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
Women's World Chess Championship 1981 The semifinal Ioseliani-Gaprindashvili ended 7-7; in the end, Ioseliani won the lucky draw and advanced to the final. Here she lost to Alexandria, who earned the right to challenge the reigning champion for the second time (after 1975). The championship match was played in Borjomi and Tbilisi in 1981. A tough match went the full 16 games and ended in an 8-8 tie, with champion Chiburdanidze thus retaining her title. Women's World Chess Championship 1981 The 1981 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who successfully defended her title against challenger Nana Alexandria after a closely fought match,