Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov, PhDis a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once again after Kasparov broke away from FIDE in 1993. He held the title until 1999, when he resigned his title in protest against FIDE's new world championship rules. For his decades-long standing...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionChess Player
Date of Birth23 May 1951
CountryRussian Federation
Like dogs who sniff each other when meeting, chess players have a ritual at first acquaintance: they sit down to play speed chess.
To be champion requires more than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well.
The first great chess players, including the world champion, got by perfectly well without constant coaches.
By all means examine the games of the great chess players, but don't swallow them whole. Their games are valuable not for their separate moves, but for their vision of chess, their way of thinking.
If, in our first match for the world champion's title, I had managed to make the score 6-0, there would have been no Kasparov as a good chess player at all.
I didn't know so well chess theory, the theory of chess openings. And so, of course I knew the theory, but not on the level of the best players, so this was my... this was always my weakness.
Russia is a state within a state. To understand the population of Russia, you need to know the areas of the country; you need an understanding of the people and their interests.
I didn't picture myself as even a grandmaster, to say nothing of aspiring to the chess crown. This was not because I was timid - I wasn't - but because I simply lived in one world, and the grandmasters existed in a completely different one. People like that were not really even people, but like gods or mythical heroes.
But how difficult it can be to gain the desired full point against an opponent of inferior strength, when this is demanded by the tournament position!
My studies with Botvinnik brought me immense benefit, particularly the homework assignments which forced me to refer to chess books and to work independently.
Furman astounded me with his chess depth, a depth which he revealed easily and naturally, as if all he were doing was establishing well-known truths.
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
Blunders rarely travel alone.
I have found after 1.d4 there are more opportunities for richer play.