Karpov Diem: Happy 65th birthday, Tolya!

Alexander Roshal, a master rated around 2430, played some blitz games against an 11-year-old boy while his students stood crowded around kibitzing. After he had lost the first game, Roshal asked the students to tell him what he had done wrong – turning the game into a didactic lesson for them. After losing three more he again asked his students to identify the mistakes he had made. "Why did I lose?" he asked one and all. Anatoly Karpov, his opponent, humbly quipped: "Perhaps, because I am a better player than you?"

A description of the young Anatoly Karpov by the editor of the Russian chess magazine "64 and former chess trainer Alexander Roshal, who died in 2007. Listen to his tale, recorded by Frederic Friedel. It is priceless.

Anatoly Karpov, fondly called 'Tolya', was born in Zlatoust in the erstwhile USSR on May 23, 1951, and learned the rules of chess at the age of four. He was already a Candidate Master at eleven, an International Master at eighteen and a year later, achieved the Grandmaster title.

Anatoly Karpov before defending the black pieces against Ulf Andersson in 1974

He beat Spassky in the Candidates Semi-Final Match and then later beat Korchnoi in the Candidates Final Match, both in 1974, earning the right to challenge Bobby Fischer for the world title in 1975. The match, sadly, never took place as Fischer defaulted, leaving Karpov as the twelfth World Champion.

Spassky won the first game but lost the match 7.0-4.0, allowing Karpov to set up a clash with Korchnoi, which as history would have it, became the de facto world title match

What would you do here, especially with your knight on c3?

Karpov being Karpov decides to shoo away the knight on b4 with Nb1 followed by c3. 'Undeveloping' the knight on c3 is not the first move to leap to mind and shows his creativity.

Karpov-Spassky, Candidates SF 1974 (Notes by GM Mihail Marin)

Candidates Final 1974: Karpov raced to a supposedly insurmountable three-game lead in the first seventeen games but later faltered in the end, only to win by a single point's margin

Karpov - Korchnoi (Candidates final, 1974)

White to play and win

The idea of placing the d4 knight on e2 and overprotecting the c3 knight with Rd3 in the Sicilian Dragon was considered novel at the time. How would you proceed to dismantle Black from this position?

Karpov - Unzicker (Nice Olympiad, 1974)

White to play

Karpov was slowly creating the mythos of his vicious 'boa constrictor grip' — that is, once you enter Karpov land, you are as good as dead.

When FIDE declared Fischer forfeited, Karpov became the 12th World Chess Champion, the youngest since Mikhail Tal in 1960. But the fact remained that Karpov had won the crown without defeating the reigning champion in a match. Although most in the elite circles were convinced that Anatoly was just very strong for his time, there was no dearth of doubting Thomases.

Anatoly was determined to prove his superiority and legitimacy as the World Champion, and hence, in the period between 1975 and 1985, he virtually participated in every tournament there was on offer, crushing, if not just winning, most of the tournaments in his way. He registered a first of a kind world record until it was broken by Garry, with his phenomenal streak of nine tournament victories, decimating the strongest players of the time. As to his total tournament victories, numbering over 170(!), it is a record for grandmaster play.

Karpov - Csom (Bad Lauterberg, 1974)

White to play and win

In this period of clear dominance, in 1978, Karpov defended his title for the first time against Korchnoi at Baguio in the Philippines. He won with six wins, five losses and twenty-one draws. Three years later Korchnoi re-emerged as the challenger, and this time, Karpov won the match in Merano, Italy, handily with a six wins, two losses, and ten draws.

Korchnoi-Karpov (World Championship, 1978)

See if you can decide Black's best move here

White just played 62.Kf4 leaving his bishop hanging on d6. Of course Karpov smells a rat, but what if White miscalculated?

Karpov finally meets his match

Karpov remained the undisputed King of the chess world for a decade, when another Soviet phenom Garry Kasparov rose to the challenge, becoming the title contender for the infamous 1984 World Championship match.

Kasparov - Karpov (World Championship, Game 6, 1984)

Position after 20...Qa5

Karpov was so original and uninhibited in his strategic play, that it is no wonder his contemporaries were unable to figure out how to play him. Take a look at this position where his 20...Qa5 brought on the board almost all his pieces on the a-file. He won of course.

Karpov amassed a commanding lead of five points over his younger rival, needing to hit one last nail in the coffin — just one point — to become champion again. However, Kasparov just wouldn't give up, eventually scaling back with two consecutive victories in games 47 and 48. The match was abandoned after forty-eight games, amidst a lot of ruckus and mudslinging. Karpov was still leading 5-3, with forty draws, but the match had dragged on for five months.

The return match was held in London and Leningrad in 1985, and instead of a first to score
six victories policy, FIDE adopted a more 'humane' 24-game match system

Kasparov has been vocal in crediting Karpov as the reason behind the increase in his own standard of play. The match was very close with Kasparov dethroning his illustrious rival 12.5-11.5, but not before this beautiful victory by Karpov that was hailed by experts across the world as 'a light square symphony'.

Karpov - Kasparov (World Championship, game 4, 1985)

Master Class Vol.7: Garry Kasparov

On this DVD a team of experts gets to the bottom of Kasparov's play. In over 8 hours of video running time the authors Rogozenko, Marin, Reeh and Müller cast light on four important aspects of Kasparov's play: opening, strategy, tactics and endgame.

Karpov and Kasparov's rivalry continued to capture the imagination of the chess world until 1990 when they had already played a total of five epic World Championship matches — Moscow 1984, Moscow 1985, London and Leningrad 1986, Seville 1987, and New York and Lyon 1990. In their five world championship matches, Karpov scored 19 wins, 21 losses, and 104 draws in 144 games.

After the split between Kasparov and FIDE, which resulted in the creation of the Professional Chess Association (PCA), Karpov took his chance to win the "FIDE World Championship" in 1992 by beating Jan Timman, who had lost the Candidates match against Nigel Short, the challenger of the reigning champion Garry Kasparov.

Although Karpov had already passed his peak, his powers were never in doubt

The strength of the twelfth edition of the Linares super tournament was awe-inspiring for the time, so much so that it propelled Garry Kasparov to comment that the winner could consider himself the world champion of tournament chess.

Karpov won with 11.0/13 and scored a rating performance of 2985, that stood for almost two decades until Carlsen took it down with his 3002 performance at Nanjing 2009. He finished a clear 2.5 points ahead of Kasparov. Watch this game where he delivers a 'Karpov Masterclass' to the young Topalov.

Karpov - Topalov (Linares, 1994)

White to play and win

In one of the all-time greatest performances, Karpov here finishes in beauty against Veselin Topalov, 19 years old, and world no. 20.

Karpov defended his FIDE title against Gata Kamsky in 1996. After that FIDE scrapped the old system of Candidates' matches, instead having a large knock-out competition for the title. In the first of these events, in 1998, Karpov was seeded straight into the final and defeated our own Viswanathan Anand. In the subsequent cycle, the format was changed, with the champion having to qualify. Karpov refused to defend his title and ceased to be FIDE World Champion after the FIDE World Chess Championship of 1999.

Karpov - Topalov (Dos Hermanos, 1994)

White to play and win

Topalov received a bolt from the blue at Dos Hermanes 1994. It was this form that would take Karpov to 2780.

Karpov is no longer active in competitive chess and usually limits his play to exhibition events at rapid time controls. In 2002, he won a rapid chess match against Kasparov 2½-1½, and in 2006, he tied for first with Kasparov in a blitz tournament, ahead of Korchnoi and Judit Polgár. Karpov and Kasparov played a mixed 12-game match in 2009, in Valencia, Spain, which Kasparov won 9-3. Karpov played a match against Yasser Seirawan in 2012 in St Louis, Missouri, an important center of the North American chess scene, with Anatoly Karpov winning the match 8–6.  In November 2012, he won the Cap d'Agde rapid tournament which bears his name (Anatoly Karpov Trophy) by beating Vassily Ivanchuk (ranked 9th in the October 2012 FIDE world rankings) in the final.

Master Class Vol.6: Anatoly Karpov

On this DVD a team of experts looks closely at the secrets of Karpov's games. In more than 7 hours of video, the authors examine four essential aspects of Karpov's superb play.