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 Chess Championship 1981 and successfully defended his title as world champion. World Chess Championship 1981 The 1981 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Merano, Italy from October 1 to November 19, 1981. Karpov won. Two Interzonals were held in 1979, one in Riga and the other in Rio de Janeiro. The Riga interzonal was won in dominant fashion by Tal, who went through the tournament undefeated ahead of Polugaevsky. They were joined in the Candidates Tournament by Adorján, whose better tie-break score in the main tournament put him ahead of Ribli, after the two drew a playoff