was hosting the events; he supported the proposal that the vacant world championship should be filled by the winner of a multi-round all-play-all tournament; and proposed a system for selecting future challengers that was very like FIDE's 1946 proposals and the system that operated from 1948 to 1963. The proposed tournament was very similar in concept to the 1938 AVRO tournament, whose purpose had been to decide who should challenge Alekhine for the title. The World Championship Tournament took place in 1948, the first half in The Hague and the second in Moscow. Botvinnik won by scoring 14 points out of 20 and making a plus score against each of the other players; in fact he clinched first place some days before the last round ended on May 17, 1948. Thus he became the new world champion and brought the interregnum to an end. Competitions for the World Chess Championship would be held exclusively under FIDE's auspices for the next 45 years. The Interregnum was a unique period in modern chess history. Although there were gaps in the chain of succession of the title when a new champion did not play against the old one (e.g. Anatoly Karpov after Bobby Fischer), the Interregnum currently remains the only period in the history of modern chess in which there was no World Champion. Women There was a similar interregnum of the Women's World Chess Championship, between Vera Menchik's death in 1944 and Lyudmila Rudenko winning the championship in 1950. See also World Chess Championship 1948 References History of chess World Chess Championships 1946 in chess 1947 in chess 1948 in chess Interregnums