Across the Board
New Identity for 2021 FIDE 2021 World Chess Championship by Morillas
Reviewed Jun. 9, 2022
In 1886 Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, at the time the two greatest chess masters in the world, held the first World Chess Championship. Steinitz emerged victorious and was crowned the inaugural champion. This set the template for the early contests, with matches arranged one-on-one between titans of the sport. To raise a challenge against the reigning champion cost $10,000, the rough equivalent of $300,000 today. This required challengers to secure the financial backing of the chess spectating elite – the winner of the title matches, and all of their patrons, would split the purse. The loser and all of their backers received nothing. This organized, high-stakes gambling made the early title matches a rare and dramatic event, and the crown only passed hands four times in the span of 60 years.
That might’ve still been the format today if not for the death of the fourth world champion, Alexander Alekhine, in 1946. Without a reigning champion to challenge, the title was set to die with Alekhine unless a new system was devised. Enter FIDE, the International Chess Federation. A French players’ union which had been hosting national tournaments for decades, they were able to propose a solution in the form of a bracketed tournament of eight ex-champions and rising stars from around the globe, the best players of their time. In 1948, two year’s after Alekhine’s death, Mikhail Botvinnik became the first world champion under FIDE jurisdiction.
While there have been splits and reorganizations through the years, FIDE remains the global governing body on crowning the World Champion of Chess in a global tournament held every two years. The identity for the 2021 FIDE World Championship Tournament was designed by Barcelona-based Morillas Branding.
Read the full article at Brand New
