FIDE World Chess Championship 1996
| 
 Defending champion  | 
 Challenger  | |||||
| Anatoly Karpov | Gata Kamsky | |||||
  | ||||||
| 
Born 23 May 1951  45 years old  | 
Born 2 June 1974  22 years old  | |||||
| Winner of the Candidates Match against Boris Gelfand | Winner of the Candidates Match against Valery Salov | |||||
| 
Rating: 2770  (World No. 3)  | 
Rating: 2735  (World No. 5)  | |||||
The FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 was a chess tournament held by FIDE to determine the World Chess Champion.