Editing FIDE (section)

===1946 to 1993===

====Birth of the World Championship challenge cycle====
From the time of [[Emanuel Lasker]]'s defeat of [[Wilhelm Steinitz]] in 1894, until 1946, a new World Champion had won the title by defeating the former champion in a match. [[Alexander Alekhine]]'s death created an ''[[Interregnum of World Chess Champions|interregnum]]'' that made the normal procedure impossible. The situation was confused, with many respected players and commentators offering different solutions. FIDE found it difficult to organize the early discussions on how to resolve the ''[[interregnum]]'', because problems with money and travel in the aftermath of World War II prevented many countries from sending representatives, most notably the Soviet Union. The shortage of clear information resulted in otherwise responsible magazines publishing rumors and speculation, which only made the situation more confused.<ref name="Winter2003Interregnum" /> See [[Interregnum of World Chess Champions]] for more details.

This situation was exacerbated by the Soviet Union having long refused to join FIDE, and by this time it was clear that about half the credible contenders were Soviet citizens. The Soviet Union realized, however, it could not afford to be left out of the discussions regarding the vacant world championship, and in 1947 sent a telegram apologizing for the absence of Soviet representatives and requesting that the USSR be represented in future FIDE Committees.<ref name="Winter2003Interregnum" />

The eventual solution was similar to FIDE's initial proposal and to a proposal put forward by the Soviet Union (authored by [[Mikhail Botvinnik]]). The 1938 [[AVRO tournament]] was used as the basis for the [[World Chess Championship 1948|1948 Championship Tournament]]. The AVRO tournament had brought together the eight players who were, by general acclamation, the best players in the world at the time. Two of the participants at AVRO—Alekhine and former world champion Capablanca—had since died; but FIDE decided that the other six participants at AVRO would play a quadruple [[round-robin tournament]]. These players were: [[Max Euwe]] (from The Netherlands); Botvinnik, [[Paul Keres]] and [[Salo Flohr]] (from the Soviet Union); and [[Reuben Fine]] and [[Samuel Reshevsky]] (from the United States). FIDE soon accepted a Soviet request to substitute [[Vasily Smyslov]] for Flohr, and Fine withdrew in order to continue his degree studies in [[psychiatry]], so five players competed, in a quintuple round robin. Botvinnik won, thus becoming world champion, ending the ''interregnum''.<ref name="Winter2003Interregnum">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/interregnum.html
 | title=Interregnum
 | author=Winter, E.
 | date=2003–2004
 | publisher=Chess History Center
}}</ref>

The proposals which led to the 1948 Championship Tournament also specified the procedure by which challengers for the World Championship would be selected in a three-year cycle: countries affiliated with FIDE would send players to Zonal tournaments (the number varied depending on the number of strong players each country had); the players who gained the top places in these would compete in an Interzonal tournament (later split into two, then three tournaments as the number of countries and eligible players increased<ref name="WeeksWorldChampionshipEvents1948to1990">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-indy.htm
 | title=World Chess Championship FIDE Events 1948–1990
 | author=Weeks, M.
}}</ref>); the highest-placed players from the Interzonal would compete in the [[Candidates Tournament]], along with the loser of the previous title match and the runner-up in the previous Candidates Tournament; and the winner of the Candidates played a title match against the champion.<ref name="Winter2003Interregnum" /> From 1950 until 1962 inclusive, the Candidates Tournament was a multi-round round-robin—how and why it was changed are described below.

====Bobby Fischer controversies====
FIDE found itself embroiled in some controversies relating to the American player [[Bobby Fischer]]. The first controversy took place when Fischer alleged that, at the 1962 [[Candidates Tournament]] in [[Curaçao]], the Soviet players [[Tigran Petrosian]], [[Paul Keres]] and [[Efim Geller]] had pre-arranged draws in their games played amongst themselves, and that [[Viktor Korchnoi]], another Soviet player, had been instructed to lose to them (Fischer had [[World Chess Championship 1963|placed 4th]], well behind Petrosian, Keres and Geller). Grandmaster [[Yuri Averbakh]], a member of the Soviet delegation at the tournament, confirmed in 2002 that Petrosian, Keres and Geller privately agreed to draw their games.<ref name="Kingston2002AverbakhInterview2">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles183.pdf
 | title=Yuri Averbakh, An Interview with History, Part 2
 | author=Kingston, T.
 | publisher=chesscafe.com
 | year=2002
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040330072504/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles183.pdf
 | archive-date=March 30, 2004
 | url-status=live}}</ref> FIDE responded by changing the format of Candidates Tournaments from a multi-round round-robin to a series of elimination matches, initially 10–12 games in duration; however, by the 1970s, the Candidates final would be as long as 24 games.

Then, in 1969, Fischer refused to play in the [[U.S. Chess Championship|U.S. Championship]] because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund. Since that event was being treated as a [[Interzonal|Zonal tournament]], Fischer forfeited his right to compete for the right to challenge World Champion [[Boris Spassky]] in 1972. Grandmaster [[Pal Benko]] agreed to relinquish his qualifying place at the Interzonal in Fischer's favor, and the other participants waived their right to claim the spot. FIDE president Max Euwe interpreted the rules very flexibly to allow Fischer to play in the 1970 Interzonal at [[Palma de Mallorca]], which he won convincingly. Fischer then crushed [[Mark Taimanov]], [[Bent Larsen]] (both 6–0) and Tigran Petrosian in the 1971 Candidates
Tournament and won the title match with Spassky to become world champion.<ref name="Sosonko2001RememberingEuwePart1">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles167.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040727125358/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles167.pdf |archive-date=2004-07-27 |url-status=live
 | title=Remembering Max Euwe Part 1
 | author=[[Gennadi Sosonko]]
 | year=2001
 | publisher=The Chess Cafe
}}</ref>

After winning the world championship, Fischer criticized the existing championship match format (24 games; the champion retained the title if the match was tied) on the grounds that it encouraged whoever got an early lead to play for draws. While this dispute was going on, [[Anatoly Karpov]] won the right to challenge in 1975. Fischer refused to accept any match format other than the one he proposed. Among Fischer's demands was a requirement that the challenger must beat him by at least two games in order to take his title (Fischer proposed a match format in which the first player to win 10 games wins, with draws not counting, but if the result is 9–9 it is considered a tie). The FIDE argued that it was unfair for a challenger to be able to beat the world champion, yet not take his title. Fischer would not back down, and eventually FIDE awarded the title to Karpov by default.<ref name="WeeksFischerForfeitsToKarpov">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/7375$wix.htm
 |title=World Chess Championship 1975 – Fischer forfeits to Karpov
 | author=Weeks, M.
 | publisher=Mark Weeks
}}</ref> Some commentators have questioned whether FIDE president Max Euwe did as much as he could have to prevent Fischer from forfeiting his world title.<ref name="Sosonko2001RememberingEuwePart1" />

====Other 1970s controversies====
FIDE had a number of conflicts with the [[Soviet Chess Federation]]. These conflicts included:<ref name="Sosonko2001RememberingEuwePart1" />
* The defection of grandmaster [[Gennadi Sosonko]] in 1972. The Soviets demanded that Sosonko be excluded from competitive chess, television or any other event that might publicize his defection. FIDE refused, and no Soviet players took part in the 1974 [[Wijk aan Zee]] tournament in The Netherlands because Sosonko was playing in it.
* In 1976 world championship contender [[Viktor Korchnoi]] sought [[political asylum]] in The Netherlands. In a discussion a few days earlier Euwe told Korchnoi, "...of course you will retain all your rights..." and later opposed Soviet efforts to prevent Korchnoi from challenging for [[Anatoly Karpov]]'s title in 1978.
* FIDE decided to hold the 1976 [[Chess Olympiad]] in Israel despite the Soviet Chess Federation announced its boycott of Israel as the site of the Olympiad and the congress because of what it described as Israeli aggression against Arab states.

====Rapid expansion of membership====
During his period as president of FIDE (1970–1978) Max Euwe strove to increase the number of member countries, and [[Florencio Campomanes]] (president 1982–1995) continued this policy, with each member nation receiving one vote. Former world champion Anatoly Karpov later said this was a mixed blessing, as the inclusion of so many small, poor countries led to a "leadership vacuum at the head of the world of chess......"<ref name="Sosonko2001RememberingEuwePart1" /><ref name="AbundoCampomanesLegacy" /> [[Yuri Averbakh]] said the presence of so many weak countries made it easy to manipulate decisions.<ref name="KingstonAverbakhInterview2">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles183.pdf |title=Yuri Averbakh: An Interview with History – Part 2 | author=Kingston, T. | year=2002 | publisher=ChessCafe | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040330072504/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles183.pdf | archive-date=March 30, 2004 | url-status=live }}</ref>

====World Championship, 1983–1985====
The events leading to [[Garry Kasparov]]'s winning the world championship involved FIDE in two controversies. While arranging the [[Candidates Tournament]] semi-final matches to be played in 1983, FIDE accepted bids to host Kasparov versus [[Victor Korchnoi]] in [[Pasadena, California]]. The Soviet Union refused to accept this, either because it feared Kasparov would [[Defection|defect]] or because it thought Kasparov was the greater threat to reigning champion Anatoly Karpov. Their refusal would have meant that Kasparov forfeited his chance of challenging for the title. FIDE president [[Florencio Campomanes]] negotiated with the Soviet Union, and the match was played in London.<ref name="AbundoCampomanesLegacy">{{cite web
 | url=http://old.fide.com/news/download/campolegacy.doc
 | title=Campo's Legacy to World Chess
 | author=Abundo, C.
 | publisher=FIDE
}}</ref><ref name="NYTimes1983CrisisLooming">{{cite news
 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E7DB1E39F935A3575BC0A965948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
 | title= A crisis is looming in chess world
 | date=August 6, 1983
 | author=Burns, J.F.
 | newspaper=New York Times
}}</ref>

In the 1984 world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov the winner was to be the first to win six games. In the first 27 games Karpov gained a 5–0 lead but by the end of the 48th Kasparov had reduced this to 5–3.<ref name="weeksKarpovKasparov1984">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/82841wix.htm
 | title=1984 Karpov – Kasparov Title Match
 | author=Weeks, M.
}}</ref> At this point the match had lasted for 159 days (from September 1984 to February 1985). Then the match was ended without result by Florencio Campomanes, the President of the World Chess Federation, and a new match was announced to start a few months later. The termination was controversial, as both players stated that they preferred the match to continue.<ref>Edward Winter, [http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/termination.html The Termination] (1988, updated in 2006, 2007 and 2008). Retrieved on 2008-12-27.</ref> Announcing his decision at a press conference, Campomanes cited the health of the players, which had been strained by the length of the match. Kasparov won the second match and became world champion.<ref name="AbundoCampomanesLegacy" /><ref name="timesonline2007WhiteKnight">{{cite news
 | url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/white-knight-who-brought-down-the-red-king-kfj0bhknzkv
 | title=White knight who brought down the Red king
 | date=November 6, 2007
 | newspaper=[[The Times]]
 | location=London
| first=Daniel
| last=Johnson
| access-date=2010-05-02}}</ref><ref name="aboutWorldChampionship1948to1990">{{cite web
 |url         = http://chess.about.com/od/worldchampionship/p/aa06c11.htm
 |title       = FIDE World Chess Championship 1948–1990
 |author      = Week, M.
 |publisher   = about.com
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080720005910/http://chess.about.com/od/worldchampionship/p/aa06c11.htm
 |archive-date = July 20, 2008
 |df          = mdy
}} Also available on [https://web.archive.org/web/20210508203020/https://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1268 FIDE's Web site]</ref>
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