World Championship Posters

While I was searching FIDE's official photos in preparation for previous posts, e.g. 2024 Gukesh - Ding Liren, Closing Ceremony (December 2024), I discovered a photo of historical interest among others from game 10: 2024-12-07 FIDE World Championship Singapore 2024 Others (Photo: FIDE / Eng Chin An). Posters in the background told a couple of important stories.

First, here is a composite extract from the photo showing posters from various World Championship matches. Beneath the extract is a legend linking to my own pages (m-w.com).

Top to bottom, left to right [notes in brackets]; first row:-

• 1995 Kasparov - Anand; PCA Title Match; New York, IX-X, 1995. [see '(A)']
• (ditto)
• 1987 Kasparov - Karpov; Seville, X-XII, 1987.

Second row:-

• 2012 Anand - Gelfand; Moscow, V, 2012.
• 1993 Kasparov - Short; PCA Title Match; London, IX-X, 1993.
• 2016 Carlsen - Karjakin; New York, XI, 2016. [logo same as poster]

Third row:-

• 1981 Karpov - Korchnoi; Merano, X-XI, 1981.
• 1987 Kasparov - Karpov; Seville, X-XII, 1987. [as above, different poster]
• 1972 Fischer - Spassky; Reykjavik, VII-VIII, 1972. [program; see '(B)']

Fourth row:-

• 2014 Carlsen - Anand; Sochi (Russia), XI, 2014.
• 1990 Kasparov - Karpov; New York/Lyon, X-XII, 1990.

Notes:-

• (A) Chess at the World Trade Center (June 2018)
• (B) 1972 Fischer - Spassky Poster (March 2013)

It's noteworthy that some of the posters were created for non-FIDE World Championship matches; see the three PCA title matches in the first two rows.

The same FIDE photo which was the source of the composite image above included another poster/chart showing the relationships between the World Championships starting with Steinitz. I'll save that for the next post.