Classical World Chess Champions

The classical line of World Chess Champions began with Wilhelm Steinitz's defeat
of Johannes Zukertort in their 1886 match. Since that time, the World
Championship has typically been contested in a match between the current
champion and a challenger, though tournaments have been used on occasion for
various reasons.

 Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-1894)

 Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921)
 Jose Raul Capablanca (1921-1927)
 Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935, 1937-1946)
 Max Euwe (1935-1937)
 Mikhail Botvinnik (1948-1957, 1958-1960, 1961-1963)
 Vasily Smyslov (1957-1958)
 Mikhail Tal (1960-1961)
 Tigran Petrosian (1963-1969)
 Boris Spassky (1969-1972)
 Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (1972-1975)
 Anatoly Karpov (1975-1985)
 Garry Kasparov (1985-2000)
 Vladimir Kramnik (2000-2007)
 Viswanathan Anand (2007-2013)
 Magnus Carlsen (2013-current)

FIDE World Chess Champions

When Garry Kasparov split with the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and organized
his 1993 World Championship match with Nigel Short, FIDE declared that they still
controlled the World Championship title and staged their own championships.
While the FIDE title did not carry the prestige of the classical World Championship,
these players are still worth noting for their historical impact on the game.

 Anatoly Karpov (1993-1999)

 Alexander Khalifman (1999-2000)
 Viswanathan Anand (2000-2002)
 Ruslan Ponomariov (2002-2004)
 Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2004-2005)
 Veselin Topalov (2005-2006)

In 2006, the two titles were united when Classical World Champion Vladimir
Kramnik defeated FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov in a reunification match.
How many types of chess games are there?
The three main types of time controls used in chess tournaments are blitz, standard,
and compensation. In blitz chess (also known as sudden death chess) each player
starts with a fixed amount of time to spend on their moves of the game.