Who’s In the Mikhail Chigorin Club? Beating the King Without Wearing the Crown

In the world of chess, victories are measured not only by trophies and titles but also by rare feats that carry symbolic weight. One of the most exclusive honors is entry into the Mikhail Chigorin Club — a fraternity reserved for players who have defeated a reigning world champion in an official classical game.

Named after the Russian master Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (1850–1908), the club has grown over more than a century to include 121 members. Their stories reveal not just brilliant tactical blows but also the fascinating paradoxes of chess history: legends who never managed the feat, amateurs who stumbled into immortality, and prodigies who wrote their names into history before adulthood.

Why Chigorin?

The club is named after Chigorin for a simple reason: he was the first man to defeat a world champion. On January 20, 1889, in Havana, Chigorin beat the first official champion, Wilhelm Steinitz. He would go on to defeat Steinitz 14 times in total and even score a victory over the second champion, Emanuel Lasker.

Yet Chigorin never became champion himself, despite contesting two title matches. This duality — brilliant enough to beat the King, but never to wear the crown — reflects the essence of the club. It immortalizes those who, at least once, toppled the throne.

The initiative to formalize such a list came from Russian chess statistician Vitaly Gnirenko, who in 2012 published the first chronological register in 64 – Chess Review. But chess historians had whispered about it long before: a secret roll of honor, a ledger of giant-killers.

Rules of Membership

The criteria are strict:

1. The victory must come against the reigning classical world champion, in a classical time control game.
2. The event must be an official face-to-face tournament or match. Consultation games, exhibitions, or blitz do not count.
3. If a player later becomes world champion themselves, they are removed from the club.

This explains why the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik are absent from the rolls despite losing games as champions. The club only celebrates the “outsiders” — those who struck once, then stepped back into the shadows.

As of September 2025, there have been 18 classical world champions, from Steinitz in 1886 to Gukesh Dommaraju in 2024. Fifteen of them have tasted defeat as sitting monarchs. Only three — Steinitz, Karpov, and Ding Liren — never managed to beat another champion while reigning and thus never qualified.

The Early Years: Amateurs Among Giants

The early Chigorin Club is filled with curiosities. After Chigorin himself, Isidor Gunsberg joined by defeating Steinitz in New York, 1890. Then came Kurt von Bardeleben, Siegbert Tarrasch, Joseph Blackburne, and Harry Pillsbury, all seizing their moment against Emanuel Lasker in Hastings 1895 and St. Petersburg 1896.

Remarkably, some were not full-time professionals. Rudolf Charousek, who defeated Lasker at Nuremberg 1896, died tragically young at just 26, but his name remains immortal. David Janowsky, another flamboyant attacker, also joined early.

These games showed that even in an era dominated by long reigns — Lasker held the crown for 27 years — cracks could appear, and underdogs could shine.

Legendary Names and Forgotten Heroes

Through the 20th century, the roll of members expanded with legends like Akiba Rubinstein, Frank Marshall, and Efim Bogolyubov, who proved their mettle by defeating champions Alekhine and Capablanca. But just as fascinating are the forgotten names.

Consider Arthur William Dyke, who in 1932 at Pasadena defeated Alexander Alekhine. A relatively obscure master, Dyke never reached elite standing, but his single win against the champion etched his name permanently into history.

Or Bjorn Nielsen, a Danish player who upset Botvinnik at Munich 1941. Outside Denmark, his name is barely known, yet the Chigorin Club ensures he is remembered.

The club’s founding principle — to preserve the memory of anyone who achieved this rare feat — ensures that not only stars, but also footnotes, live on.

The Golden Age: Botvinnik, Fischer, and Karpov

The Soviet era brought a flood of names. Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, and Tigran Petrosian all suffered defeats in major international tournaments. Players like Jonathan Penrose famously toppled Tal in Leipzig 1960, while Eugenio Torre scored against Karpov in Manila 1976, becoming the first Asian member.

When Garry Kasparov rose to power, even he could not escape. Nigel Short beat him in Brussels 1986, joining the club long before their famous 1993 world championship match.

Curiously, Bobby Fischer’s reign is one of the least “productive” for the club. Fischer played so few classical games between 1972 and 1975 that no one managed to beat him as champion. His abrupt retirement meant that his reign left no new members.

Modern Era: Carlsen and Ding Fall

Magnus Carlsen, world champion from 2013 to 2023, gave the club a huge boost. His hyperactive tournament schedule, unlike Fischer’s, meant many opportunities for challengers. Over the decade, he lost to Naiditsch, Wojtaszek, Hammer, Rapport, MVL, Bu Xiangzhi, Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Mamedyarov, Duda, Esipenko, Niemann, Giri, and Abdusattorov.

Ding Liren, who briefly held the crown in 2023–2024, also fell to Firouzja, Pragnanandhaa, Le Quang Liem, and Arjun Erigaisi.

Now, Gukesh’s reign has already added three names in less than a year: Erigaisi, Mishra, and Theodorou. His aggressive style offers opportunities for ambitious underdogs — making him a magnet for new members.

Fun Records

The club’s history is filled with oddities and records:

• Youngest member: Abhimanyu Mishra, who at 16 years and 7 months defeated Gukesh in Samarkand, 2025.
• Oldest member: Joseph Henry Blackburne, who beat Lasker at age 58 in 1899.
• Shortest victory: Vladimir Liberzon over Petrosian in just 15 moves, 1964.
• Most victories: Mikhail Chigorin himself, with 15 wins against champions.
• Shortest reign in the club: Gukesh, who stayed just 16 days before becoming champion, and thus was removed.
• Longest reign: Viswanathan Anand, who remained a member for 15 years, 9 months, and 29 days before winning the title in 2007.

Who Never Made It?

It is striking that some of the greatest players in history never entered the club. Rudolf Spielmann, Aron Nimzowitsch, Géza Maróczy, Salo Flohr, Leonid Stein, and Lev Polugaevsky all failed to beat a sitting champion. Even Judit Polgar, despite defeating Kasparov, Anand, and Karpov in their careers, never beat one while he was the reigning king.

This fact shows just how difficult the achievement is. It requires not only brilliance but also opportunity — being in the right tournament, on the right day, when the champion falters.

The Spirit of the Club

What makes the Chigorin Club unique is its philosophy. It is not about crowning champions or rewarding consistency. It celebrates a single shining moment — proof that anyone, from a teenage prodigy to a forgotten amateur, can strike lightning against the very best.

Chess history is full of dynasties, but the Chigorin Club reminds us that even dynasties are vulnerable. Steinitz fell in Havana, Capablanca in New York, Botvinnik in Munich, Kasparov in Brussels, Carlsen in Tromsø, Ding in Bucharest, Gukesh in Samarkand. Every throne has cracks.

Today, with global tournaments and live broadcasts, new entries into the club are celebrated worldwide. Mishra’s historic victory at 16 became instant headlines. Theodorou’s win over Gukesh sparked interviews and applause. Each new member keeps the tradition alive.

Chigorin Club Members

No.	World Champion Winner	Year and place of the competition	The defeated world champion
1	Mikhail Chigorin	1889. Havana	Wilhelm Steinitz
2	Isidor Gunsberg	1890. New York
3	Kurt von Bardeleben	1895. Hastings	Emanuel Lasker
4	Siegbert Tarrasch	1895. Hastings
5	Joseph Blackburn	1895. Hastings
6	Harry Pillsbury	1895/96. Saint Petersburg
7	David Yanovsky	1896. Nuremberg
8	Rudolf Charuzek	1896. Nuremberg
9	Frank James Marshall	1900. Paris
10	Karl Schlechter	1904. Cambridge Springs
11	Akiba Rubinstein	1909. St. Petersburg
12	Fedor Duz-Khotimirsky	1909. Saint Petersburg
13	Osip Bernstein	1914. Saint Petersburg
14	Richard Reti	1924. New York	Jose Raul Capablanca
15	Alexander Ilyin-Zhenevsky	1925. Moscow
16	Boris Verlinsky	1925. Moscow
17	Efim Bogolyubov	1929. Wiesbaden	Alexander Alekhine
18	Herman Matison	1931. Prague
19	Arthur William Dyke	1932. Pasadena
20	Savely Tartakover	1933. Folkestone
21	Petrus van Horn	1937. Leiden	Max Euwe
22	Andre Lilienthal	1937. Stockholm
23	Thorsten Gauffin	1937. Stockholm
24	Vladimir Petrov	1938. Marget	Alexander Alekhine
25	Reuben Fine	1938. Amsterdam
26	Karel Opocensky	1941. Munich
27	Bjorn Nielsen	1941. Munich
28	Klaus Junge	1942. Salzburg
29	Ludwig Rellstab	1942. Munich
30	Arturo Bonet	1945. Gijon
31	Antonio Medina	1945. Gijon
32	Lopez Nunez	1945. Almeria
33	Francisco Lupi	1946. Estoril
34	Paul Keres	1948. Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik
35	David Bronstein	1951. Moscow
36	Nikolay Kopylov	1951. Moscow
37	Efim Geller	1951. Moscow
38	Joseph Siy	1952. Budapest
39	Mark Taimanov	1952. Moscow
40	Samuel Reshevsky	1955. Moscow
41	Miroslav Filip	1957. Baden	Vasily Smyslov
42	Andreas Dukestein	1958. Munich	Mikhail Botvinnik
43	Jonathan Penrose	1960. Leipzig	Mikhail Tal
44	Wolfgang Unzicker	1961. Oberhausen	Mikhail Botvinnik
45	Wolfgang Ullmann	1962. Varna
46	Svetozar Gligoric	1963. Los Angeles	Tigran Petrosyan
47	Victor Korchnoi	1963. Moscow
48	Vladimir Liberzon	1964. Moscow
49	Lajos Portisch	1965. Zagreb
50	Bent Larsen	1966. Santa Monica
51	Anatoly Kudryashov	1967. Moscow
52	Borislav Ivkov	1968. Palma de Mallorca
53	Ulf Andersson	1975. Milan	Anatoly Karpov
54	Eugenio Torre	1976. Manila
55	Alexander Belyavsky	1977. Leningrad
56	Jan Timman	1978. Bugojno
57	Igor Ivanov	1979. Moscow
58	Anthony Miles	1980. Scara
59	Yuri Balashov	1980. Rostov-on-Don
60	Zoltan Ribli	1980. Amsterdam
61	Fridrik Olafsson	1980. Buenos Aires
62	Vlastimil Gort	1981. Amsterdam
63	Carlos Garcia Palermo	1982. Mar del Plata
64	Yasser Seirawan	1982. London
65	Ljubomir Ljubojevic	1982. Turin
66	Zurab Azmaiparashvili	1983. Moscow
67	Wolfram Hartman	1983. Hannover
68	Nigel Short	1986. Brussels	Garry Kasparov
69	Andrey Sokolov	1988. Reykjavik
70	Arthur Yusupov	1989. Barcelona
71	Boris Gulko	1990. Linares
72	Vasily Ivanchuk	1991. Linares
73	Gata Kamsky	1992. Dortmund
74	Robert Huebner	1992. Dortmund
75	Joel Lautier	1994. Linares
76	Alexander Schneider	1994. Lyon
77	Veselin Topalov	1994. Moscow
78	Jeroen Pickett	1995. Amsterdam
79	Peter Svidler	1997. Tilburg
80	Ivan Sokolov	1999. Wijk aan Zee
81	Alexander Morozevich	2001. Wijk aan Zee	Vladimir Kramnik
82	Ruslan Ponomarev	2003. Wijk aan Zee
83	Alexey Shirov	2003. Wijk aan Zee
84	Luke van Wely	2003. Wijk aan Zee
85	Vladimir Akopyan	2004. Wijk aan Zee
86	Michael Adams	2004. Wijk aan Zee
87	Peter Leko	2004. Brissago
88	Emil Sutovsky	2005. Dortmund
89	Etienne Bacrot	2005. Dortmund
90	Evgeniy Bareev	2005. Moscow
91	Teymur Radjabov	2008. Wijk aan Zee	Viswanathan Anand
92	Levon Aronian	2008. Morelia
93	Hikaru Nakamura	2011. London
94	Sergey Tivyakov	2012. Baden-Baden
95	Boris Gelfand	2012. Moscow
96	Wang Hao	2013. Wijk aan Zee
97	Fabiano Caruana	2013. Zurich
98	Arkady Naidich	2014. Tromsø	Magnus Carlsen
99	Ivan Sharic	2014. Tromsø
100	Radoslaw Wojtaszek	2015. Wijk aan Zee
101	Jon Hammer	2015. Stavanger
102	Alexander Grischuk	2015. St. Louis
103	Yannick Pelletier	2015. Reykjavik
104	Sergey Karyakin	2016. New York
105	Richard Rapport	2017. Wijk aan Zee
106	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2017. St. Louis
107	Bu Xiangzhi	2017. Tbilisi
108	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2017. London
109	Wesley So	2018. Stavanger
110	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2018. Bill
111	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2020. Stavanger
112	Andrey Esipenko	2021. Wijk aan Zee
113	Hans Moke Niemann	2022. St. Louis
114	Anish Giri	2023. Wijk aan Zee
115	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2023. Wijk aan Zee
116	Alireza Firouzja	2023. Bucharest	Ding Liren
117	Rameshbabu Pragnanandha	2024. Wijk aan Zee
118	Le Quang Liem	2024. Budapest
119	Arjun Erigaysi	2025. Wijk aan Zee	Gukesh Dommaraju
120	Abhimanyu Mishra	2025. Samarkand
121	Nicholas Theodorou	2025. Samarkand

*Updated until Sep 10th, 2025