The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 event (players must have been under 20 years old on the 1st of January in the year of competition).

Four winners, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Viswanathan Anand, have gone on to win the FIDE World Chess Championship.

Winner list

• 2004 P Harikrishna (India)
• 2003 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyaz (Azerbaijan)
• 2002 Aronian, Lev (Armenia)
• 2001 Acs, Peter (Hungary)
• 2000 Bruzón, Lázaro (Cuba)
• 1999 Galkin, Alexander (Russia)
• 1998 Sadvakasov, Darmen (Kazakstan)
• 1997 Shaked, Tal (USA)
• 1996 Sutovskij, Emil (Israel)
• 1995 Slobodjan, Roman (Germany)
• 1994 Gretarsson, Helgi (Iceland)
• 1993 Miladinovic, Igor (Yugoslavia)
• 1992 Zarnicki, Pablo (Argentina)
• 1991 Akopian, Vladimir (Armenia)
• 1990 Gurevich, Ilya (USA)
• 1989 Spasov, Vasil (Bulgaria)
• 1988 Lautier, Joel (France)
• 1987 Anand, Viswanathan (India)
• 1986 Arencibia, Walter (Cuba)
• 1985 Dlugy, Maxim (USA)
• 1984 Hansen, Curt (Denmark)
• 1983 Georgiev, Kiril (Bulgaria)
• 1982 Sokolov, Andrei (USSR)
• 1981 Cvitan, Ognjen (Yugoslavia)
• 1980 Kasparov, Garry (USSR)
• 1979 Seirawan, Yasser (USA)
• 1978 Dolmatov, Sergei (USSR)
• 1977 Yusupov, Artur (USSR)
• 1976 Diesen, Mark (USA)
• 1975 Chekhov, Valery (USSR)
• 1974 Miles, Anthony (England)
• 1973 Beliavsky, Alexander (USSR)
• 1971 Hug, Werner (Switzerland)
• 1969 Karpov, Anatoly (USSR)
• 1967 Kaplan, Julio (Puerto Rico)
• 1965 Kurajica, Bojan (Yugoslavia)
• 1963 Gheorghiu, Florin (Romania)
• 1961 Parma, Bruno (Yugoslavia)
• 1959 Bielicki, Carlos (Argentina)
• 1957 Lombardy, William (USA)
• 1955 Spassky, Boris (USSR)
• 1953 Panno, Oscar (Argentina)
• 1951 Ivkov, Borislav (Yugoslavia)