1Wilhelm Steinitz1886–1894
2Emanuel Lasker1894–1921
3José Raúl Capablanca1921–1927
4Alexander Alekhine1927–1935
5Max Euwe1935–1937
6Alexander Alekhine (2nd reign)1937–1946
7Mikhail Botvinnik1948–1957
8Vasily Smyslov1957–1958
9Mikhail Botvinnik (2nd reign)1958–1960
10Mikhail Tal1960–1961
11Mikhail Botvinnik (3rd reign)1961–1963
12Tigran Petrosian1963–1969
13Boris Spassky1969–1972
14Bobby Fischer (no defense played)1972–1975
15Anatoly Karpov1975–1985
16Garry Kasparov (Classical/PCA title from 1993)1985–2000
17Vladimir Kramnik (Classical, then unified 2006)2000–2007
18Viswanathan Anand2007–2013
19Magnus Carlsen2013–2023
20Ding Liren2023–2024
21Gukesh Dommaraju2024–present
Anatoly Karpov1993–1999
Alexander Khalifman1999–2000
Viswanathan Anand2000–2002
Ruslan Ponomariov2002–2004
Rustam Kasimdzhanov2004–2005
Veselin Topalov2005–2006