CHESS CHAMPIONS OF TODAY

The chess world was totally dominated by the Russians between 1948 and 1972. FIDE took over in 1924, however Soviet Union had not wanted to be part of it. After Alekhine’s death though, since the title went under their control, Russia registered as a member. The first tournament after this event was held n 1948 where Mikhail Botvinnik won after playing against five best world chess players. FIDE enjoyed the role of the organizer so much, that it continued to do so thereafter as a natural outcome. As the past system was quite informal, FIDE had laid new rules to formalize the title. Now, there was a pre-qualifying game, followed by inter-zonal tournaments, and then the last ‘knock-out matches’. The winner of this series of games would challenge the chess champion. If the champion was defeated, he could ask for a re-match after a minimum gap of one year. FIDE then set the game period to a cycle of three years. Botvinnik was a tireless worker and an admirable engineer while playing the game.. He has defended his title brilliantly against David Bronstein and Vasily Smyslov in 1951 and 1954 only to be defeated in 1957 by Smyslov. True to the rules of re-match after a year, Botvinnik won his title back in 1958, making Smyslov the shortest time world champion of chess. Botvinnik repeated this feat against Mikhail Tal in 1960, after being defeated by him in 1959. Botvinnik lost for the third time to Tigran Petrosian and this time could not play a re-match because FIDE abolished the rule. Tigran lost his title in 1968 to Spassky after defending it successfully against the same challenger in 1966. The Russian chess had been at its peak during this time. In 1972, the title went to an American by the name of Bobby Fischer. Fischer defeated his opponents with such grace and effortlessness that he was invariably compared to another world class champion and co-countryman, Paul Morphy. In 1975 in a very peculiar turn of events, Fischer refused to defend his title from the challenger Anatoly Karpov. He had acted in this manner saying that his demands were not met. What the demands were is not very clear. He relinquished his membership of FIDE but remained chess champion, until 1992, when he rematched with Spassky. FIDE or the world did not really take heed to this match. On the other hand, Karpov shot to fame in 1970 by winning a series of exceptional chess games and for the next ten years the Russian chess again reigned supreme. Karpov proved repeatedly his excellent grasp of the game when he played against some of the best chess players and came out of its unscathed. When he lost the title, he did so against one of his own compatriot, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov had remained on the top as the best ever chess player in the world.