| prvak | ime |
| 1894–1921 | Emanuel Lasker |
| 1921–1927 | José Raúl Capablanca |
| 1927–1935 | Aleksander Aljehin |
| 1935–1937 | Max Euwe |
| 1937–1946 | Aleksander Aljehin |
| 1946–1948 | ni bilo prvaka |
| 1948–1957 | Mihail Botvinnik |
| 1957–1958 | Vasilij Smislov |
| 1958–1960 | Mihail Botvinnik |
| 1960–1961 | Mihail Talj |
| 1961–1963 | Mihail Botvinnik |
| 1963–1969 | Tigran Petrosjan |
| 1969–1972 | Boris Spasski |
| 1972–1975 | Robert Fischer |
| 1975–1985 | Anatolij Karpov |
| 1985–1993 | Gari Kasparov |
| 1993–1999 (po verziji FIDE) | Anatolij Karpov |
| 1999–2000 (po verziji FIDE) | Aleksander Halifman |
| 1993–2000 (po verziji PCU) | Gari Kasparov |
| 2000– (po verziji PCU) | Vladimir Kramink |
| 2000–2002 (po verziji FIDE) | Viswanathan Anand |
| 2002–2004 (po verziji FIDE) | Ruslan Ponomarev |
| 2004– (po verziji FIDE) | Ruslan Kasimdžanov |
| prvakinja | ime |
| 1927–1944 | Vera Menčik-Stevenson |
| 1950–1953 | Ljudmila Rudenko |
| 1953–1956 | Jelizaveta Bikova |
| 1956–1958 | Olga Rubcova |
| 1958–1962 | Jelizaveta Bikova |
| 1962–78 | Nona Gaprindašvili |
| 1978–1991 | Maja Čiburdanidze |
| 1991–1996 | Xie Jun |
| 1996–1998 | Zsuzsa Polgar |
| 1998–2001 | Xie Jun |
| 2001– | Zhu Chen |