, as a result of which Kramnik won and received the title of the 14th champion. After that, in 2004 and 2006 he defended his title twice, defeating Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov.

15 World Chess Champion

Viswanathan Anand- A native of India, in the period from 2007 to 2013 he was the world chess champion, becoming the fifteenth holder of this title. Ananda was taught to play chess by his mother at the age of six, and since then the boy has shown good results in this sport. Already at the age of fourteen, Anand received the title of international master, becoming the youngest holder of the latter in India.

Rapidly moving up the ladder of chess achievements, in 2007 he won the title of world chess champion. The tournament was held in Mexico. In subsequent years (2008, 2010 and 2012), the chess player confirmed his title. At the moment, Anand is the only champion in three different styles of play: knockout system, round robin and head-to-head matches with competitors.

16th world chess champion

Magnus Carlsen- Norwegian, sixteenth (and currently the last) world chess champion. He won the world title in 2013, fighting with the fifteenth world champion - Viswanathan Anand. The young champion started playing chess at the age of five with his father, and became seriously interested in the game at eight, starting to study special literature and play the game for 2-3 hours a day.

Possessing extraordinary abilities, Magnus quickly developed professional skills. Experts predicted Magnus the title of champion back in 2004. World-class grandmasters note that Magnus is not a unique strategist, but his ability to find solutions where others would agree to a draw, and to feel the opponent's psychology is amazing.

So far, he remains the first and only champion in three categories at the same time: classical game, blitz and rapid.

So, today we have Saturday, May 20, 2017, and we traditionally offer you answers to the quiz in the Q&A format. The questions we meet are both the most simple and quite complex. The quiz is very interesting and quite popular, but we just help you test your knowledge and make sure that you have chosen the correct answer out of the four proposed. And we have another question in the quiz - Who was the only chess player who passed away with the rank of current world champion?

• Wilhelm Steinz
• Mikhail Tal
• Jose Raul Capablanca
• Alexander Alekhin

The correct answer is D - Alexander Alekhin

Alexander Alekhin (1892 1946) - Russian chess player, fourth world chess champion - from 1927 (after the victory over Capablanca) to 1935 and from 1937 (after the victory over Max Euwe) to 1946. In 1921 he emigrated to France. Alekhin is a representative of the Russian chess school of Alexander Petrov and Mikhail Chigorin. Brilliant combinational chess player, world record holder in blind play. Alekhine is the only chess player who died while being the reigning world champion.