We all know that Magnus Carlsen is the World Chess Champion, but who was the first one? And when? Even less is known about women champions. You probably have heard about Susan Polgar, but who is the current woman chess champion?

The infographic below shows all official world chess champions, men and women as well as their nationalities and the years of the championships:

This infographic is released under a Creative Commons License / BY-ND, which means please feel free to redistribute it as long as you link back to sparkchess.com and you don’t alter it. You can download a high-res, print-quality PDF below:

Note how between 1993 and 2005 there was a split in the Championship between the FIDE World Chess Championship and the Classical World Chess Championship.

I haven’t included the unofficial world chess champions. These are players universally regarded as the strongest of their time. They include Ruy Lopez, Howard Staunton and Paul Morphy.

Just in case you prefer to see the champions in a table format, here they are:

1866 Wilhelm Steinitz Austria 1889 Wilhelm Steinitz USA 1891 Wilhelm Steinitz USA 1892 Wilhelm Steinitz USA 1894 Emanuel Lasker Germany 1897 Emanuel Lasker Germany 1907 Emanuel Lasker Germany 1908 Emanuel Lasker Germany 1910 Emanuel Lasker Germany 1921 Jose Raul Capablanca Cuba 1927 Alexander Alekhine France 1929 Alexander Alekhine France 1934 Alexander Alekhine France 1935 Max Euwe Netherlands 1937 Alexander Alekhine France 1948 Mihkail Botvinnik USSR 1951 Mikhail Botvinnik USSR 1954 Mikhail Botvinnik USSR 1957 Vasily Smyslov USSR 1958 Mikhail Botvinnik USSR 1960 Mikhail Tal USSR 1961 Mikhail Botvinnik USSR 1963 Tigran Petrosian USSR 1966 Tigran Petrosian USSR 1969 Boris Spassky USSR 1972 Bobby Fischer USA 1975 Anatoly Karpov USSR 1978 Anatoly Karpov USSR 1981 Anatoly Karpov USSR 1984 Anatoly Karpov USSR 1985 Garry Kasparov USSR 1986 Garry Kasparov USSR 1987 Garry Kasparov USSR 1990 Garry Kasparov USSR Classical Chess Championships 1993 Garry Kasparov Russia 1995 Garry Kasparov Russia 2000 Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2004 Vladimir Kramnik Russia FIDE Chess Championships 1993 Anatoly Karpov Russia 1996 Anatoly Karpov Russia 1998 Anatoly Karpov Russia 1999 Alexander Khalifman Russia 2000 Viswanathan Anand India 2002 Ruslan Ponomariov Ukraine 2004 Rustan Kasimdzhanov Uzbekistan 2005 Veselin Topalov Bulgaria Reunified Chess Championships 2006 Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2007 Viswanathan Anand India 2008 Viswanathan Anand India 2010 Viswanathan Anand India 2012 Viswanathan Anand India 2013 Magnus Carlsen Norway 2014 Magnus Carlsen Norway 2016 Magnus Carlsen Norway 2018 Magnus Carlsen Norway

Here are the women world chess champions:

1927 Vera Menchik USSR 1930 Vera Menchik USSR 1931 Vera Menchik USSR 1933 Vera Menchik USSR 1934 Vera Menchik USSR 1935 Vera Menchik USSR 1937 Vera Menchik USSR 1937 Vera Menchik USSR 1939 Vera Menchik USSR 1950 Lyudmila Rudenko USSR 1953 Elisaveta Bykova USSR 1956 Olga Rubtsova USSR 1958 Elisaveta Bykova USSR 1959 Elisaveta Bykova USSR 1962 Nona Gaprindashvili USSR 1965 Nona Gaprindashvili USSR 1969 Nona Gaprindashvili USSR 1972 Nona Gaprindashvili USSR 1975 Nona Gaprindashvili USSR 1978 Maia Chiburdanidze USSR 1981 Maia Chiburdanidze USSR 1984 Maia Chiburdanidze USSR 1986 Maia Chiburdanidze USSR 1988 Maia Chiburdanidze USSR 1991 Xie Jun China 1993 Xie Jun China 1996 Susan Polgar Hungary 1999 Xie Jun China 2000 Xie Jun China 2001 Zhu Chen China 2004 Antoaneta Stefanova Bulgaria 2006 Xu Yuhua China 2008 Alexandra Kosteniuk Russia 2010 Hou Yifan China 2011 Hou Yifan China 2012 Anna Ushenina Ukraine 2013 Hou Yifan China 2015 Mariya Muzychuk Ukraine 2016 Hou Yifan China 2017 Tan Zhongyi China 2018 Ju Wenjun China

Armand Niculescu is a full-stack developer and creator of SparkChess. He has two BDs in engineering and marketing and a MSc in Management. He's been programming since the age of 12 and he also loves design, photography, and - obviously - chess.