GMAnatoly Karpov

Anatoly Karpov was born in Zlatoust in the Urals in 1951 and learned chess at four. At twelve he entered Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. He later worked closely with Semyon Furman and moved to Leningrad, where he graduated in economics. He won the European Junior Championship in 1967 and the World Junior Championship in 1969. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1969 and the Grandmaster title in 1970.

Karpov won the 1974 Candidates matches, defeating Lev Polugaevsky, Boris Spassky and Viktor Korchnoi. When Bobby Fischer declined to defend the championship under FIDE’s conditions, Karpov became world champion in 1975. He defended the title against Korchnoi in 1978 and 1981. His first championship match with Garry Kasparov was stopped without a result after forty-eight games in 1985. Kasparov won their new match later that year and retained the title in their subsequent contests in 1986, 1987 and 1990.

During the split in the world championship, Karpov held FIDE’s title from 1993 to 1999, winning title matches against Jan Timman, Gata Kamsky and Viswanathan Anand. At Linares in 1994 he scored eleven points from thirteen games without defeat, finishing two and a half points clear of Kasparov and Alexei Shirov. He also won three Soviet championships. Beyond tournament play, he wrote instructional books and assembled a substantial collection of stamps and chess books. He was elected to Russia’s State Duma in 2011.