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 1972 were joined by Kushnir, the loser of the last championship match. These four players contested a knock-out series of matches to determine the challenger. Kushnir again prevailed, earning the right to another shot at Gaprindashvili's title. The championship match was played in Riga in 1972. This time, Kushnir came closer than ever to beating Gaprindashvili, but with draws in the last two games the defending champion managed to hang onto her title by one point. Women's World Chess Championship 1972 The 1972 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Nona Gaprindashvili, who successfully defended her title against challenger Alla Kushnir.