Every World Chess Championship Match Ranked | Part 3: Modern Era (1993-2023)

[@breakup266]

Ranking Carlsen- caruana and Carlsen-Karjakin low due to all the drawn games; then ranking Ding- Nepo low despite all the decisive games. Complaining about the quality of games in Ding-Nepo being low while putting Carlsen-Caruana in the trash tier. Need to make up your mind what criteria the tier list is based on.

[@veritasalex4028]

Totally agree.The chaotic rationale is unbelievable.

[@dunno23]

Exactly what I was thinking. This is what happens when one doesn’t layout clear cut parameters (e.g. competitiveness, quality of play, opening novelty etc) before marking these matches. You come at the conclusion first, based on your emotions/biases, and then rationalise it with your inconsistent criteria. Nevertheless, Jesse had a consistent criteria, for the matches to be listed as Epic either of the players have to come close to dying.

[@dark_magician_sdy]

Exactly this list was horrible to watch . Definitely unsubbing now.

[@stefan4159]

How David can put Carlsen-Caruana 2018 at the same level as Anand-Gelfand 2012 is beyond me.

[@Agastya26]

Anand-Topalov has to be a great match, sorry guys, but disappointed on this one. You completely missed several historical contexts of this match - (1.) Magnus may have been no.1, but he participated in the Candidates Tournament which Kamsky won, (2.) Topalov's Manager created as many roadblocks for Vishy's team as he could since the match was in Bulgaria (Topalov's home country), and Anand was playing against those odds (3.) Anand mixed his prep in the first game due to exhaustion from the 3 day bus ride due to the Volcano eruption and Topalov refused to postpone game 1 by even a single day and Anand was gentlemanly enough to play on without a fuss (4.) there was a lot of talk about Topalov using the strongest engine at the time which no one else had access to, and that had everyone worried Vishy was going to be crushed by computer prep, (5.) Vishy had a team of legendary seconds for this match - including Kasparov and Kramnik (who didn't want Topalov to win) and he played training games with the best of the next generation - such as Magnus and Anish, (6.) In the historical context, Anand winning was important for the reunification, as in the event he lost, Topalov & Kramnik would have continued to make their individual claims on world championship since the 2006-10 cycle was a product of the FIDE agreements of 2006 with Kramnik and Topalov for the reunification. Anand winning helped settle it all.

[@aseemsharan]

Wow. So many details. Thank you for reminding us.

[@B-fq7ff]

That doesn’t sounds great to me

[@wreynolds1995]

All this context is nice and pretty but was the match good? You make a strong case that Anand is legendary and Topalov is kind of a douche, but that doesn't say much about the match itself.

[@dark_magician_sdy]

Ok but the match was still meh.

[@michaelf8221]

I completely agree with Kostya about the Carlsen WCCs. Carlsen - Karjakin 2016 was a pretty interesting match simply because it forced Carlsen to show that he could win on demand against this "chump." Good match. I found Carlsen - Caruana 2018 to be epic. It was truly the two people you wanted at the top facing off against each other. 2835 against 2832. Insane ratings. Both players had decisive advantages in several games. The fact that they couldn't convert had nothing to do with "chess is drawn with best play." The match was just exciting game after exciting game. The Sveshnikov brought back to the top level. New ideas in the Rossolimo. Nobody was playing for a draw from move 1. Great, riveting play. The only slight knock on the match is the fact that nobody actually did win a game from those borderline winning positions. Easily a great match. Possibly an epic match. I totally agree that it would have been better if there were more games in the match.

[@spanishaddict2950]

Anand Topalov is legit great if not epic, fighting chess between 2 best players in the world with Topolov's team doing all kinds of nasty stuff, having exclusive access to latest Rybka,a supercomputer of Bulgarian Defense. Vishy fearing that his room might bugged. Add to that Vishy winning with black in the final game. Topalov's rivals Kramnik and Kasparov helping Anand.

[@sachinpaul2111]

It’s disappointing to hear Jesse and David talk like they didn’t watch the WC 2016 and 2018 First off Karjakin’s qualification itself was amazing. He was down and out in the World Cup semi against Eljanov in a blitz tiebreak and then picked up a 3 fold rep with seconds on the clock. Then in the candidates, he came up clutch against all your favourites and then qualified for the WC Where he defended so well. Attack wins matches, defence wins championships. Carlsen then had to win on demand with 3 games left. The Carlsen-Caruana was a masterclass in Sveshnikov Sicilian from Carlsen and single handedly revived the opening. And Caruana’s Petroff and the big missed mate Btw in 2014, saying that match wasn’t dramatic with the double blunder in game 6 I know you’re weighed down by history guys but a bit of objectivity towards recent events would be nice

[@abrahamshajan1387]

david and jesse are just haters of magnus and want to downplay carlsen because their favourite is kasparov.they also are extremely biased against anand, i dont know why.just watch this david guy's expressions when talking about them, it is so clear that he is biased .i also agree that carlsen vs caruana is one of the strongest world championship ever played.

[@SteWweAwesome99]

Ding and Nepo was one of the most exciting matches in terms of dramatic play, may be not the highest accuracy from both but it was anything but uninspiring, it went down to the wire and not because there were lots of draws but because there were many decisive games, Ding won with the London which people would've called you crazy had you said it in advance.

[@chesscomdpruess]

Obviously we are trying to be objective, which doesn’t mean we get everything or anything right. We did watch those matches, and found them interesting and tense as they were played. When we compare them to matches across history, we are actually fighting against our bias in favor of these matches from having lived through them in real time, feeling the tension, etc. Also to Abraham, I don’t dislike Magnus and Anand- i LOVE them!!! They are among the greatest chess players ever!!! Plus really cool people at the same time!

[@haydenn680]

🔥🔥🔥 historical dojo talks are the best. A top 10 tournaments would be great

[@angrywhiteknee]

I'm gonna rate this episode as uninspiring. David and Jesse are such big haters of modern matches. I agree with people in the comments that their take on Carlsen-Karjakin and Carlsen-Caruana are ridiculous. Do David and Jesse really want 24-game matches back? I don't think that this would make a big difference in terms of decisive games, and the match would take way too long. The problem of WC matches is not the number of games, but that classical chess is too drawish. Also the players aren't incentivised to win as many games as possible like in the Candidates tournament.

[@chesscomdpruess]

Sorry not to have inspired you this time around. Yes, we would really like longer matches. I stand by the point made that in a shorter match it is even riskier to takes risks, bc you have less games to show your superiority and recover a lost game. So not only is there less content quantitatively (12 v 24 or 30 or 50) but qualitatively as well. And of course you are right that there is a broader problem of classical chess being too drawish. Not 12 draws in a row too drawish, but sure. And there are various possible solutions for that, everyone has their own favorite, mine is Fischer Random.

[@misterkefir]

24 may be a little too much but I think 16 would be the perfect "modern" lenght.

[@Zelles21]

1:08:22 Carlsen was #1 during the 2010 match but he did try and fail to qualify, although the conditions heavily disfavored him. Topalov qualified for the candidates match because of the 2005-2006 fiasco and Gata Kamsky qualified because he won the 2007 world cup where he did defeat 17 year old Magnus in a round. Obviously had the candidates been held closer to the match Magnus would have been much stronger had a much better chance to qualify.

[@joannalewis5279]

I loved these. Suggestion for next time is to have a card up showing what match you're talking about so that people can know what it is if they miss the start of a description

[@jimmyjs8907]

I recall Kasparov being angry that Bobby Fischer was able to secure a larger prize fund for his rematch with Spassky.

[@RagnarChess-ndjiskf65]

In terms of stakes and excitement, Ding vs Nepo is genuinly the best match on this list. It was so enjoyable to watch and you could feel both their emotions, there was a guaranteed new world champion. In terms of the level of play and the strength of the players compared to the best in the world (I.e. Magnus) it’s the worst. It’s so hard to rank for me, but I’d genuinly put it in A because it was THAT fun.

[@prcbras]

Completely agree. It was the best match I've watched.

[@prcbras]

Absolutely crazy... Ding/Nepo match was the event that got me invested into chess as a sport. I don't understand how someone who loves chess can't appreciate how exciting that match was. Also considering not even ranking it?? Just because Magnus gave up the title? At the time it was still a match between number 2 and number 3 in the world. I'm baffled.

[@brianmitchell9902]

Yeah that match was crazy. The games weren’t perfect but they were super exciting

[@prcbras]

@@brianmitchell9902 And and the reason the games weren't as perfect is because they were fighting very hard to get wins, changing openings almost every round, instead of following drawish computer lines. Complicated games means the quality can suffer but still some of the games had insane accuracy.

[@chesscomdpruess]

@@prcbras That’s a good point! The more complicated, the more difficult, the more mistakes. Same with variety.

[@misterkefir]

Easily the most exciting Chess World Championship match of my "chess following career" (started around 2010).

[@jlin8850]

I think also the idea that the WCC needs to have Carlsen (or maybe just world #1, since the argument could probably change) involved is just… wrong. The idea is that the world champ is the best player in the world, but hypothetically if Nepo beat Carlsen, or if now Gukesh beat Carlsen, it’s not like Carlsen would suddenly be worse and stop crushing other players. Would we then say that “oh he’s not a real world champ because he’s not highest rated”? Thus to not rank Ding/Nepo because Carlsen gave up the title seems narrow-minded

[@Phresh170]

David just seemed biased against Carlsen to me, he even said it himself "maybe everything I say doesn't make any sense", he just came off as annoying to me

[@chesscomdpruess]

Apologies. For what it’s worth, I am biased in favor of Carlsen, so it’s probably more of not being coherent than anything else.

[@felipearayaperez2610]

Jesse and David are unfortunately clearly biased against the modern era. David said in the previous episode that, despite disagreeing with the champion retaining the title in case of a tie, that wasn't the point of the ranking, and still placed some of those matches highly. But when Carlsen wins on Rapid (clearly relevant to his superiority as a player) the Championship is almost entirely ruined.

[@FloydBoudreaux]

I remember following the '72 Spassky - Fischer World Championship match, whose games were in the newspaper the next day. But each games results were announced that very night on the nightly news programs. If memory serves correctly, Shelby Lyman was on live TV presenting the games, move by move as they came in, with live guest masters!

[@not_emerald]

I'm totally on board with David on this one. Short matches are way more boring. Also, Jesse is right - all high level sports are unhealthy, why should it be different with chess? I'm never going to be more than a spectator, so I'll be healthy, but I'll never even have the chance of "reaching the stars" so to speak

[@Zwellop]

As a new chess fan, it is so fun to watch these and get some perspective about the championship matches!

[@Crazy_ludwig]

Take at 1:26:12 by jesse is absolute Bs, Carlsen himself said Caruana in 2018 was just as strong as him in classical so saying that calrsen was expected to destroy him Just like he did against Nepo is just dumb

[@chesscomdpruess]

My recollection is their ratings were close enough that a single win by Caruana (or maybe 2) would have tied them. Wikipedia’s crosstable for the match shows Carlsen 2835 Caruana 2832.

[@yawn8974]

This WC series on DojoTalks has been my favorite so far. I'm learning so much and I love that you guys have differing opinions. Epic series

[@Agastya26]

Historical context on the 2007 WCC: FIDE had already accepted sponsorship & money for the 2007 tournament in Mexico and could not return it, and the organiser of the tournament had stipulated that the sponsorship money given was contingent on the tournament being a world championship. Moreover, they had to assuage the feelings of both Kramnik and Topalov for the 2006 unification match and what would happen thereafter. Thus, it was decided that the winner of the 2006 match would play in the tournament in 2007 and whoever won that tournament would be the World Champion. If Kramnik/Topalov lost the 2007 tournament, as insurance they were guaranteed a match in 2008 (as part of the deal with FIDE), and as additional insurance, the loser of the 2006 match who wasn't allowed to compete in 2007 or 2008, got seeded directly into the finals of the Candidates Tournament of 2010 (rather like how Karpov used to get seeded in the 90's in FIDE world championship cycles). That is how Topalov - who lost 2006, and did not participate in the tournament in 2007 or the match in 2008, was seeded directly into the finals against Gata Kamsky and won it to challenge Anand to a match in 2010.

[@chesscomdpruess]

Thanks for the added info, really great!

[@TheNiczal]

If Ding-Nepo is not a match, because Ding didn't qualify in a normal way... then Kramnik -Kasparov is neither.

[@fundhund62]

You were pretty generous to put Kramnik-Kasparov in the epic category 😂

[@TheBigGuppy]

The prize funds should have been a lot more for Kasparov / Karpov. Those matches were a lot more work. I’ve played USCF club matches that were longer than these new mini matches LOL. Posted for the algorithm.

[@Agastya26]

About Anand-Kasparov vs Kramnik-Kasparov and Kramnik-Anand, I think styles make fights is applicable in Chess as it is in boxing. In the chaotic melee of tactics and preparation, Kasparov was superior to Anand, Kramnik who was superior in quieter positions used that against Kasparov in 2000, and Anand used his d4 & slav systems in 2008 to beat Kramnik (Anand was able to create a fairly empty board on the middle game with enough imbalances which he could intuitively judge better than Kramnik).

[@aleksapopovic9704]

cmon guys carlsen karjakin wasnt uninspiring, it was a great chess, carlsen had like 3 or 4 much better borderline winning position, but karjakin displayed amazing defense, pressure building up and bam carlsen overextends and losses a game 8, storms out of press conference, only has 4 games left to get a win to prevent maybe the biggest upset in WCC matches, then does it in game 10 with everything on the line and ends the match in rapid with probably the most badass last move of WCC matches

[@travistucker4067]

Solid video fellas!

[@anrun]

I was just a class player, but my recollection is that there was nothing unexpected about Short beating Karpov to play Kasparov. If Karpov was the favorite (and I'm not sure he was), he was wasn't an overwhelming one. EDIT: David had it right, Kasparov expected Short to win. If Kasparov thought that, how big a favorite could Karpov have been?

[@vineyardchess2136]

Carlsen - Karjakin was one of the century's best matches ever. Carlsen - Caruana was too accurate and high level compared to any other. They are probably the most inspiring matches any chess lover would watch.

[@misterkefir]

Kasparov retired in 2005 (After winning Linares 2005).

[@davidcopson5800]

And after 20 years at the top.

[@abdvids]

*Kostya passionately explains for 10 minutes why Carlsen karjakin is such a great match* Jesse: "David are you swayed? No let's move on" hahahaha

[@ChessDojo]

😂

[@mischatal]

Kasparov - Short had every game shown live on TV.

[@davidcopson5800]

In Britain only?

[@johaensen89]

Coming back from a night and day in Hospital, thats the best Entertainment. Thx guys

[@JD-td8kl]

Jesse’s laugh brightens my day. What a character.

[@poehamilton8731]

Jesse out here sticking it in, taking Dings coconuts… brutal… lol

[@Phymacss]

Good video!

[@anrun]

My recollection of Kasparov-Short was that though it was a blowout, the games were quite exciting. Short had some big chances in games but just could never find the right continuation.

[@timwheeler8523]

Absolutely! His play as white vs Kaspy's sicilian was amazing! Just couldn't finish him off (Gary is an amazing defender too!). A great match. (Also my first watching chess)

[@anrun]

@@timwheeler8523 Yep, and it should be in a higher category than uninspiring. "Great" would be fine with me.

[@chesscomdpruess]

Yes, the games were exciting! Despite being worse, Short kept trying to win, and despite being ahead, Gary did too. I suppose it’s also a matter of taste- I find Gary’s chess exciting, period.

[@timwheeler8523]

@@chesscomdpruess I tend to agree with you more than the other 2 in these vids! Keep being the minority report!!

[@thenoblegnuwildebeest3625]

David is completely correct about the deficiencies of the current format. None of the matches of the last 20 years have equaled those of the 60s-80s. Bring back the interzonals, eliminate tiebreaks, and lengthen the match length.

[@happyhornet1000]

They should play the tie-breaks before the matches, which would stop the endless draws that have occurred in recent WC matches. I don't think draws will be an issue with the upcoming WC though.

[@Crazy_ludwig]

I dont understand this carlsen vs karajkin and caruana were both good games you had two strong players playing high quality chess

[@jordandanchev1474]

I have been watching all your ranking videos and I have to say this is the first one I don't like. No great matches? You circle between what is the more comfortable argument for the particular match between what's entertaining, what is significant and what is historical. If you put in perspective Kramnik-Kasparov vs Carlsen-Caruana you'll at least think twice and put that match higher. Carlsen-Nepo was super entertaining and Nepo-Ding was actually the best match to watch ever with all the decisive games. At the end of the day, in most sports the champion is whoever wins the championship match and for some reason in chess all people get really touchy and offended when the favorite does not win. It is a sport like any other, so if the favorite always has to win, why have the match? So instead of dumping hard on Ding and Nepo, try to appreciate what happened and the match they produced. Just take a minute and compare how you rank your chess best matches to any other sport and you'll see how the best players don't always produce the best match. Or at least put the criteria "a match is super special only if the best 2 play and the better one wins and someone retires, or else it's trash".

[@rohitkumarjha2657]

this is such a W comment i hope they read this

[@chesscomdpruess]

@@rohitkumarjha2657 I’ve read every comment on here.

[@geoffreyvanwyk4588]

"Good for meming an idiot on Twitter." What a thing to say.

[@geoffreyvanwyk4588]

The Fide championships were real because they were Fide championships. It does not matter if the champions were not the best. Somewhere out there is somebody better than Magnus, but he does not bother to play in tournaments.

[@redox_3363]

Bro calsan caruwana game was epic

[@davidcopson5800]

I don't know those two players.

[@geoffreyvanwyk4588]

Anand should replace somebody on the top-ten list. He was world champion multiple times in multiple organizations, formats and time controls.

[@davidcopson5800]

He should replace Gukesh.

[@miquelcanosasanteularia1678]

1:24:29 I found it epic

[@TheBigGuppy]

Question- FIDE Matches don’t count since Garry was still active. Since Magnus is still active does Ding v Nepo count? 😊

[@ChessDojo]

He stopped playing matches 🙂

[@davidcopson5800]

@@ChessDojo I think it's a striking comment that he stopped playing with matches!

[@simonkim8646]

Carlsen - Caruana had a chance to be one of the greatest matches ever if it was longer. Unfortunately it was only 12 games so it falls short

[@geoffreyvanwyk4588]

So basically, Fide should not have any world championship matches until after Carlsen retires?

[@johnlennon1958]

David is such a Magnus hater he is totally biased.

[@chesscomdpruess]

I love Magnus!

[@fallingmasonry]

Interesting how Carlsen's WC matches ranked so poorly when he's considered one of the greatest players ever. Fischer and Kasparov rightfully got spots in "Epic", and almost every other world champion had at least one "Great" match. If not his championship matches, what performances by Carlsen would you call "Epic"?

[@TheBigGuppy]

I wasn’t able to enjoy Kramnik’s Berlin bullshit in the match with Kasparov. Epic WC matches died after the last Kasparov Karpov match.

[@Aman-tv2ok]

David ..!!!!...IT'S 1.4 billion, not 1 billion...!!!

[@chesscomdpruess]

I know! rounding =)

[@HansHenrikBay]

Thank you for an entertaining show. But all of you are obsessed with Magnus coming back-especially Jesse. When will you realize that Magnus is done with classical chess? Thankfully, he has prioritized his mental health over his sport, unlike Korchnoi and others. Fortunately, we can still enjoy the world’s best chess player in rapid and blitz chess, as well as Fischer Random in long time controls. And we should be grateful that he is generous with his time and participates in many tournaments where we can enjoy his play.

[@Minerva6699]

Yay!

[@joannalewis5279]

Bass guitar is more relevant across genres

[@AdityaPal_sciencepal]

Very weak and incoherent arguments. For starters, you need to set valid criteria for ranking, not just random statements like I hate shorter matches and games were just won by prep and shutting games with black. That is exactly how you strategize against your opponents. Also the point about number 2 or 3 player not playing, and hence the match was uninspiring is baseless. If the number 2 or 3 player in the world is not a challenger, that's cause he either chose not to play or worse could not win a classical Candidates tournament against lower rated players.

[@geoffreyvanwyk4588]

Carlsen - Nepo should be trash because of the blunders.

[@sportvideofootage]

2018 Carslen vs Caruana was great match. Listen to Magnus interviews he still repeating 2018 match that was one time he really felt he can lose Caruana played so well and 2019 shown that when those 2 dominated chess tournaments.Any title player who says that 2018 match was trash ...chess title should be taken away

[@chesscomdpruess]

Harsh punishment! I feel like within a few topics, you’d remove every title from every player in the world.

[@System.Error.]

lol😂

[@geoffreyvanwyk4588]

Kasparov deserved to lose against Kramnik for cheating Shirov.

[@davidcopson5800]

No one wanted that match because Shirov had never EVER beaten Kasparov. Walkers Crisps put up a prize fund of £125 to get the match and it was turned down. Kasparov V Kramnik was a different matter - as we saw!

[@dark_magician_sdy]

So much Kasparov bias here smh 🤦

[@nguyenquangminh4814]

2nd

[@easybrynjar6363]

First comment!

[@davidcopson5800]

What comment?

[@XIAOBAIZHANG-ym8pn]

The topic of this video you made is very good, but the content is very poor. The faces of each of the three of you are more than ten times larger than any photo of a world championship match. What does this mean? It shows that you are too arrogant! What was the result? The result is that the audience didn't see any of the pictures of the world championship match you talked about at all! I was wondering why your account has been unable to do it, and the reason has finally been found. You are too unprofessional and too narcissistic! Are the faces of the three of you that important? Why can't you make your faces small and your picture of every championship game big?