INTRODUCING ANATOLY KARPOV

Anatoly Karpov was born in Zlatoust, USSR in 1951. He learned to play chess at the age of 4 and later was admitted to Mikhail Botvinnik's school. While Botvinnik early on considered Kasparov to be a genius, he is reported to have said that Karpov "does not have a future in this profession [chess]."

Karpov proved his doubters wrong, however, by rising to the top of the Junior ranks and then, in 1969, became the World Junior Champion (with a score of 10 out of 11). Soon afterwards, in 1970, Karpov became an International Grandmaster at the age of 19.

In the San Antonio, 1972 supertournament, Karpov clearly made his mark on the world elite, tying for first in the event.

In 1973 Karpov began his run to the World Championship, qualifying for the Candidates Matches by virtue of his winning the 1973 Leningrad Interzonal tournament. In the 1974 Candidates Matches, Karpov eliminated Lev Polugaevsky and Boris Spassky to face Viktor Korchnoi in the Candidates Final.

After winning the match against Korchnoi in 1974 (+3=19-2), Karpov won the right to challenge Bobby Fischer for the Title. The match was to be held in Manila, the Philippines, in 1975. And then, it happened...

The ever-difficult Bobby Fischer was always impossible to negotiate with, and here it cost him the title. On April 3, 1975 Anatoly Karpov was declared the 12th World Champion because Fischer would not defend the title. Many people did not consider Karpov a "real" champion because of this, and Karpov dominated tournaments for the next decade, proving himself to be a worthy champion. In the process, he defended his title twice against Viktor Korchnoi (1978 and 1981).

Karpov then fought Garry Kasparov in a marathon 48-game match in 1984. Karpov won the match 5-3 when it was cancelled by FIDE President Florencio Campomanes due to fatigue and itsexcessive length. The regulations had called for the first player to 6 wins, and while Karpov had taken a 5-1 lead, Kasparov kept drawing game after game, to win a war of attrition—he was partially successful.

Karpov lost the title in 1985 to a Kasparov who, in the words of Vladimir Kramnik, could have (figuratively) given pawn and move odds to the Kasparov of 1984. Anatoly Karpov had a very difficult style of play to adapt to, let alone defeat, and many people believe that the 48-game marathon in '84 had given Kasparov the experience and training necessary to defeat Karpov. Whatever the reason, Kasparov became the new champion, and Karpov was unsuccessful in wresting the title back: in addition to the 1984 and 1985 matches, the pair of rivals also squared off in 1986, 1987, and 1990. In the cycle for the 1993 World Championship match, Karpov was surprisingly defeated by the brilliant attacking Englishman Nigel Short.

When Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993 to play his World Championship match with Nigel Short (the pair tried to get more money for a match than FIDE was going to provide), Karpov found himself in a match with Jan Timman of the Netherlands for the FIDE title. Although Timman was a top player for years, he was simply not in the class of Kasparov, or even Short at that time. Once again, Karpov did not tell Kasparov and Short to leave FIDE, just as he did not tell Fischer to do so two decades before. But once again, he faced scrutiny for it.

Later, Kasparov then said that whoever won the Linares 1994 supertournament could declare themselves "World Champion of Tournaments."

Some people say that it was this that inspired Karpov to give the performance of his career at age 42 in the Spanish oil town. Whatever it was, Anatoly Karpov won Linares 1994 with a score of 9 wins and 4 draws, in arguably the single-greatest tournament performance ever. He took first place by 2.5 points over Kasparov and Alexei Shirov. Karpov began the tournament with 6 straight wins. Linares '94 was, up till that time, the strongest tournament ever held (by rating) and to go +9 in such an event is extremely rare. Karpov's performance rating was over 2900. Karpov then reached the peak FIDE rating of his career: 2780.

Karpov saw his results begin to slide in the later 1990s, and Kasparov began to dominate him in their tournament encounters (being 12 years younger). Karpov defended his FIDE title in 1996 against American sensation Gata Kamsky, before finally giving up his FIDE World Championship title to Alexander Khalifman in 1999, when he refused to play under the new confiditions FIDE instituted.

Karpov rarely competes in top tournaments these days, mostly focusing on trying to help the UN with World Peace. One of the greatest players ever (many would place him Number 2 all-time, behind only Kasparov, because of his great results and longevity), Karpov was notorious for a "boa-constrictor" style of chess: he would squeeze and squeeze his opponents until they suffocated! It is amazing that even in 2006, he is able to play great rapid chess, tying Kasparov for first place in a couple of events.


To see a biography of Anatoly Karpov on Wikipedia, click here.

To see Karpov's chess games on ChessGames.com, click here.