Anatoly Karpov speaks his mind

The full interview as submitted is given below. It was conducted by the organisers of the Mainz Chess Classic where Karpov will attend a special celebration in August honoring the 80-year-old Wolfgang Unzicker. Together with Boris Spassky, Viktor Kortchnoi and Unzicker he will play a double round robin rapid tournament, the "Unzicker Gala80" on August 9 and 10, 2005 in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz, Germany.

• Kasparov knocked himself out and became a victim of his own pitiful diplomacy. After that he stepped back from chess which is not good for chess in general at all.

• Even a dickhead would do a better job than Ilyumzhinov. The chaos in the chess world is caused by “leaders” who are unable to do their job properly.

• Ilyumzhinov must go as soon as possible, also the rest of his gang, who are plundering FIDE.

• It is absurd to have people like Zurab Azmaiparashvili in the FIDE team, who is attacking policemen like a madman, or the convicted Indian Ummer Koya.

• When Ilyumzhinov found out that the world championship title and the names of Karpov and Kasparov were far more interesting than the name of the president of FIDE, he decided to devaluate the title, because he could not deal with the fact that others are more popular. Well, he succeeded, but unfortunately he destroyed chess as well.

• People knew about 110 years of chess history. Nowadays, nobody is able to tell you the name of the world champion of 2000.

• I hope that Bobby Fischer is safe in Iceland now. I am very happy that this story in Japan has ended peacefully for him. This whole fuss did not only damage Fischer’s image, but that of the USA as well.

• My relations with Kortchnoi depend on whether he has slept well. If he had bad dreams, he speaks a lot of rubbish.

Interview with Anatoly Karpov
“Even a dickhead will do a better job than Ilyumzhinov”

By Hartmut Metz – translation by Eric van Reem

Anatoly Karpov is still able to fill headlines. The UNICEF ambassador is engaged in a project involving children who are suffering from iodine deficiency. He has more than 50 chess schools worldwide and he is also working for his own cause: Anatoly Karpov is one of the candidates to follow in the footsteps of the unpopular president of the world chess federation FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The European Chess Union (ECU) is positioning the chess legend against the president of the Republic of Kalmykia. Although we hardly see the 54-year old ex-world champion at the board nowadays, Karpov still loves the game. On August 9 and 10 (starting at 16.00) Karpov will play in the Unzicker Gala, celebrating the 80th birthday of Wolfgang Unzicker in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz. Not only the grandmaster from Munich will participate, Boris Spassky and Viktor Kortchnoi will complete the field.

Karpov: No, I am still playing.

Karpov: Correct: I won my 161st international tournament. In Burdeos I won the decisive game against the strong player Hichem Hamdouchi from Morocco. France seems to be a good spot for me to play. Last year I won my 160th tournament in France as well, in Aix-en-Provence to be precise.

Karpov: I still love to play chess. So I do not even spend a minute on the possibility to step back.

Karpov during a recent simultaneous chess event in Baden Baden, Germany

Karpov: I guess that his own political stratagems with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov exhausted him. He changed his point of view at least three times. At a certain point he was a good friend of the FIDE president, a short time later he was his fiercest enemy, but a month later they were on good terms again. Kasparov even travelled to Kalmykia to negotiate about his last chance to play in the world championship cycle, but Ilyumzhinov cheated on him once more and after that they were enemies again. In the end he knocked himself out and became a victim of his own pitiful diplomacy. After that, Kasparov stepped back from chess which is, and I want this to be clear, not good for chess in general at all. As a whole, the current situation in the chess world leaves a lot to be desired.

Karpov: Of course, even a dickhead would do a better job than Ilyumzhinov. The situation can not become worse anymore, so it would be rather easy to improve in the beginning. The chaos in the chess world is caused by these “leaders” who are unable to do their job properly. The priority must be the unification of the world titles to straighten things out. But we should not wait that long anymore to change the situation, because we are running out of time.

Karpov: No, no, it is obvious that the ECU should act as a close alliance for the benefit of chess. At the moment it is more than clear for everybody that Ilyumzhinov must go as soon as possible. But not only he should pack his bags, also the rest of his gang, who are plundering FIDE. The problem is that you never can tell if these FIDE officials are telling the truth or are lying in your face again. Of course, the latter is mostly the case. It is far more difficult to catch them telling the truth (smiles).

Karpov: Let us not discuss this. One thing, however, is very clear: we need a new FIDE president and a new FIDE team. It is absurd to have people like Zurab Azmaiparashvili in the team, who is attacking policemen like a madman, or the convicted Indian Ummer Koya. And what about the arrested Romanian Crisan? A nice bunch of people, don’t you think? It is no surprise that chess has a bad image nowadays. We have to change it and we should not forget that chess also has something positive to offer. I am thinking about chess in schools in particular. In the USA more than 3200 children competed in an event. In Kansas I have a chess school. Children can take lessons in that school via the Internet and can score extra points like e.g. in Geography or History. That sounds very promising and is a fantastic basis for future steps.

Karpov: That is not an easy question to answer. I have to admit that I do not know exactly how many schools I run. Last year I opened a few new schools. In Lithuania alone I opened no less than three schools. I have 25 schools in Russia at the moment. I think that you can find schools in more than 20 countries worldwide. More than 50 schools, I would say.

Karpov: Yes, next year we will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Only in Russia I started earlier with my schools. Baden-Baden meant a breakthrough in the globalization of the project. At first nobody could imagine that it would make sense to make chess an integral part of the education, but fortunately that point of view has changed.

Karpov: In particular, I am busy fighting iodine deficiency with children. As a result they stay behind in their development, which often occurs in many of the 29 Eastern European countries I am working for as UNICEF ambassador. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of the countries constituted a law to improve the situation for these children. According to the latest statistics these countries do not only slowly gain up on the standards in Western Europe, but have overtaken them. Bulgaria is the first state that has been awarded for its excellent fight against iodine deficiency by UNICEF. Next year we should have reached all our goals, so than I have to find another challenge. I like to do projects in which you can see statistical results. I am very happy for all these small children, who have been the biggest group of victims of iodine deficiency.

Karpov: It is not attractive for me to play here. I do not like the Bundesliga system with two games in one weekend – in particular playing on an early Sunday morning! You spend more time travelling than sitting at the board and actually play. No, I do not want to sacrifice four days for two games. My time is too valuable to do that.

Karpov: Now you are asking me a really difficult question (smiles). I don’t know. Ok, Kasimdzhanov won this tournament, this KO tourney. I do not want to devalue him of course, but he is not the real world champion. I want to give you an example to show you the value of a world champion nowadays: Alexander Khalifman received a few invitations after he became world champion and he played in Linares. After the tournament he gave interviews in which he said that he was happy not to have landed on the last place! You see, it is obvious that the title you win in a KO event is not attractive, which is exactly what Ilyumzhinov wanted! In the beginning he had some good and clear goals. But when he found out that the world championship title and the names of Karpov and Kasparov were far more interesting than the name of the president of FIDE, he decided to devaluate the title, because he could not deal with the fact that others are more popular. Well, he succeeded, but unfortunately he destroyed chess as well. Maybe he is happy now, but many others are not so happy about the situation. We need strong personalities and only one world champion to attract sponsors.

Karpov: Exactly. I am convinced that Kasimdzhanov would never have become world champion if he had played eight or more games per round. In Tripoli he showed some good nerves, but that is not enough to deserve the title. First of all, we have to go back to the classical time control. It is not a good thing however to play marathon matches like the ones I played against Kortchnoi or Kasparov. Besides, classical chess should not be mixed with rapid chess or even blitz. If we had played like this in the past, Mikhail Botvinnik or Boris Spassky would have never become world champions.

Karpov: You are right. People knew about 110 years of chess history. Nowadays, nobody is able to tell you the name of the world champion of 2000.

Karpov: Oh yes, I have known Wolfgang for a very long time, despite the fact that he is from another generation. The first time we played was in Hastings, in the early seventies. In 1974 we met in Nice, during the Chess Olympiad. Unzicker was one of the best chess players in the world so everybody needs to know who he is. Even very young masters should analyse his games. I was really surprised when I heard that he is already 80 years old!

Karpov: That is possible, for a certain period he was one of the strongest amateurs, no doubt about it. It is difficult however to make comparisons. The Icelandic grandmaster Fridrik Olafsson, who worked as a lawyer, was as strong as Unzicker, but he is from another generation.

Karpov: I like the tournament. I haven’t played Spassky and Kortchnoi for a while. And the last encounter with Wolfgang was played 25 years ago in Bad Kissingen.

Karpov: I hope that he is safe in Iceland now. I am very happy that this story in Japan has ended peacefully for him. This whole fuss did not only damage Fischer’s image, but that of the USA as well. The way the Americans treated one of their most popular citizens did not make a positive impression worldwide.

Karpov: I would love to play Chess960 with Fischer. It is not necessary to spend ages preparing some opening variations, because there is just no theory. It is important to be in good shape and to have a clear mind. Than you can play a match with Fischer and you can even beat him. I doubt however that we will ever play a match. It will only be possible if Fischer desperately needs the money.

Karpov: It depends on whether he has slept well. If he had bad dreams, he speaks a lot of rubbish.

Karpov: This tournament is all about Wolfgang, it is not important if I win another tourney! It will be a great gift for the fans to be able to watch grandmasters, great grandmasters from different generations and to see exciting games.