FIDE World Chess Champions

In 1946, Alexander Alekhine passed away, and forced the chess world to resolve a novel problem: the death of a reigning champion. Due to this troublesome interregnum, a French chess organization founded in 1924, inactive since 1939, suddenly rocketed to prominence.Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) proposed a solution that a title tournament take place inviting the world's most prominent players. The plan was successful, and led to the 1948 FIDE World Chess Championship Tournament which crowned Mikhail Botvinnik as World Chess Champion and established a more formal system of selecting candidates for the future.

This system worked reasonably well, until 1993, when World Champion Garry Kasparov made the historic decision to break his allegiance to FIDE. Unhappy with the bidding process to select the site for the match, FIDE's lack of consultation with the players, and the 20% cut of the prize fund going to FIDE, Kasparov declared that he would defend the title outside of the auspices of FIDE. This created a split title, in which Kasparov played title defense matches under a newly created organization called the PCA (Professional Chess Association), while FIDE continued to manage a World Championship cycle that was stripped of legitimacy in the eyes of most chess fans. The uncomfortable situation of a split title persisted for 13 years, during which time Kasparov lost a title defense toVladimir Kramnik.

In order to end the chaos of the split title, and for FIDE to retain legitimacy, it was necessary to pit Kramnik (the rightful heir of Kasparov's throne) against the FIDE World Champion. The title was reunified in 2006 when FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov lost to Kramnik in the 2006 FIDE World Championship Match in Elista.