World chess champion

The World Chess Championship (sometimes abbreviated as WCC) is played to determine the World Champion in chess.

The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in 1886, when the two leading players in Europe and the United States, Johann Zukertort and Wilhelm Steinitz respectively, played a match. From 1886 to 1946, the champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat the champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. In 1993, the reigning champion (Garry Kasparov) broke away from FIDE, which led to the creation of the rival PCA championship. The titles were unified at the World Chess Championship 2006.

Current world champion Magnus Carlsen won the World Chess Championship 2013 against Viswanathan Anand and successfully defended his title against Anand in the World Chess Championship 2014 and against Sergey Karjakin in the World Chess Championship 2016.

Other separate events and titles are the Women's World Chess Championship, the World Junior Chess Championship (for players under 20 years of age), and the World Senior Chess Championship (for men above 60 years of age, and women above 50). There is also a World Computer Chess Championship, which is the only event computers may participate in.

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