From Chesspedia, the Free Chess Encyclopedia.
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament was an triannual chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The tournament field consisted of eight players. The top six finishers in the Interzonal tournaments qualified, and the top two finishers from the previous Candidates tournament were seeded. Before 1965, the tournament was organized in a round-robin format. From 1965 on, the tournament was played as knockout matches.
The Candidates tournaments were discontinued after 1992.
Winners
- 1950 - David Bronstein
- 1953 - Vasily Smyslov
- 1956 - Vasily Smyslov
- 1959 - Mikhail Tal
- 1962 - Tigran Petrosian
- 1965 - Boris Spassky
- 1968 - Boris Spassky
- 1971 - Robert James Fischer
- 1974 - Anatoly Karpov
- 1977 - Viktor Korchnoi
- 1980 - Viktor Korchnoi
- 1983 - Garry Kasparov
- 1986 - Anatoly Karpov
- 1989 - Anatoly Karpov
- 1992 - Nigel Short