• 1950 – David Bronstein
  • 1953 – Vasily Smyslov
  • 1956 – Vasily Smyslov
  • 1959 – Mikhail Tal
  • 1962 – Tigran Petrosian
  • 1965 – Boris Spassky
  • 1968 – Boris Spassky
  • 1971 – Bobby Fischer
  • 1974 – Anatoly Karpov
  • 1977 – Victor Korchnoi
  • 1980 – Victor Korchnoi
  • 1983 – Garry Kasparov
  • 1987 – Anatoly Karpov
  • 1990 – Anatoly Karpov
  • 1993 – Nigel Short
  • 1995 – Viswanathan Anand
  • 1997 – 2005 – Split Era
  • 2007 – Top four qualified for eight-player World Championship final
  • 2009 – Veselin Topalov
  • 2011 – Boris Gelfand
  • 2013 – Magnus Carlsen
  • 2014 – Viswanathan Anand
  • 2016 – Sergey Karjakin
  • 2018 – Fabiano Caruana
  • 2020-21 – Ian Nepomniachtchi
  • 2022 – Ian Nepomniachtchi