Professional Chess Association

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The Professional Chess Association (PCA), which existed between 1993 and 1996, was a rival organisation to FIDE, the international chess organization. The PCA was created in 1993 by Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short for the marketing and organization of their chess world championship.

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Formation

In 1993, Nigel Short won the Candidates Tournament and so qualified as challenger to Garry Kasparov for the World Chess Championship. [1]

By FIDE regulation, the bids for where the World Championship final is played should have been decided by three parties – FIDE, the World Champion (Kasparov) and the Challenger (Short). According to Kasparov and Short, FIDE president Florencio Campomanes broke these rules by simply announcing the venue of winning bid as being Manchester. FIDE derived a substantial part of its income from the prize fund of the World Championship.

In response to this, Kasparov and Short formed the PCA, appointing Bob Rice as Commissioner. They played their world championship match under its auspices in September and October 1993. The match took place in the Savoy Theatre in London, under the sponsorship of The Times . Kasparov won clearly 12.5–7.5 and became PCA World Chess Champion.

FIDE stripped Kasparov of the FIDE World Championship title, and instead held a rival match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman, the two final players Short had defeated to win the Candidates Tournament. Karpov won that match, to become FIDE World Chess Champion. For the first time in chess history there were two world champions, the FIDE world champion Karpov and the PCA world champion Kasparov.

1995 cycle

From 1993 to 1995, the PCA held an Interzonal tournament and Candidates matches, in the style of the FIDE world championship qualifiers. FIDE also had its own cycle of qualifiers, with many of the same players playing in both. The PCA candidates cycle was won by the Indian GM Viswanathan Anand.

Kasparov defended his PCA World Championship title against Anand in the World Trade Center in a match starting September 11, 1995. Kasparov won the best-of-20 game match 10.5 – 7.5.

Demise and aftermath

The PCA announced in January 1996 that it had lost its main sponsor, Intel. [2] It was reported at the time that Kasparov said this was partly due to his choice to play a match against IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue later that year. [3] Kasparov, however, hotly disputes this and has proposed a different history, with Intel dropping sponsorship in November 1995, some weeks prior to the initial planning of the Deep Blue match. [4]

The PCA folded soon afterwards, leaving Kasparov unable to organise a proper qualifying cycle for his title. He finally played (and lost) a match to a hand-picked challenger, Vladimir Kramnik, in 2000 (Classical World Chess Championship 2000). This match was played under the auspices of Brain Games.

When Kramnik defended his title at the Classical World Chess Championship 2004, he gave the title the name "Classical", to emphasise the continuity that his title had with the tradition of defeating the previous titleholder. Since this is the same title as the Kasparov's PCA World title, the PCA World title is sometimes retrospectively called the "Classical" title.

The PCA split from FIDE was finally healed with the FIDE World Chess Championship 2006, a re-unification match between Kramnik and 2005 FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, which was won by Kramnik.

See also

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This is a timeline of chess. See also: Timeline of women in chess.

The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates earns the right to a match for the World Championship against the incumbent World Champion.

Classical World Chess Championship 2000

The Classical World Chess Championship 2000, known at the time as the Braingames World Chess Championships, was held from 8 October 2000 – 4 November 2000 in London, United Kingdom. Garry Kasparov, the defending champion, played Vladimir Kramnik. The match was played in a best-of-16-games format, with Kramnik defeating the heavily favoured Kasparov. Kramnik won the match with two wins, 13 draws and no losses. To the supporters of the lineal world championship, Kramnik became the 14th world chess champion.

Classical World Chess Championship 2004

The Classical World Chess Championship 2004 was held from September 25, 2004, to October 18, 2004, in Brissago, Switzerland. Vladimir Kramnik, the defending champion, played Peter Leko, the challenger, in a fourteen-game match.

Classical World Chess Championship 1995

The Classical World Chess Championship 1995, known at the time as the PCA World Chess Championship 1995, was held from September 10, 1995, to October 16, 1995, on the 107th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Garry Kasparov, the defending champion, played Viswanathan Anand, the challenger, in a twenty-game match. Kasparov won the match after eighteen games with four wins, one loss, and thirteen draws.

FIDE World Chess Championship 1996

The FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 was a chess tournament held by FIDE to determine the World Chess Champion.

The FIDE World Chess Championships from 1998 till 2004 followed a similar knockout format, radically different from previous World Chess Championship events. Previous events had had long qualifying cycles, spread over more than a year, culminating in a long match between the incumbent champion and a challenger. From 1998 to 2004, however, FIDE organised its World Championship as a single event over about a month, with many players playing short knockout matches, rather in the style of a tennis tournament such as Wimbledon.

World Chess Championship 1993

The World Chess Championship 1993 was one of the most controversial matches in chess history, with incumbent World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, and official challenger Nigel Short, splitting from FIDE, the official world governing body of chess, and playing their title match under the auspices of the Professional Chess Association. In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, and instead held a title match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman.

Below is a list of events in chess in 1998, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players in July of that year.

Below is a list of events in chess in 1995, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.

Below is a list of events in chess in 1994, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.

Below is a list of events in chess in 1993, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.

FIDE World Chess Championship 1998

The FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 was contested in a match between the FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov and the challenger Viswanathan Anand. The match took place between 2 January and 9 January 1998 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The challenger was determined in a tournament held in Groningen, Netherlands, between 9 December and 30 December 1997. After the championship match ended in a draw, Karpov won the rapid playoff, becoming the 1998 FIDE World Chess Champion.

References

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