Boris Gelfand will turn 43 in about 1 month. He will be 44 when he will challenge Vishy Anand for the World Championship title.
If he wins, will he be the oldest person to win the World Championship for the first time? If the answer is no, who is older than him when he won the World Championship for the first time?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Steinitz was 50..
Steinitz was 50.
Steinitz was older – 50 when he beat Zukertort in 1886 and was declared first world champion. He was widely considered the best player long before that match, but nothing was official until ’86.
Bobby Fischer.
The oldest world chess champion was Wilhelm (William) Steinitz, who won a world championship match from Chigorin at the age of 56. He was world champion until he lost it in a match with Lasker in 1894 at the age of 58 years, 10 days. (from http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/old.htm)
Congrats to Boris!!
Wilhelm Steinitz, 1886
Steinitz
Steinitz
The answer to this question is not so clear. Boris Gelfand, if he wins the World Championship next year, will be either 43 or 44. The World Championship became a FIDE event for the 1948 World Championship, and if only the world championships from 1948 through 2012 are considered, then the answer is “YES”, Boris will be the oldest to win if he beats Anand next year.
Wilhelm Steinitz is generally considered to have become the first World Champion. He insisted that the contract for the match with Zukertort in 1886 be for “the Championship of the World”. Most experts maintain that the modern chess World Championship was first won by Steinitz versus Zukertort in 1886, when Steinitz was 50 years old. That would make Steinitz the oldest person ever to win the World Championship. So the answer to the question is “NO”.
But hold on, folks. Some experts maintain that Steinitz became the first World Champion when he defeated Adolf Anderssen in 1866, when Steinitz was 30. If that is so, and if Boris Gelfand wins in 2012, then Boris Gelfand will have won the World Championship at an age older than any previous winner of the title. So the answer is “YES”.
Kortchnoi
Wilhelm Steinitz first became champion of the world at age 50 according to Wikipedia.
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