Anatoly Karpov

Anatoli Yevgenevich Kárpov (Russian: Анатолий Евгеньевич Карпов /ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf/; Zlatoúst, Russia, Soviet Union; 23 May 1995) is an international chess grandmaster, world champion between 1975 and 1985, and FIDE version world champion between 1993 and 1999.

To his credit is having played ten world title finals, having been world champion for 16 years, as well as having won more than 160 solo tournaments or sharing first place.

His best Elo rating is 2780, achieved in July 1994. Karpov has won the USSR chess championship three times, in 1976 and 1983 alone and in 1988, when he shared first place with Garri Kasparov. He has won the Chess Oscar nine times.

It was for 38 years (from 1971 to 2009) among the top 100 in the world. In August 2015 he was ranked 159th in the world on the FIDE list with an Elo rating of 2628, and number 32 in Russia.

In addition to being a professional chess player, he studied economics and has a PhD in economics; He is currently an honorary professor at the Moscow Higher International Business School.

A notable event in Anatoly Karpov's life was that he and Garry Kasparov agreed to donate $650,000 from the prize money from the 1986 world title match to the Chernobyl Victims Relief Foundation.

Biography

Early career

Kárpov in 1967.

His career was successful from an early age. He became the youngest national master of the Soviet Union in 1966 at the age of 15 by scoring 10 points (+5-0=10) in the tournament held in Leningrad between a team of masters and a team of master candidates.. A curious fact was his first participation in an international tournament. The Czechoslovak federation requested, in 1966, the Soviet federation 2 chess players to participate in a tournament in Trinec and there was an error on the part of the latter, in which they thought it was a tournament for youth, so they sent Anatoli Karpov and Kupreichik. The event organizers realized the mistake when it was too late to make changes and let the 2 play, taking first and second place. Karpov was first with 11 points and Kupreichik second (tied) with 9.5 points. In 1969 he won the world junior championship played in Stockholm and the following year, he achieved the international grandmaster norm by placing fourth in an international tournament in Caracas.

At the age of 12, he entered the recently founded chess school of former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik; however, in 1968 he met Leningrad-based chess coach Semyon Furman. The relationship between the two was so close that it led Karpov to request his transfer from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of the University of Moscow to the Faculty of Economics of the University of Leningrad. This relationship bore many fruits, as Furman discovered Karpov's great talent and knew better than anyone how to cultivate it.

The following years saw a rapid consolidation and in 1973 he placed second in the Soviet championship and first in the interzonal tournament in Leningrad, which gave him the right to participate in the Candidates Tournament for the world title. After beating Lev Polugayevski in the quarterfinals (+3 = 5 -0), he had to face former world champion Boris Spaski, whom he defeated convincingly and against all odds (+4 = 6 -1). In the final, he edged out Víktor Korchnoi by a very close 12.5-11.5 (+3 = 19 -2).

World Champion 1975-1985

Winning the Candidates Tournament gave him the right to face Bobby Fischer for the world crown; But the resignation of the American to defend his title made him in 1975 the 12th world champion without having to play a game. This situation led him to prove that he was indeed the strongest player in the world and not a "paper champion", an objective that he fulfilled with full success defending his title in Baguio in 1978 (+6 =21 -5, World Chess Championship 1978) in Merano 1981 (+6 =10 -2, World Chess Championship 1981) against Víktor Korchnói with results of 6-5 and 6-2 respectively (tables did not count). In addition, he won countless tournaments and was the undisputed leader until the appearance of Garri Kasparov, with whom he would face for more than a decade in a rivalry as strong and passionate as few in the history of the sport.

It is necessary to mention that despite being world champion in that period, there was also a stagnation in Kárpov, because he was far superior to his rivals and did not develop his full potential. Although he is considered a great strategist, being unmatched in finals, he did not develop strongly in the opening stage and had he had to play the match with Fischer, he would have had an extraordinary opponent, who would have made him work as hard as he did afterwards. with Kasparov. This is summed up in that Karpov lost the best years of his life to fully develop his potential.

Another event that greatly influenced Karpov's stagnation was Furman's death in 1978, because he was literally his chess father, so he had no head coach who could guide him (as Furman did) for the 1978 match against Korchnoi and it is very likely that this was the reason for such a narrow win.

Anatoli Kárpov in 1979.

The unplayed game of 1975 and the consequences for Karpov

Regarding the 1975 world championship that was not played, it must be said that although many connoisseurs consider Bobby Fischer the best player of all time; Karpov, in Kasparov's view, was the leader of a new generation of chess players who had changed the understanding of openings as well as convincingly defeated Polugayevsky and Spassky. In addition, Fischer had not played any official match since he won the title (he had not played for 3 years), and he worked alone, while Kárpov had all the grandmasters of the USSR to help him. This led Fischer to be afraid of not knowing how to prepare for the match and eventually gave up defending his title. In the words of Kárpov, in 1975 Fischer's chances of winning would have been 60%, however his chess progressed a lot in 1976 (largely due to having assimilated everything he studied for the match not held) and that in said year the odds were even. In his opinion, in 1977 he was already superior to Fischer. If the aforementioned duel had taken place, these hypothetical scenarios could have occurred:

• Fischer defeated Kárpov in 1975, but he won the candidate tournament and defeated him in 1978. In 1981, they were confronted again and Kárpov defeated him convincingly.
• Fischer closely defeats Kárpov in 1975, as this happens, Fischer is forced to play actively and struggle incarnately to be the undisputed number one. Kárpov, for his part, did the same thing; he won the candidate tournament and tied in 1978 so Fischer retained the title. In 1981, they were confronted again and Kárpov defeated him convincingly.
• Fischer defeats Kárpov on a narrow margin in 1975, as this happens, Fischer is forced to play actively and struggle in the face of being the indisputed number one. Kárpov, for his part, does the same; he wins the candidate tournament and defeats him in 1978. In 1981, they were confronted again and Kárpov defeated him convincingly.
• Kárpov defeats Fischer in 1975, Fischer is forced to play actively, wins the candidate tournament. In this scenario Kárpov works stronger than ever to be superior to Fischer to retain the title. Kárpov managed to win very tightly in 1978. Fischer is placed in the next candidate tournament but loses more convincingly in 1981.

Ultimately, any of these scenarios would have resulted in Karpov reaching his maximum potential and entering the age of 30, very hardened by the encounters with Fischer, which would have allowed him to lose the title in 1990 to Kasparov (Kasparov himself would have had to overcome Fischer as Karpov's challenger). It is worth mentioning that Tibor Károlyi exposes in the preface of his book: & # 34; Kárpov & # 39; s Strategic Wins 2: The Prime Years 1986-2009 & # 34; that only after losing the title (from the age of 34) is when Kárpov plays his best chess; working harder than ever to recover his title, thus reinforcing the hypothesis presented in this section.

Apart from these hypotheses, the reality is that Kárpov always wanted to win the title by playing and it is very evident how frustrated he is when he was crowned world champion by the FIDE president, Max Euwe. Kárpov held three clandestine meetings (so as not to have problems with the USSR authorities) with Fischer to negotiate the possibility of a meeting: Tokyo, Madrid-Córdoba and Washington, between 1976 and 1977. The result of these meetings was that Fischer always made it difficult the same, because deep down, after having won the championship title, he was afraid of losing and this was a psychological factor that was working against him.

1984 World Championship, rivalry with Kasparov: 1984-1990

In 1984, he had to defend his title against Kasparov and after a controversial cancellation of the game by the FIDE president, Florencio Campomanes, after more than five months of play (after leading Karpov 5-0, the contender was approached 5-3 by winning games 47 and 48 consecutively [+5 =40 -3]; World Chess Championship 1984-85), kept the crown until November 9, 1985, when he was beaten by Kasparov (+ 5 =16 -3; World Chess Championship 1985). After this, he played three very tight matches, losing two and drawing one: in Leningrad 1986 by 12.5-11.5 (+5 =15 -4, World Chess Championship 1986), in Seville 1987 12-12 (+4 = 12 -4; the champion, Kasparov, kept the title in case of a tie; World Chess Championship 1987) and in New York-Lyon 1990 12.5-11.5 (+4 =11 -3; World Chess Championship 1990). During this period, Karpov and Kasparov were the only 2 active players to exceed the 2700 Elo barrier.

It is good to note that the big loser from the cancellation of the 1984 game was Karpov, since he only had to win one game, while Kasparov needed three more victories. As support, one can cite the game in Baguio 1978, in which Kárpov, after winning 5-2, loses games number 28 and 29 consecutively, draws number 30 and loses number 31, leaving the game tied 5-5.. It is at that moment when Kárpov draws strength from weakness and prevails by winning game number 32. From this follows the hypothesis that Kárpov could have won game number 49 of the 1984 game and would have remained champion, at least until 1987..

Period of disappointment and recovery of the title of world champion in 1993

After nearly recapturing the title in 1987 (he was leading by one point until he lost the final game to a tie) and narrowly lost the 1990 game, Karpov fell into a period of disillusionment and discouragement because he thought he could not recover the title. In 1991 he played a close match against Anand, which he narrowly won in game eight. In 1992 he lost against all odds against Nigel Short 4-6 in Linares. However, after the schism at the world chess summit he created two world championships, when Kasparov separated from the International Federation. FIDE disputed the world championship final between Jan Timman, finalist of the candidates' tournament, and the previous world champion, ie Karpov. This reawakened Karpov's will to fight and he regained the title in 1993 in the match against Jan Timman in Jakarta. This new title, however, was not comparable to the one he held until 1985, precisely because of the divided atmosphere in which it is generated, since Kasparov continued to hold number one in the ranking with an Elo rating of 2815, while Kárpov had 2760.

Period from 1994 to 1999

At this time, his greatest success is considered his performance in the 1994 Linares tournament, the strongest in history up to that moment, and where he prevailed with a margin of 2.5 points over the second (Kasparov and Shirov). His result of 11/13, with an elo performance of 2985, in a tournament with an elo average of 2685 is the strongest recorded in history until the triumph of Magnus Carlsen in the 2009 Pearl Spring Tournament, who also prevailed with a margin of 2.5 points over the second (Veselin Topalov) with an elo performance of 3002, in a tournament with an elo average of 2764. The victory in Linares allowed him to value his title of World Chess Champion, Fide version, demonstrating, again, that he was not a champion on paper, in addition to rekindling interest in a new match against Kasparov World Chess Champion, PCA version, for the reunification of the World Chess Champion Title.

After Linares 1994 he did not win any of the top tournaments, however his performances are still considered worthy of his caliber; much of this is due to his foray into Russian politics and many other activities outside of chess as well as excessive playing, not taking time between tournaments to prepare or simply to rest. Some even with this justify Kárpov's defeat against Short in the candidates' tournament. The above, added to his 43 years and not having incorporated computer analysis to develop new opening ideas are the reasons for his decline from 1994, when he began to be surpassed by a new generation of grandmasters such as Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, all of them world champions in the first decade of the new millennium. Either way, he defended his title again in 1996 against Gata Kamsky winning it by an unquestionable +6 -3 = 9. Although he maintained the FIDE title in December 1996, he was last in the Las Palmas super tournament, where the strongest players of the moment participated (1 Kasparov, 2 Anand, 3-4 Topalov and Kramnik, 5-6 Ivanchuk and Kárpov), without winning any game. This caused the sponsors to lose interest in a sixth meeting with Kasparov, to be played in 1997, to reunify the title.

In 1998 he revalidated the FIDE title against Viswanathan Anand, in a disputed and eventful clash, where they tied in the 6 regulation games (+2 -2 =2) and finally Kárpov prevailed in the rapid games (+2-0).

Finally, in 1999 he refused to defend his FIDE title due to incompatibility of opinions and gradually moved away from the top of the official ranking; To illustrate his decline, it can be mentioned that between 1986 and 1995 he was second in the world ranking, behind Kasparov; in 1996 and 1997 he was third behind Kasparov and Kramnik; he started 1998 as sixth and 1999 as tenth.

Period from 2000 to 2009

He began the 2000s as No. 11 in the world and ended the decade by breaking out of the top 100 in September 2009.

Period from 2010 to present

Although he is no longer in the top 100 in the world, Karpov continues to participate especially in rapid chess tournaments, in which he shows no decline. As an example, we can cite that he won the Cap d'Agde Rapid tournament in 2011, defeating Vasili Ivanchuk in the final. of the world.

Style of Play

The first chess book he studied was Panov's book on Capablanca, which is why he was initially heavily influenced by José Raúl Capablanca. He too, like Tigrán Petrosián, is a prophylaxis genius, but unlike the latter, he does not wait for the opponent's carelessness, but plays actively.

Due to his purely positional play and the conclusions he reached after the 1985 and 1986 championships, he prefers, when opening with White, to play d4 or c4. With Black he mostly answers e4 with the Caro Kann, of which he is a great specialist. Players have had a lot of trouble when trying to respond to his initial d4 throw with the Grünfeld Defense, as he is a great specialist at neutralizing Grünfeld's defense.

Vladímir Krámnik described the following about Kárpov's style, regarding the game he lost with him in the 1994 Linares tournament: "I had a slightly lower end, but not at all worrisome; after making normal plays, I was in a losing position. I admit that after the game I couldn't understand what had happened and that I was in the top ten. It was one of those games where I felt like an idiot, like I didn't know anything about chess. That is something that very rarely happens to elite players, since at least one is capable of recognizing the reasons for defeat. These games are hard to describe. There is something in them that cannot be understood, a kind of Kárpovian" spirit.

Memorable Games

• Anatoli Kárpov vs Yevgeni Gik, University of Moscow Championship 1968
• Jan Smejkal vs Anatoli Kárpov, Leningrad Interzonal Tournament 1973
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Lev Polugayevski, Final quarters Encounter of candidates 1974, departure 6
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Borís Spasski, Semifinal Meeting of candidates 1974, departure 9
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Víktor Korchnoi, Final of candidates 1974, item 2
• Stefano Tatai vs Anatoli Kárpov, Las Palmas 1977
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Víktor Korchnoi, 1978 World Championship, game 14
• Jan Timman vs Anatoli Kárpov, Montreal 1979
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Garri Kaspárov, 1984 World Championship, game 9
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Garri Kaspárov, 1985 World Championship, game 22
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Garri Kaspárov, 1986 World Championship, game 5
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Andréi Sokolov, Super final of candidates 1987, departure 10
• Garri Kaspárov vs Anatoli Kárpov, 1987 World Championship, game 16
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Garri Kaspárov, 1987 World Championship, game 23
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Garri Kaspárov, 1990 World Championship, game 17
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Viswanathan Anand, Final quarters Candidates meeting 1991, departure 4
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Nigel Short, Semifinal Meeting of candidates 1992, departure 7
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Jan Timman, Fide World Championship 1993, game 6
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Veselin Topalov, Linares Tournament, 1994
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Vladímir Kramnik, Linares Tournament 1994
• Boris Gélfand vs Anatoli Kárpov, Final meeting of candidates 1995, departure 9
• Gata Kamski vs Anatoli Kárpov, World Fide Championship 1996, game 4
• Gata Kamski vs Anatoli Kárpov, Fide World Championship 1996, game 14
• Viswanathan Anand vs Anatoli Kárpov, Fide World Championship 1998, game 4
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Piotr Svidler, Two Sisters 1999
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Judit Polgár, Linares 2001
• Anatoli Kárpov vs Peter Léko, Cannes 2002

Games against other grandmasters

Only standard games are included; This list is the same as Anatoli Karpov's version of the English Wikipedia. The reference is +wins −loss =ties as of May 2, 2014.)
Unified world champions are highlighted in bold

• Michael Adams +2-1=6
• Vishwanathan Anand +5-11=29
• Boris Gélfand +10−8=20
• Vasili Ivanchuk +5−1=20
• Gata Kamski +11−5=16
• Garri Kaspárov +21−28=129
• Viktor Korchnoi +31−14=63
• Vladimir Krámnik +3−2=10
• Nigel Short +9−6=17
• Borís Spaski +14−2=23
• Veselin Topalov +4−5=12
• Mikhail Tal +1−1=19

Books

• Mosaic Chess (1981, Raduga)
• Learn from your defeats (1986, Editorial Gedisa)
• How to Win Against the Gruenfeld Defense (1989, Zugarto Ediciones)
• My final favourites (1992, Zugarto Ediciones)
• How to play open openings (1992, Zugarto Ediciones)
• How to play semi-open openings (1993, Zugarto Ediciones)
• How to play semi-closed openings (1993, Zugarto Ediciones)
• How to play closed openings (1993, Zugarto Ediciones)
• Elista Diaries Kárpov-Kamsky 1996 (1996, R & D Publishing)
• Super Chess (2000, Sprole)
• Chess learning and progressing (2007, Editorial Paidotribo)
• How to play the english opening (2007, BT Batsford)
• Find the right plan (2008, BT Batsford)
• Defense Ko Kann Volume 1 (2008, Tutor Editions)
• Defense Ko Kann Volume 2 (2008, Tutor Editions)
• Kárpov My Best Parts (2009, European Hispanic)
• Strategy in chess (2010, European Hispanic)

Activities outside of chess

Karpov also carried out other types of important activities, such as:

• Representative of the Congress of Russia
• Chairman of the International Peace Fund
• Chairman of the commission for the victims of Chernobyl.
• Ambassador UNICEF.

Acknowledgments

• Order of Lenin
• Red Flag of the Labour Order
• Honorary diploma of the Russian Parliament
• Decoration of the Russian Orthodox Church

2010 FIDE Presidential Candidate

In 2010 he ran as a candidate for the presidency of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), receiving support from his old rival Garri Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen, Nigel Short, among other elite players and from some federations, but he was not enough to defeat Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, losing the election 55-95.

Summary of periods as world champion