In the previous issue we began to discuss the career of Anatoly Karpov. When Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title in 1975, Karpov became the 12th World Champion, and as he did not defeat Fischer in a match, he wanted to prove that he is a worthy champion and became one of the most active world champions in the history of chess. In the ten years that he was world champion, he played an incredible number of tournaments.
Although his style can be described as strategic, there is no denying that he was also a tactician. Many of his attacking games are well known and well worth studying and I would like to show you a number of wonderful fragments from games, in which he annihilates his opponents.
Remarkably, some of his combinations aim to emphasize strategic advantages after sacrificing material. Karpov was a fine positional player, who knew how to use active pieces to attack.
The most striking example of this is his exchange sacrifice against Vlastimil Hort. In the position shown in the diagram below White played the obvious exchange sacrifice 17.Rxf5+ gxf5 18.Qxf5+ Ke7 19.Qe4 Re8. But how to proceed now? What would you play with White in this position? How can White quickly mobilize all his pieces?
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