Development of the World Chess Championship became the first unified and undisputed World Chess Champion since Kasparov split from FIDE to form the PCA in 1993. Kramnik played to defend his title at the World Chess Championship 2007 in Mexico. This was an 8-player double round robin tournament, the same format as was used for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. This tournament was won by Viswanathan Anand. Because Anand's World Chess Champion title was won in a tournament rather than a match, a minority of commentators questioned the validity of his title. Kramnik also made ambiguous comments about the value of Anand's title, but did
Women's World Chess Championship 1978 Women's World Chess Championship 1978 The 1978 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who defeated the incumbent champion Nona Gaprindashvili At only 17 years of age, Chiburdanidze became the sixth and youngest Women's World Champion (Gaprindashvili had been 20 when she first won the title). For the first time, the women's cycle contained not one but two Interzonal tournaments, held in Roosendaal, Netherlands and Tbilisi, Georgian SSR in November and December 1976, featuring the best players from each FIDE zone. A total of 25 players took part, with the top three from each Interzonal qualifying for the