FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 The FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 was held in Moscow, Russia. The first six rounds were played between 27 November and 14 December 2001, and the final match started on 16 January and ended on 23 January 2002. The Ukrainian Grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov, aged 18, won the championship and became the youngest FIDE World Champion. At the time of this championship, the World title was split. The Classical World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, did not participate, as well as the previous Classical Champion and world's highest-rated player, Garry Kasparov. However, all other strongest players of the
World Senior Chess Championship the men's section. So far one male World Chess Champion – Vasily Smyslov – has gone on to win the World Senior Championship as well (at age of 70 in 1991). He has also been the first Senior World Chess Champion ever. Nona Gaprindashvili is the only female World Chess Champion to obtain the World Senior title as well. The oldest World Senior Champion, male or female - before the split in two different age categories has been made - is Viktor Korchnoi who won the title at age of 75 and a half (in 2006, his only participation). Vlastimil