In the world of Chess, we have World Chess Champion, being an individual game, what do we expect? We expect to have one world chess champion at a given point in time.
Let’s go back almost 30 years from now, Chess world had a very unique situation. Some Data Facts before we proceed.FIDE – Fédération Internationale des Échecs
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE, is an international organization and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. FIDE was formed in 1924 on 20th July. We celebrate this day as international chess dayPCA – Professional Chess Association
In 1993, The Professional Chess Association (PCA), was a rival organisation to FIDE the international chess organization. PCA existed till 1996. But the world chess championship title was split until 2006.
Now let’s time travel to 1972 and let us look at a series of events!
Comeback to Chess by Fischer
Fischer after winning the 1972 world championship match against Spassky disappeared from chess. Fischer refused the format of best of 24 games, so this had made Karpov as world chess champion in 1975 by default. First and only case of a chess player becoming world champion without playing a single game! Suddenly
A very different looking Fischer playing vs Spassky in 1992in the year 1992, Fischer came back and mentioned, recent world championships cannot be considered, and he was never beaten so he owns the right to play in the world championship. Fischer and Spassky played a match (which Fischer considered to be a World Championship Match), with Fischer’s idea of first to win 10 games, wins the match. Fischer convincingly won the match with 10 wins to 5 losses against Spassky who was ranked 96th at that point of time.Fischer claimed himself as the “Undefeated Champion of the World”. His status as a World Champion in 1992 is not widely acknowledged by almost the entire chess world. Perhaps games, quality and strength were not at par with Kasparov, Karpov’s games. Fischer never played any competitive chess after this.
FIDE and Rival PCA
PCA World Chess Championship
Meanwhile in 1993, PCA was formed by Kasparov who was reigning the world chess champion. As this was a rival to FIDE, FIDE stripped the world championship title from Kasparov and arranged the world championship match between Karpov and Tinman. Meanwhile, PCA had a world championship match betweenKasparov and Short. Both FIDE and PCA have their way of getting candidate cycles.
Multiple World Chess Champions
Karpov won the FIDE world championship and Kasparov won the PCA world championship. So, the chess world got divided and had 2 world chess champions at the same point in time.
(FIDE World Chess Championship)
On a lighter note, there was Fischer too, who had declared himself as undefeated world champion! So, was this the time period where we had 3 champions at one point? What are your thoughts? Were you aware about this chess history?
