{"id":334,"date":"2025-09-01T20:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/?p=334"},"modified":"2026-10-22T13:55:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T13:55:58","slug":"which-chess-player-has-taken-part-in-the-most-world-championship-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/2025\/09\/01\/which-chess-player-has-taken-part-in-the-most-world-championship-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Which chess player has taken part in the most World Championship events?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I think a natural question is, who has taken part in the most World Championship matches, but sometimes the World Championship event is a tournament… Good question!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here is a table based on a Wikipedia page https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_World_Chess_Championships<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Player names are given with their national affiliation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date <\/strong><\/td>Location <\/strong><\/td>Winner <\/strong><\/td>Score <\/strong><\/td>Runner-up <\/strong><\/td>Format Match\/Tournament<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Predecessor events prior to 1886 <\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
1834<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>France Louis de La Bourdonnais <\/td>18\u20137<\/td>United Kingdom Alexander McDonnell <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1843<\/td>France Paris <\/td>United Kingdom Howard Staunton <\/td>13\u20138 <\/td>France Pierre Saint-Amant <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1851<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>Kingdom of Prussia Adolf Anderssen <\/td>15\u20136[a] <\/td>United Kingdom Marmaduke Wyvill <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
1858<\/td>France Paris <\/td>United States Paul Morphy <\/td>8\u20133 <\/td>Kingdom of Prussia Adolf Anderssen <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1862<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>Kingdom of Prussia Adolf Anderssen <\/td>11\u00bd\u20131\u00bd <\/td>German Confederation Louis Paulsen <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1866<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>Austrian Empire Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>8\u20136 <\/td>Kingdom of Prussia Adolf Anderssen <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1883<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>United Kingdom Johannes Zukertort <\/td>22\u20134 <\/td>Austria-Hungary Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
Private matches<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
1886<\/td>    United States New York City (1\u20135)St. Louis (6\u20139)New Orleans (10\u201315)<\/td>Austria-Hungary Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>12\u00bd\u20137\u00bd <\/td>United Kingdom Johannes Zukertort <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1889<\/td>Spanish Empire Havana <\/td>United States Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>10\u00bd\u20136\u00bd <\/td>Russia Mikhail Chigorin <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1890\u20131891 <\/td>United States New York City <\/td>United States Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>10\u00bd\u20138\u00bd <\/td>Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen Isidor Gunsberg <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1892<\/td>Spanish Empire Havana <\/td>United States Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>10\u201310, 2\u00bd\u2013\u00bd<\/td>Russia Mikhail Chigorin <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1894<\/td>    United States New York City (1\u20138)Philadelphia (9\u201311)Canada Montr\u00e9al (12\u201319)<\/td>German Empire Emanuel Lasker <\/td>12\u20137 <\/td>United States Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1896\u20131897 <\/td>Russia Moscow <\/td>German Empire Emanuel Lasker <\/td>12\u00bd\u20134\u00bd <\/td>United States Wilhelm Steinitz <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1907<\/td>    United States New York City (1\u20136, 15)Philadelphia (7\u20138)Washington, D.C. (9)Baltimore (10)Chicago (11)Memphis (12\u201314)<\/td>German Empire Emanuel Lasker <\/td>11\u00bd\u20133\u00bd <\/td>United States Frank Marshall <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1908<\/td>    German Empire D\u00fcsseldorf (1\u20134)Munich (5\u201316)<\/td>German Empire Emanuel Lasker <\/td>10\u00bd\u20135\u00bd <\/td>German Empire Siegbert Tarrasch <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
Jan\u2013Feb 1910\u2021 <\/td>    Austria-Hungary Vienna (1\u20135)German Empire Berlin (6\u201310)<\/td>German Empire Emanuel Lasker  <\/td>5\u20135 <\/td>Austria-Hungary Carl Schlechter <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
Nov\u2013Dec 1910 <\/td>Germany Berlin <\/td>Germany Emanuel Lasker <\/td>9\u00bd\u20131\u00bd <\/td>France Dawid Janowski <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1921<\/td>Cuba Havana <\/td>Cuba Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Capablanca <\/td>9\u20135 <\/td>Weimar Republic Emanuel Lasker <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1927<\/td>Argentina Buenos Aires <\/td>France Alexander Alekhine <\/td>18\u00bd\u201315\u00bd <\/td>Cuba Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Capablanca <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1929<\/td>    German Empire Wiesbaden (1\u20138, 24\u201325)Heidelberg (9\u201311)Berlin (12\u201317)Netherlands The Hague (18\u201319, 23)Rotterdam (20)Amsterdam (21\u201322)<\/td>France Alexander Alekhine <\/td>15\u00bd\u20139\u00bd <\/td>Weimar Republic Efim Bogoljubow <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1934<\/td>Germany 12 cities[A] <\/td>France Alexander Alekhine <\/td>15\u00bd\u201310\u00bd <\/td>Germany Efim Bogoljubow <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1935<\/td>Netherlands 12 cities[B] <\/td>Netherlands Max Euwe <\/td>15\u00bd\u201314\u00bd <\/td>France Alexander Alekhine <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1937<\/td>Netherlands 9 cities[C] <\/td>France Alexander Alekhine <\/td>15\u00bd\u20139\u00bd <\/td>Netherlands Max Euwe <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
Title vacant from 1946 to 1948, following the death of Alekhine.<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
FIDE events<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1948<\/td>    Netherlands The Hague (1\u201310)Soviet Union Moscow (11\u201320)<\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>14\u20136<\/td>Soviet Union Vasily Smyslov <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
1951<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>12\u201312 <\/td>Soviet Union David Bronstein <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1954<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>12\u201312 <\/td>Soviet Union Vasily Smyslov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1957<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Vasily Smyslov <\/td>12\u00bd\u20139\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1958<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>12\u00bd\u201310\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Vasily Smyslov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1960<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Tal <\/td>12\u00bd\u20138\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1961<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>13\u20138 <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Tal <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1963<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Tigran Petrosian <\/td>12\u00bd\u20139\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Mikhail Botvinnik <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1966<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Tigran Petrosian<\/td>12\u00bd\u201311\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Boris Spassky <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1969<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Boris Spassky <\/td>12\u00bd\u201310\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Tigran Petrosian <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1972<\/td>Iceland Reykjav\u00edk <\/td>United States Bobby Fischer <\/td>12\u00bd\u20138\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Boris Spassky <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1975<\/td>Philippines Manila <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>default<\/td>United States Bobby Fischer <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1978<\/td>Philippines Baguio <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>16\u00bd\u201315\u00bd <\/td>FIDE Viktor Korchnoi <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1981<\/td>Italy Merano <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>11\u20137 <\/td>Switzerland Viktor Korchnoi <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1984\u20131985<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>25\u201323 <\/td>Soviet Union Garry Kasparov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1985<\/td>Soviet Union Moscow <\/td>Soviet Union Garry Kasparov <\/td>13\u201311 <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1986<\/td>    United Kingdom London (1\u201312)Soviet Union Leningrad (13\u201324)<\/td>Soviet Union Garry Kasparov <\/td>12\u00bd\u201311\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1987<\/td>Spain Seville <\/td>Soviet Union Garry Kasparov <\/td>12\u201312 <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1990<\/td>    United States New York City (1\u201312)France Lyon (13\u201324)<\/td>Russia Garry Kasparov<\/td>12\u00bd\u201311\u00bd <\/td>Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
Classical World Chess Championships (1993\u20132006)<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
1993<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>Russia Garry Kasparov <\/td>12\u00bd\u20137\u00bd <\/td>United Kingdom Nigel Short <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1995<\/td>United States New York City <\/td>Russia Garry Kasparov <\/td>10\u00bd\u20137\u00bd <\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2000<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>Russia Vladimir Kramnik <\/td>8\u00bd\u20136\u00bd <\/td>Russia Garry Kasparov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2004\u2021 <\/td>Switzerland Brissago <\/td>Russia Vladimir Kramnik <\/td>7\u20137 <\/td>Hungary Peter Leko <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
FIDE World Chess Championships (1993\u20132006)<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
1993<\/td>    Netherlands Zwolle (1\u20133)Arnhem (4\u20136)Amsterdam (7\u201312)Indonesia Jakarta (13\u201324)<\/td>Russia Anatoly Karpov <\/td>12\u00bd\u20138\u00bd <\/td>Netherlands Jan Timman <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1996<\/td>Russia Elista <\/td>Russia Anatoly Karpov<\/td>10\u00bd\u20137\u00bd <\/td>United States Gata Kamsky <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
1998\u2020 <\/td>Switzerland Lausanne <\/td>Russia Anatoly Karpov <\/td>3\u20133, 2-0<\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
1999\u2020 <\/td>United States Las Vegas <\/td>Russia Alexander Khalifman <\/td>18\u00bd\u201311\u00bd<\/td>Armenia Vladimir Akopian <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
2000<\/td>    India New Delhi (rounds 1\u20136)Iran Tehran (round 7)<\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>14\u20136<\/td>Spain Alexei Shirov <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
2002<\/td>Moscow<\/td>Ukraine Ruslan Ponomariov<\/td>19-9<\/td>Ukraine Vasyl Ivanchuk<\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
2004\u2020 <\/td>Libya Tripoli <\/td>Uzbekistan Rustam Kasimdzhanov <\/td>20\u201310<\/td>England Michael Adams <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
2005\u2020 <\/td>Argentina Potrero de los Funes <\/td>Bulgaria Veselin Topalov <\/td>10\u20134<\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
FIDE World Championships (2006\u2013present)<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
2006<\/td>Russia Elista <\/td>Russia Vladimir Kramnik <\/td>6\u20136, 2\u00bd\u20131\u00bd<\/td>Bulgaria Veselin Topalov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2007\u2020 <\/td>Mexico Mexico City <\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>9\u20135<\/td>Russia Vladimir Kramnik <\/td>T<\/td><\/tr>
2008<\/td>Germany Bonn <\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>6\u00bd\u20134\u00bd <\/td>Russia Vladimir Kramnik <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2010<\/td>Bulgaria Sofia <\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>6\u00bd\u20135\u00bd <\/td>Bulgaria Veselin Topalov <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2012<\/td>Russia Moscow <\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>6\u20136, 2\u00bd\u20131\u00bd<\/td>Israel Boris Gelfand <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2013<\/td>India Chennai <\/td>Norway Magnus Carlsen <\/td>6\u00bd\u20133\u00bd <\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2014<\/td>Russia Sochi <\/td>Norway Magnus Carlsen <\/td>6\u00bd\u20134\u00bd <\/td>India Viswanathan Anand <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2016<\/td>United States New York City <\/td>Norway Magnus Carlsen <\/td>6\u20136, 3\u20131<\/td>Russia Sergey Karjakin <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2018<\/td>United Kingdom London <\/td>Norway Magnus Carlsen <\/td>6\u20136, 3\u20130<\/td>United States Fabiano Caruana <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2021<\/td>United Arab Emirates Dubai <\/td>Norway Magnus Carlsen <\/td>7\u00bd\u20133\u00bd <\/td>Ian Nepomniachtchi <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2023<\/td>Kazakhstan Astana <\/td>China Ding Liren <\/td>7\u20137, 2\u00bd\u20131\u00bd<\/td>FIDE Ian Nepomniachtchi <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr>
2024<\/td>Singapore <\/td>India Gukesh Dommaraju <\/td>7\u00bd\u20136\u00bd <\/td>China Ding Liren <\/td>M<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The name that appears most often is obviously Karpov, 11 times, but if you are not inclined to count the 1975 match that Fischer forfeited, then Anand also played in<\/strong> 10 title events, including some of the 1990s FIDE tournaments where he didn’t make it to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. 1995 PCA World Championship Match<\/strong> \u2013 Challenger vs. Garry Kasparov (lost)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. 1998 FIDE World Championship Match<\/strong> \u2013 Challenger vs. Karpov (lost in rapid tiebreaks)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. 2000 FIDE Knockout (New Delhi\/Tehran)<\/strong> \u2013 Champion, beat Shirov<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. 2001\/02 FIDE Knockout (Moscow)<\/strong> \u2013 Semifinalist, lost to Ivanchuk<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. 2005 FIDE World Championship (San Luis, double round-robin)<\/strong> \u2013 Participated, tied 2nd\u20133rd behind Topalov<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. 2007 Unified World Championship (Mexico City, double round-robin)<\/strong> \u2013 Champion<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. 2008 World Championship Match<\/strong> \u2013 Defended title vs. Kramnik (won)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. 2010 World Championship Match<\/strong> \u2013 Defended title vs. Topalov (won)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. 2012 World Championship Match<\/strong> \u2013 Defended title vs. Gelfand (won in rapid tiebreaks)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. 2013 World Championship Match<\/strong> \u2013 Lost title to Carlsen<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    If you are mostly interested in the lineal sequence of championships, ignoring FIDE’s parallel track in the 1990s(*), then Karpov’s 7 events come second to the 8 events of both Kasparov and Botvinnik.  Some say the World Championship dates back in effect to 1866, not 1886, and if so, then Steinitz can also lay claim to 8 matches to decide who was the strongest player in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (*) The 2004 FIDE event had only two of the top ten players of the day taking part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I think a natural question is, who has taken part in the most World Championship matches, but sometimes the World Championship event is a tournament… Good question! So here is a table based on a Wikipedia page https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_World_Chess_Championships: (Player names are given with their national affiliation) Date  Location  Winner  Score  Runner-up  Format Match\/Tournament Predecessor events…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-champions","category-masters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devonjuniorchess.co.uk\/wp\/djca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}