# World Correspondence Chess Championship

The World Correspondence Chess Championship determines the World Champion in correspondence chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest the title. The official World Correspondence Chess Championship is managed by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF).
The world championship comprises four stages: Preliminaries, Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournament, and Final. ICCF tournament rules define which players can access each stage. The first-, second- and third-placed finishers from the previous Final, and the first- and second-placed finishers from the Candidates' Tournaments have access to the World Correspondence Chess Championship Final.
The ICCF also manages the Ladies World Correspondence Chess Championships, that comprises Semi-Finals and Final.

## World Champions

Dates given are the period in which the final of the championship took place, as given on the ICCF website.
| N° | Years | Champion | Runner-up |
| 01. | 1950–1953 | Cecil Purdy | Harald Malmgren |
| 02. | 1956–1959 | Viacheslav Ragozin | Lucius Endzelins |
| 03. | 1959–1962 | Albéric O'Kelly de Galway | Piotr Dubinin |
| 04. | 1962–1965 | Vladimir Zagorovsky | Georgy Borisenko |
| 05. | 1965–1968 | Hans Berliner | Jaroslav Hybl |
| 06. | 1968–1971 | Horst Rittner | Vladimir Zagorovsky |
| 07. | 1972–1976 | Yakov Estrin | Jozef Boey |
| 08. | 1975–1980 | Jørn Sloth | Vladimir Zagorovsky |
| 09. | 1977–1983 | Tõnu Õim | Fritz Baumbach |
| 10. | 1978–1984 | Victor Palciauskas | Juan Morgado |
| 11. | 1983–1989 | Fritz Baumbach | Gennadi Nesis |
| 12. | 1984–1991 | Grigory Sanakoev | Josef Franzen |
| 13. | 1989–1998 | Mikhail Umansky | Eric Bang |
| 14. | 1994–2000 | Tõnu Õim | Ove Ekebjaerg |
| 15. | 1996–2002 | Gert Jan Timmerman | Joop van Oosterom |
| 16. | 1999–2004 | Tunç Hamarat | Rudolf Maliangkay |
| 17. | 2002–2007 | Ivar Bern | Wolfgang Rohde |
| 18. | 2003–2005 | Joop van Oosterom | Hans Elwert |
| 19. | 2004–2007 | Christophe Léotard | Frank Gerhardt |
| 20. | 2004–2011 | Pertti Lehikoinen | Stefan Winge |
| 21. | 2005–2008 | Joop van Oosterom | Alexander Ugge |
| 22. | 2007–2010 | Aleksandr Dronov | Jürgen Bücker |
| 23. | 2007–2010 | Ulrich Stephan | Thomas Winckelmann |
| 24. | 2009–2011 | Marjan Šemrl | Hans-Dieter Wunderlich |
| 25. | 2009–2013 | Fabio Finocchiaro | Richard Hall |
| 26. | 2010–2014 | Ron Langeveld | Florin Serban |
| 27. | 2011–2014 | Aleksandr Dronov | Matthias Kribben |
| 28. | 2013–2016 | Leonardo Ljubičić | Horacio Neto |
| 29. | 2015–2018 | Aleksandr Dronov | Jacek Oskulski |
| 30. | 2017–2019 | Andrey Kochemasov | Enver Mikhailovich Efendiyev Detlef Buse Fred Kunzelmann |
| 31. | 2019–2022 | Ron Langeveld Christian Muck Fabian Stanach | N/A |
| 32. | 2020–2022 | Jon Edwards | Michel Lecroq Sergey Adolfovich Osipov Horácio Neto |

## Ladies World Champions

| N° | Years | Champion | Runner-up |
| 01. | 1968–1972 | Olga Rubtsova | Gertrude Schoisswohl |
| 02. | 1972–1977 | Lora Jakovleva | Olga Rubtsova |
| 03. | 1978–1984 | Ljuba Kristol | Merike Rotova |
| 04. | 1984–1992 | Liudmila Belavenets | Nina Orlova |
| 05. | 1993–1998 | Ljuba Kristol | Ingrida Priedite |
| 06. | 2000–2005 | Alessandra Riegler | Maja Zelcic |
| 07. | 2002–2006 | Olga Mikhailovna Sukhareva | Mary Jones |
| 08. | 2007–2010 | Olga Mikhailovna Sukhareva | Marie Bazantová |
| 09. | 2011–2014 | Irina Vladimirovna Perevertkina | Maria Lisitcina |
| 10. | 2014–2017 | Irina Vladimirovna Perevertkina | Tetiana Moyseenko |
| 11. | 2017–2020 | Irina Vladimirovna Perevertkina | Vilma Dambrauskaitè |

## ICCF World Cup

| Nr. | Years | Champion |
| 01. | 1973–1977 | Karl Maeder |
| 02. | 1977–1983 | Gennadi Nesis |
| 03. | 1981–1986 | Nikolai Rabinovich |
| 04. | 1984–1989 | Albert Popov |
| 5A. | 1987–1994 | Alexandr Frolov |
| 5B. | 1987–1994 | Gert Timmerman |
| 06. | 1994–1999 | Olita Rause |
| 07. | 1994–2001 | Alexei Lepikhov |
| 08. | 1998–2002 | Horst Staudler |
| 09. | 1998–2001 | Edgar Prang |
| 10. | 2001–2005 | Frank Schroder |
| 11. | 2008–2011 | Reinhardt Moll |
| 12E | 2005–2007 | Reinhardt Moll |
| 12P | 2009–2013 | Matthias Gleichmann |
| 13. | 2009–2012 | Reinhardt Moll |
| 14. | 2009–2012 | Reinhardt Moll |
| 15. | 2012–2015 | Klemen Sivic |
| 16. | 2013–2016 | Uwe Nogga |
| 17. | 2014–2017 | Matthias Gleichmann |

## ICCF Chess 960 World Cup

| Nr. | Years | Champion |
| 01. | 2014–2015 | Fabian Stanach |
| 02. | 2015–2016 | Darko Babič |
| 03. | 2016–2018 | Jean Banet |
| 04. | 2018–2019 | Ivan Panitevsky |
| 05. | 2019–2021 | Aleksey Voll |