The World Chess Championship has been through difficult times in recent decades, often due to bizarre decision making by an ineffective governing organisation.

The World Chess Championship has been through difficult times in recent decades, often due to bizarre decision making by an ineffective governing organisation. However there are good signs that stability and coherence is returning, it's on an upswing. Anand has been a great World Champion, winning many brilliant games in his defences against worthy opposition. Carlsen-Anand has captured the imagination of chess players around the world to a much greater extent than any recent tournament, no matter how prestigious. Oh except maybe for the Candidates tournament - which gained it's outscale gravitas because it was a step towards the throne. The World Championship of Chess has tradition, gravitas, drama. Statistically speaking the strongest World Champion has not always been the strongest player at any given point. But so what; Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik .... Anand, [Carlsen?]. These players have ascended the pantheon and achieved a kind of immortality. They're all worthy. Don't you dare tell me that Petrosian isn't (see original article). I'd hate to interfere with a tradition like that. (Note: yes I am flushing the period between Kramnik and Anand as a sad anachronism).