WI: Alternate Chess Champions 1975-Present

Vladimir Kramnik---World Chess Champion 2005-2008

Newly anointed World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik scarcely had time to revel in the fact that he was champion. The rematch against Kasparov was scheduled just three months after he claimed the title. Kasparov’s team advised him to hold off on having the rematch so quickly in order to familiarize himself better with the database technology. Kasparov refused believing that Kramnik’s win over him was merely a fluke. Team Kramnik was elated for a quicker rematch and believed that Kasparov’s ego was pushing him into a fatal mistake. Kramnik’s team proved right in their analysis when, three months later, Kramnik once again easily defeated Kasparov by a score of 6.5 (five wins and three draws) to 3.5 (two wins and three draws). Kasparov attended the awards ceremony but stayed only long enough for Kramnik to be declared champion and left immediately afterwards.

After defeating Kasparov in 2005 the quest began again the following year for a new challenger to face Kramnik. In the meantime Kramnik embarked on a quest of his own greatness by entering and winning all the Majors in 2006. That particular feat had not been accomplished since Kasparov had done so in 1992. By the time of the Candidate Knockout Tournament in 2007 Kramnik was sitting at number one atop the FIDE rankings. The Candidate Knockout Tournament featured the strongest field ever seen in the history of the tournament. Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Teimour Radjabov, Gata Kamsky, Boris Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, and Levon Aronian. This field was a mix of old and new powerhouses in the game of chess. The absolutely odds on favorite tournament was, rather surprisingly, Viswanathan Anand. Anand was considered by many to be the best player to have never been called World Champion. Anand’s path to the final saw him defeat Gata Kamsky in round one, and Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals. His opponent in the final was Garry Kasparov who defeated Boris Gelfand in the opening round, and Teimour Radjabov in the semi-finals. Kasparov vs. Anand was a dream match that many thought would never take place. This match featured the East vs. The Far East as both men represented the top tier of talent in their prospective regions. When the dust settled from this titanic matchup Anand emerged as the victor beating Kasparov by a full point. Shortly after the conclusion of the tournament Kasparov issues a press release stating that he was retiring from competitive chess and focusing on improving the quality of life for the citizens of mother Russia.

2008 World Chess Championship---Cairo, Egypt

Game 1

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 2

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Game 3

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 4

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 5

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 1-0

Game 6

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 7

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 0-1

Game 8

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Vladimir Kramnik-----3
Viswanthan Anand-5

This world championship match was the longest chess match on record. 527 moves were made and the total running time for the match was thirty-three hours and twenty one minutes long. This new record was a result of both players playing style of high analysis and continual probing of potential chess lines in order to find the smallest advantage to exploit. In the end Anand really won the championship in game 7 which forced Kramnik to play for the win in game 8 using the black pieces. His strategy had already been set for him and Anand was well prepared to meet any potential attack.
 
How can you not have Victor Korchnoi on this list? If I think about alternate Chess Champions, he's probably got the strongest claim on this list.

If Fischer were Chess Champion for a long time, I would actually suspect that he'd do great harm to the sport by being a real bad celebrity figure--Fischer was quite a case in many respects, and I think that he would not handle the spotlight well for too much longer than he did.

I'd suggest that Fischer lose to Korchnoi (Losing to a Russian Emigrant to France would mix the TL up a bit more than ATL, as well as making the World Champion be French instead of continuing the OTL Russian hedgemony of the game for many years.)

A good choice (arguably the only choice) for a UK World Champion would be Nigel Short--having him win the 1993 world championship as a blip might be interesting as well.

Finally, just out of curiosity, how do Judit Polgar, the world's highest rated female player and Veselin Topalov do in this ATL?
 
Victor Korchnoi would be close to 50 years old by the time he would have gotten a shot at Fischer. I do not think it is realistic to have him beat a young Bobby Fischer. Plus I do not even know if he could ever beat Kasparov in the Candidate Knockout Tournament to get a title shot.

Topalov would still have a chance at being World Champion in this timeline. Kasparov's second title reign pushed back the time table on him playing for the title. My guess is that he would play Kramnik for the title if Kramnik was able to beat Anand.

women's chess remains the same except for perhaps having more players.
 
my apologies on the delay for the final update...to be honest i completely forgot about it due to playing Lord of the Rings Online (just started). I give you guys my word that the final update will be uploaded on Monday.
 
FINAL PLANNED UPDATE

Viswanathan Anand-World Chess Champion 2009-Present Day

Viswanthan Anand made chess history in his match against Vladimir Kramnik by becoming the first world chess champion from India and also from South Asia. Never before has the champion’s throne been so far removed the western world. Anand also known as Vishy (a nickname from some friends) became the youngest Indian chess player to ever receive the International Master title (OOC: this is the title a player receives before becoming a Grand Master; only two exceptions have ever occurred: Kasparov and Christiansen.

The forty year old Anand’s claim to the title was a strong one after his recent slug fest with Vladimir Kramnik in which he managed to out punch and out think the now former champion. Anand sometimes called the tiger of Madras is widely known as one of the most well respected figures in the world of chess. Whereas some players try to use psychology both on and off the board to defeat their opponents, Anand has always preferred to let his own moves do the winning for him.

The negotiations for the rematch between both sides proceeded very quickly largely due to Anand’s own benevolent attitude. The ten game rematch between Kramnik, and Anand took place in June of 2009 in the city of Samsun, Turkey.


2009 World Chess Championship---Samsun, Turkey

Game 1

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 2

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 3

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Game 4

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 1-0

Game 5

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 0-1

Surprising many in attendance and chess fans watching around the world, Vladimir Kramnik won game 5 with the black pieces after a brilliant sacrifice of queen on move 34 allowed him to pin black’s king on move 47. Kramnik went into the weekend break with a 3-2 lead over Anand and a very confident smile.

Game 6

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 0.5-0.5


Game 7
Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Game 8

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 9

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Game 10

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 1-0

Kramnik achieved a must have win in game which caused the score to be tied at 5-5. A rapid chess five game playoff for the title then took place, marking the first time this type of tie-breaker would be used to decide the championship.

The rapid chess five game playoff was a series of five games where each player has a total of five minutes to make all of their moves.

Game 1

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Game 2

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 0.5-0.5

Game 3

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Game 4

Vladimir Kramnik (white pieces) vs. Viswanathan Anand (black pieces) 1-0

Game 5

Viswanathan Anand (white pieces) vs. Vladimir Kramnik (black pieces) 1-0

Viswanathan Anand-3.5
Vladimir Kramnik-------1.5

2009 World Chess Championship final score

Viswanathan Anand-8.5
Vladimir Kramnik-------6.5

Another tight world championship game between these individuals resulted in yet another win for Anand as he successfully defended. With Anand’s defeat of Kramnik he firmly cemented his claim to the title by defeating one of the best chess players in the world. The search for a challenger to Anand’s title is now underway with the first round of qualifiers for the Candidate Knockout Tournament being held. Notables like Magnus Carlsen, Veselin Topalov, and Teimour Radjabov all playing for their chance at immortality and the right to be called World Chess Champion. Only time will tell if any of these individuals will climb to the top of Olympus and become World Champion.
 
so i have finished my first timeline after 3 failed attempts. i would appreciate any feedback my fellow ah writers could give in regards to just writing timelines in general and how i did on mine, what i could have done different, what i needed more of, etc...
 
Ok, to be brutally honest with you.

Let's see some actual games! Games Games Games!

Talking about Chess in the abstract is missing the point. Illustrate critical games, talk about them. This is as dry as describing the world Series without saying who hit what, when and how! Fish out a game of Christensen playing Kasparov and cite it as the world championship critical game, so that we get some feel for how these people actually play.

As it stands this is just too distant to really be much of a TL.
 
Well here is a game to illustrate the standard of play in our local league which you might like to include in one of the matches.

Just to avoid criticism, I should mention the site http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1546208

game3.PNG
 
i thought about putting moves into the timeline, but was not sure as to what their actual value of contribution would be. people who do not play chess, but who might read this timeline would get nothing from them.

now those of us who do play chess might, but putting in moves or a series of moves representing Christiansen or Kasparov might be a little pretentious. i could use actual moves from their games (what little few games they played each other in our TL), but even then i would have to question them for the sole fact that they might not have played those moves based upon the differences made in the timeline.

the feedback is appreciated and it is something to be considered. if nothing else ah.com now has a small model of how to do a chess timeline if someone more experienced decides to attempt that feat.
 
This thread has illustrated some of the problems of writing chess threads. There are potentially interesting alternatives in chess history. For example, we could imagine a POD of an American millionaire offering enough money to persuade Alexander Alekhine and Paul Keres to play a world championship match in America in 1939 with perhaps Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky as commentators.

I first imagined something modelled on The Master of Go” but I am not sure after looking at Alekhine's games in the 1939-42 period that the champion would have lost. A good writer (definitely not me!) could make something interesting out of the contrasting characters and their rather different reactions as Europe went up in flames.

Setting it back in 1939 should give us plenty of opportunity for both players to find interesting opening novelties before or during the match. We can now use computers to generate games at world championship level in various styles as shown by the example that I posted which shows Rybka and Shredder playing “romantic chess”. Thus I expect that we could find examples of computers playing in the styles of Alekhine or Keres. The advantage of computers is that we can now reliably calculate the variations that the players would have to consider during the game, perhaps with different variations in the players minds and in another room being discussed by Fine and Reshevsky.

If anyone knows a good writer who plays at GM standard, please suggest this to him or her!!!
 
Last edited:
Definitely great ideas all around mostlyharmless. You are right in revealing some of the problems in writing a chess timeline. You do need a chess player who could play at GM level to write this timeline effectively. But who in the world knows a GM that is also interested in writing alternate history? Writing and reading this stuff are two completely different monsters, writing requires so much more of a commitment obviously. An active GM chess player would not have that time I think.

The computers may be the best option we have at the moment. But even still they could not adjust the moves of the players based upon the changes we make to the timeline. We would probably need technology, something akin to what you see on Star Trek, in terms of extrapolating the changes that would be made to playing styles based upon the variations we make to the timeline.

Take Larry Christiansen in this timeline for example. He is a better chess player in this timeline because of Fischer playing Spassky in their rematch and his overall strategies changed and he was a better chess player overtime because the competition at the professional level never vanished here in the USA. We would need future tech to figure out how that would assess his personality and playing style.
 
Top