Anatoly Karpov is the 12th official world chess champion and politician. He wrote a lot of chess books like; The Caro-Kann Defence, The Open Game, Karpov on Karpov, etc.
He was born on May 23, 1951 at Zlatoust, Russia. At age of 3 he was watching with his father game and the following year his father taught him about chess and learned how to play.
At 12, he enrolled at Botvinnik School of Chess, where Bovinnik said “he doesn’t have future in chess”. That message, acknowledged, inspired and motivated him to work more and diligently.
In 1967, he won his first international tournament at Trinec with 9 wins 0 loss and 4 draws. After that year, he enrolled at Moscow State University then transferred at Leningrad State University to focus more on chess with coach GM Semyon Furman and graduated with degree of economics.
In 1969, he won the World Junior Championship title and the following year he got the Grandmaster title at Caracas 1970.
In 1973, he was entitled to play in Interzonal via World Junior Champion. There, he finished second behind Viktor Kortschnoj and gaining slot in the 1974 candidates, where he knocked-out Spassky and Kortschnoj to challenged Bobby Fischer in a world title match.
In 1975, one of Karpov's most significant achievements when he became the World Chess Champion after Bobby Fischer, the reigning champion, refused to defend his title. He wanted to prove as legitimate champion, he participated in nearly every major tournaments for the next ten years. He convincingly won the Vidmar 1975, Milan 1975, Skopje 1976, Montila 1976, Las Palmas 1977, Interpolis 1977, Bogujno 1978, Montreal 1979 etc. As a result, most chess professionals soon agreed that Karpov was a legitimate world champion. Karpov's victory marked the beginning of a new era in chess, as he would go on to dominate the world chess scene for the next decade. Karpov held 9 consecutive tournament victories.
He defended his title twice from Viktor Kortschnoj. The 1978 match was set at Baguio, Philippines and was particularly contentious, as it took place during the height of the Cold War and was overshadowed by political tensions between the Soviet Union and the West. Despite the distractions and pressures, Karpov emerged victorious, solidifying his status as the undisputed world champion. He also won the rematch on 1981.
Karpov's playing style was characterized by his ability to outmaneuver opponents in long, strategic battles. He excelled in positions with subtle imbalances and was renowned for his patience and ability to slowly tighten the noose around his opponent's position. Karpov's positional understanding and endgame technique were second to none, and he was particularly adept at converting small advantages into victories.
In 1984-85, Karpov faced perhaps the most famous challenge of his career when he played against Garry Kasparov in a match that would become one of the most iconic and controversial in chess history. The match lasted for five months and consisted of 48 games, with neither player able to claim the victory necessary to secure the world championship title. The match was eventually halted by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) president Florencio Campomanes, who cited concerns about the players' health after such an extended and grueling contest. FIDE return to the 24-games format at the rematch in the same year, Karpov lost the title with 3 wins 5 losses and 16 draws. Also lost all the 3 rematches on 1986, 1987 and 1990. The Kasparov-Karpov world matches is considered the greatest rivalry of all time with 144 games and very steep margin (+21 -19 and =104).
In 1993, He lost the candidates semi-finals from Nigel Short, However, there was anomalies from FIDE, thus splitting the world title in to two: the FIDE and Professional Chess Association (PCA), There were two World Chess Champions: Kasparov defeated Short in PCA and Karpov beat Timman in FIDE. He was world champion in FIDE until 1999.
In 1994, he played the best tournament of his life. He was undefeated with 11/13 points (the best world-class tournament winning percentage since Alekhine won San Remo in 1930 with 14/15), with 2985 performance (highest until 2009 until Carlsen’s 3002) finishing 2.5 points ahead of 2nd place Kasparov. Chess statistician Jeff Sonas considers Karpov's Linares performance the best tournament result in history.
In 1997, he focused more on his career as politician and limit playing chess tournament. He was member of the 6th, 7th and 8th Russian State Dumas. Before this, he won a lot of top chess tournaments.
In Sept 2009, he dropped out of the Top 100 FIDE rating list. In addition, he has been involved in several disputes with FIDE. After a year he filed candidacy for FIDE president but lost to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with 95 votes to 55.
He is also known to have large chess stamp and chess book collections. He has a private chess library with more than 9,000 books.
There are 4043 games listed in the chessbase.
Let’s look of his best games which feature in our GMG page.
