Total Noobish question about world championship

Originally posted by stockton1984
Is there one recognized world championship tournament, or is it like boxing, where several different organizations each have their own "champion" depending on who wins their tournament? And when would this tournament or these tournaments be held and where can I see results of them? any help is greatly appreciated.

Wow, the answer to this question isn't an easy one, and I'm not sure I have the energy to give you a proper, detailed response.

Short version - Historically, world champions have been determined by a chess match between the defending champion and a challenger. However, there was a split in the WC lineage a number of years back when Kasparov split from FIDE. For a number of years, there was a FIDE WC and a non-FIDE WC. Reunification to a single WC finally occurred recently in a tournament in Mexico City, where Vishy Anand became the unifed WC. Complicating the matter is the fact that whether the WC is determined by a tournament or a match seems to be decided by FIDE upon a whim. The next WC match/tournament will be a match between Anand and the challenger (Kramnik) later this year in Germany. And even when FIDE manages to come up with WC match/tournament plans and dates, these plans are subject to change at any time.

Here's a link to some info on the upcoming match.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4645

Edit - Sorry, one correction to make. Reunification occurred in the 2006 Elista match between Kramnik and Topalov. Kramnik won and became the unified WC. Then he lost the title to Anand in the Mexico City tournament. Now he gets to play Anand again to try to regain the title.

Also, if you want a mind-bending experience, check out FIDE's 2007 world chess championship cycle in the link below:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3948