World chess champions
Honours compared
Every world champion's honours, from world titles to Olympiad golds and Chess Oscars, counted the same way for all 18 and with every year sourced.
All 18 cabinets
Select a column heading to sort by it. Each champion's page lists the years, each linked to its source.
| Champion | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Karpov1975–1985 | 3 | 3 | 1 | – | 1 | – | 3 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 | – | 36 |
 Kasparov1985–2000 | 6 | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | 8 | 3 | – | 2 | 11 | – | 36 |
 Tal1960–1961 | 1 | 1 | 3 | – | – | 1 | 6 | – | 8 | 5 | – | 6 | – | – | 31 |
 Petrosian1963–1969 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | 4 | – | 9 | 6 | – | 8 | – | – | 31 |
 Carlsen2013–2023 | 5 | 1 | – | 1 | 6 | 9 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | 5 | – | 28 |
 Smyslov1957–1958 | 1 | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | – | 9 | 4 | – | 5 | – | 1 | 24 |
 Botvinnik1948–1957, 1958–1960, 1961–1963 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | – | 6 | 2 | – | 2 | – | – | 21 |
 Anand2007–2013 | 4 | 2 | – | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | – | – | – | – | 6 | – | 21 |
 Spassky1969–1972 | 1 | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | 2 | 1 | 6 | 2 | – | 2 | 2 | – | 19 |
 Fischer1972–1975 | 1 | 1 | 2 | – | – | 1 | 8 | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | – | 16 |
 Kramnik2000–2007 | 3 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | – | 14 |
 Euwe1935–1937 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | 12 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 13 |
 Ding2023–2024 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | – | 2 | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | 9 |
 Alekhine1927–1935, 1937–1946 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | 7 |
 Lasker1894–1921 | 6 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 |
 Gukesh2024–today | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | – | 5 |
 Steinitz1886–1894 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 |
 Capablanca1921–1927 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 2 |
Each year links to its source. * Shared title. † Held before FIDE's official series (blitz events of 1970, 1988 and 2000; the 2000 and 2002 World Cups). World championship titles are title events won or kept. Olympiad board golds are the best score on a board. Most of these events didn't exist before the 1920s.
How they did in title matches
Every game each champion played in world championship matches, won, lost and drawn, and the share of the points he took. Tournaments (1948, 2007) and FIDE's knockouts aren't included.
| Champion | Matches | Games | Won | Lost | Drawn | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emanuel Lasker | 7 | 102 | 45 | 15 | 42 | 64.7% |
| Bobby Fischer | 1 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 11 | 59.5% |
| Magnus Carlsen | 5 | 56 | 11 | 2 | 43 | 58% |
| Alexander Alekhine | 5 | 140 | 43 | 24 | 73 | 56.8% |
| Gukesh Dommaraju | 1 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 53.6% |
| Garry Kasparov | 8 | 197 | 31 | 23 | 143 | 52% |
| Tigran Petrosian | 3 | 69 | 13 | 11 | 45 | 51.4% |
| José Raúl Capablanca | 2 | 48 | 7 | 6 | 35 | 51% |
| Anatoly Karpov | 7 | 194 | 31 | 28 | 135 | 50.8% |
| Vasily Smyslov | 3 | 69 | 18 | 17 | 34 | 50.7% |
| Wilhelm Steinitz | 6 | 115 | 43 | 43 | 29 | 50% |
| Vladimir Kramnik | 4 | 52 | 8 | 8 | 36 | 50% |
| Mikhail Botvinnik | 7 | 157 | 36 | 39 | 82 | 49% |
| Mikhail Tal | 2 | 42 | 11 | 12 | 19 | 48.8% |
| Ding Liren | 2 | 28 | 5 | 6 | 17 | 48.2% |
| Boris Spassky | 3 | 68 | 12 | 15 | 41 | 47.8% |
| Viswanathan Anand | 6 | 74 | 9 | 14 | 51 | 46.6% |
| Max Euwe | 2 | 55 | 13 | 18 | 24 | 45.5% |
Games from the chessgames.com database, counted only for matches where they add up to the official score; tiebreak games are left out, except in 1892, where the record includes Steinitz and Chigorin's three play-off games. A champion with one match (Fischer, Gukesh) has a small sample. A score above 50% means he outscored the challengers or champions he faced.
How to read it
A cabinet reflects the events of a champion's time as much as his strength. Steinitz and Lasker show almost nothing because the Olympiad, the Candidates and the rapid and blitz championships didn't exist yet. The Soviet champions collected Olympiad and European team golds because the USSR won nearly every team event from 1952 to 1990. Carlsen's cabinet is full of rapid and blitz titles that weren't held in Fischer's day.
So the totals are a record of what each champion won, not a ranking of who was best. For strength, see the rating rankings; for head-to-head records, the rivalries.