AT THE WORLD CHESS FEDERATION WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONS as of 2011 WCF Congress

(1) Ala'Addin at Tabrizi (aka Aladdin) 1369-1405 (Tamerlane: "You have no rival in the kingdom of chess." Aladdin could play on 4 boards simultaneously blindfold)

(-) unknown 1406-1459

(2) Charles the Bold 1460-1477 (reputation as the best and most skillful chess player of his time)

(3) Franci de Castellvi 1477-1506

(4) Luis Ramirez de Lucena 1506-1530

(5) Pedro Damiano 1530-1544

(-) unknown 1545-1558

(6) Ruy Lopez de Segura 1559-1574

(7) Leonardo di Bona da Cutri 1574-1587

(8) Paolo Boi 1587-1598 (also defeated Lopez de Segura in 1575)

(9) Allesandro Salvio 1598-1620

(10) Gioacchino Greco 1620-1634 defeated Salvio)

(11) Allesandro Salvio 1634-1640 

(12) Pietro Carrera 1640-1647 (defeated Gerolamo Cascio who had defeated Polerio who had defeated Lopez de Segura)

(-) unknown 1648-1693

(13) Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri 1694-1733 (could play on 4 boards simultaneously blindfold to perfection)

(14) Legall de Kermeur 1733-1755

(15) Francois Philidor 1755-1795) defeated Legall de Kermeur in match in 1755

(16) Dominico Ercole Del Rio 1795-1802 had reputation as "the devil who could never be beaten"

(17) Verdoni 1802-1804 (Philidor alleged Verdoni was the next best player in Europe after himself)

(18) Johann Allgaier 1804-1823 (aka The German Philidor) won a match for 1500 florins ($792) in 1780

(19) Louis Charles Mahe de la Bourdonnais 1823-1836

(20) Jozsef Szen 1836-1839 (aka the Hungarian Philidor) (Szen, after defeating LaBoudonnais 13-12 in an odds match, then challenged LaBourdonnais, putting up $200 francs to   

        play match but LaBourdonnais decided to default)

(21) Karl Mayet 1839-1843 (defeated Szen in match in 1839)

(22) Howard Staunton 1843-1845 (played Saint Amant in 1843 for equivalent of $500 largest prize fund to date at that time)

(23) Charles Saint Amant 1845 (Staunton defaulted on match to take place for equivalent $750 in 1845)

(24) Charles Henry Stanley 1845-1857 (Played Rousseau for $1,000 largest prize fund match in world history, then defeated Turner in 1850 for same amount $$)

(25) Paul Morphy 1857-1884 (defeated Stanley in a match 1857, also defeated in matches Paulsen, Lowenthal, Harrwitz, Anderssen, and De Riviere) 

(26) Johannes Zukertort 1884-1886

(27) Wilhelm Steinitz 1886-1894 (aka the Austrian Morphy) (Steinitz challenged Zukertort for World Championship and won in 1886)

(28) Emmanuel Lasker 1894-1910, WCF World Co-Champion 1910-1916, WCF World Champion 1916-1921

(29) Karl Schlechter WCF World Co-Champion 1910(drew match with Lasker +1-1=8) -1911 (drew match with Tarrasch +3-3=10 making each 1/4 WCF Champions.Lost match to

        Akiba Rubenstein in 1918 losing 1/4 share of title, +1-2=3

(30) Siegbert Tarrasch (1911-1916) 1/4 WCF World Champion as a result of drawn match with Schlechter +3-3=10, lost to Lasker +0-5=1

(31) Akiba Rubenstein (1918-1931 when retired from play) 1/4 WCF Champion  as a result of defeat of Schlechter in 1918 +2-1=3

(32) Jose Raul Capablanca y Graupera 1921-1927 (aka the Cuban Morphy) 3/4 WCF World Champion

(33) Alexander Alekhine 1927-1931 3/4 WCF World Champion, sole WCF World Chess champion from 1931-1935

(34) Max Euwe 1935-1937 WCF World Chess Champion

(35) Alexander Alekhine 1937-1946  WCF World Champion( Alekhine was assassinated by the Soviet NKVD[Pavel Sudoplatov, Nahum Eitingon, Grigory Mairanovsky] upon orders by Stalin (just as Leon

         Trotsky in Mexico and Yevhen Konovalets the Ukrainian independence leader in Netherlands were-as Alekhine had earlier been sentenced to be shot in 1919; after Alekhine

         defeated Capablanca and returned triumphantly to Paris he made a speech at the Russian Club where a splendid reception in his honor had him making a toast that the myth of

         the Bolsheviks being invincible should be dispelled, with the reaction the Soviet state prosecutor Krylenko stated the Soviets would regard him as an enemy to be dealt with,

         followed by in the fall of 1938 the sentencing to be shot was reinstated-case # 228 against A.A. Alekhine with a new supplement of ten pages) so that Soviet controlled FIDE

         could illegitimately create a so-called champion through manipulation via fixing the results of a 1948 match tournament scheme-NKVD Colonel B. Vainstein considered a match

         between Alekhine and Botvinnik to be impossible in principle politically.) In an attempt to cover up the assassination, "The Soviets were anxious to have him (Alekhine) buried

         in Moscow, but his widow refused", Nathan Divinsky, Chess Encyclopedia, 1990.  Keres and Fine were the legitimate crown princes of chess due to AVRO 1938 but Keres in

         1943 several times declined to play Alekhine for the world championship. This left Fine as the sole legitimate WCF World Chess Champion after Alekhine's murder)

(36) Reuben Fine  WCF World Champion 1946-1949. WCF World  Co-Champion 1949 till retirement 1951. Defeated Steiner 5-1 in 1947. After winning New York 1948-49, Fine played a match versus World #2 Miguel Najdorf (2756 ELO per Chessmetrics

         January 1949 list, and remained world #2 through June 1949 per Chessmetrics but Najdorf was not allowed to play in FIDE's so-called 1948 match tournament for their

         so-called championship) which ended in a draw 4-4. Fine remained #1 World ranked per Chessmetrics  as of December 1950. Fine retired in 1951.

(37) Miguel Najdorf (World  co-Champion from 1949-1949 then 1/4 World chess champion after 1949 drawn match +1=10-1 with Petar Trifunovic  then after Fine retired was world  3/4 champion 1951-1952 (Najdorf played Reshevsky in a match for the World Championship

          of the Free World as per the New York Times in 1952, which he lost , Reshevsky winning 11-7

(38) Petar Trifunovic World 1/4 Chess Champion from 1949 after drawn match +1=10-1 with Najdorf

(39) Samuel Reshevsky  WCF 3/4 World Champion 1952-1961 (After winning World Championship of the Free World, Reshevsky won matches versus Gligorich 5.5 to 4.5 in 1952; against Najdorf again 9.5 to

          8.5 in 1953 (per Chess metrics Reshevsky remained world #1 through October 1953; defeated Botvinnik 2.5 to 1.5 in 1955, Lombardy 3.5 to 2.5 in 1956, Bisguier 6-4 in 1957

          and Don Byrne 7-3 in 1957 and Benko 5.5 to 4.5 in 1960

(40) Bobby Fischer 1961-1994 (Reshevsky failed to complete a tied match against Fischer in 1961. Fischer ranked # 1 by Chessmetrics  from February 1964 as well. Defeated

          Spassky in rematch in 1992 (aka WCF 1) after FIDE President Campomanes, a KGB agent from 1978, signed over legal rights to title "The World Chess Championship"             Fischer in 1992. This led to Campomanes falling out of favor with KGB over this and his replacement as FIDE President by Ilyumzhinov through KGB machinations.                        Fischer then retired as undefeated "The World Chess Champion", in 1994.

(41) Stan Vaughan 1994 (WCF 2) 1996 (WCF 3)