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56-533: In the Catalan, White adopts a combination of the Queen's Gambit and Réti Opening . White combines the space-gaining moves d4 and c4 with g3, preparing to fianchetto the king's bishop. This places pressure mainly on the queenside while hoping to keep the white king safe in the long-term. The c4-pawn can become vulnerable, however, and White might have to sacrifice a pawn. Black has two main approaches to play against

112-434: A " boa constrictor ", is solidly positional , taking minimal risks but reacting mercilessly to the slightest error by his opponent. As a result, he is often compared to José Raúl Capablanca , the third world champion. Karpov himself describes his style as follows: Let us say the game may be continued in two ways: one of them is a beautiful tactical blow that gives rise to variations that don't yield to precise calculations;

168-567: A candidate for the presidency of FIDE. The election took place in September 2010 at the 39th Chess Olympiad . In May, a fundraising event took place in New York with the participation of Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen, who both supported his bid and campaigned for him. Nigel Short also supported Karpov's candidacy. On September 29, 2010, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was reelected as president of FIDE, 95 votes to 55. Karpov's playing style, described as

224-548: A draw. After Kasparov won games 47 and 48, FIDE President Florencio Campomanes unilaterally terminated the match, citing the players' health. Karpov is said to have lost ten kilograms (22 lb) over the course of the match. A rematch was set for later in 1985, also in Moscow. The events of the Marathon Match forced FIDE to return to the previous format, with a match limited to 24 games (with Karpov remaining champion if

280-450: A few times before Tartakower's usage in the tournament, however: for instance, Réti – Leonhardt , Berlin 1928 transposed into an Open Catalan. The opening cemented itself in the repertoire of leading players of the 1930s and 1940s, such as world champions Jose Raul Capablanca , Alexander Alekhine and Mikhail Botvinnik , as well as top grandmasters such as Salo Flohr , Paul Keres and Samuel Reshevsky . The Catalan came to prominence at

336-476: A match against Kasparov, defeating him in a rapid time control match 2½–1½. 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 from September 21–24, 2009, in Valencia , Spain. It consisted of four rapid (or semi-rapid) and eight blitz games and took place exactly 25 years after the two players' legendary encounter at

392-638: A member of the Supreme Soviet Commission for Foreign Affairs and the president of the Soviet Peace Fund before the Soviet Union dissolved. In addition, he has been involved in several disputes with FIDE. In the September 2009 FIDE rating list, he dropped out of the world's Top 100 for the first time. Karpov usually limits his play to exhibition events, and has revamped his style to specialize in rapid chess. In 2002, he won

448-494: A much better player as a result. Determined to prove himself a legitimate champion, Karpov participated in nearly every major tournament for the next ten years. He convincingly won the Milan tournament in 1975, and captured his first of three Soviet titles in 1976. He created a phenomenal streak of tournament wins against the strongest players in the world. Karpov held the record for most consecutive tournament victories (9) until it

504-787: A peak Elo rating of 2780, and his 102 total months world number one is the third-longest of all time, behind Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov . Karpov is also an elected Member of the State Duma in Russia . Since 2006, he has chaired the Commission for Ecological Safety and Environmental Protection of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation , and since 2007 he has been a member of the Public Council under

560-482: A star-studded field, for his first significant adult victory. His Elo rating shot from 2540 in 1971 to 2660 in 1973, during which he shared second place in the 1973 Soviet championship , one point behind Spassky , and qualified for the Leningrad Interzonal. Karpov's world junior championship qualified him for one of the two Interzonals , a stage in the 1975 World Championship cycle to choose

616-637: A variation leading to an almost forced draw, and allowed Kasparov to adjourn the game with an extra pawn. After a further mistake in the second session, Karpov was slowly ground down and resigned on move 64, ending the match and allowing Kasparov to keep the title. In 1992, Karpov lost a Candidates Match against Nigel Short . But in the World Chess Championship 1993 , Karpov reacquired the FIDE World Champion title when Kasparov and Short split from FIDE. Karpov defeated Timman –

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672-638: Is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster , former World Chess Champion , ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 to 1985, a three-time FIDE World Champion (1993, 1996, 1998), twice World Chess champion as a member of the USSR team (1985, 1989), and a six-time winner of Chess Olympiads as a member of the USSR team (1972, 1974, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988). The International Association of Chess Press awarded him nine Chess Oscars (1973–77, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984). Karpov's chess tournament successes include over 160 first-place finishes. He had

728-404: Is considered possibly the finest of his career). This performance against the best players in the world put his Elo rating tournament performance at 2985, the highest performance rating of any player in history up until 2009, when Magnus Carlsen won the category XXI Pearl Spring chess tournament with a performance of 3002. Chess statistician Jeff Sonas considers Karpov's Linares performance

784-569: Is remembered as the "Massacre in Merano" . Karpov's tournament career reached a peak at the Montreal "Tournament of Stars" tournament in 1979, where he finished joint first (+7−1=10) with Mikhail Tal ahead of a field of strong grandmasters completed by Jan Timman , Ljubomir Ljubojević , Boris Spassky , Vlastimil Hort , Lajos Portisch , Robert Hübner, Bent Larsen and Lubomir Kavalek . He dominated Las Palmas in 1977 with 13½/15. He also won

840-685: The International Master title. In 1970, Karpov tied for fourth and fifth places with Pal Benko at an international tournament in Caracas , Venezuela, and earned the international grandmaster title. FIDE awarded him the title during its 41st congress, held during the Chess Olympiad in Siegen , West Germany in September 1970. Karpov won the 1971 Alekhine Memorial tournament in Moscow (jointly with Leonid Stein ), ahead of

896-532: The Tarrasch Defense are two important examples. (See Queen's Gambit Declined for more.) After 1.d4 d5 2.c4: If White chooses to fianchetto the king's bishop , the game transposes into the Catalan Opening . Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (Russian: Анатолий Евгеньевич Карпов , IPA: [ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf] ; born May 23, 1951)

952-620: The World Chess Championship 1984 . Kasparov won the match 9–3. Karpov played a match against Yasser Seirawan in 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri, an important center of the North American chess scene, winning 8–6 (+5−3=6). In November 2012, he won the Cap d'Agde rapid tournament that bears his name (Anatoly Karpov Trophy), beating Vasyl Ivanchuk (ranked 9th in the October 2012 FIDE world rankings) in

1008-549: The Candidates' cycle to face Fischer, and that he (Karpov) would win the following Candidates' cycle in 1977. Spassky won the first game as Black in good style, but tenacious, aggressive play from Karpov secured him overall victory by +4−1=6. The Candidates' final was played in Moscow with Victor Korchnoi . Karpov took an early lead, winning the second game against the Sicilian Dragon , then scoring another victory in

1064-676: The Catalan: in the Open Catalan Black plays ...dxc4 and can either try to hold on to the pawn with ...b5 or give it back for extra time to free their game. In the Closed Catalan, Black does not capture on c4; their game can be somewhat cramped for a while, but is quite solid . Additionally, Black has ways to avoid the Catalan. The Catalan has had proponents at the highest level in chess, with Vladimir Kramnik , Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen all employing

1120-563: The Ministry of Defence. Karpov was born into a Russian family on May 23, 1951, in Zlatoust , in the Urals region of the former Soviet Union, and learned to play chess at the age of four. His early rise in chess was swift, as he became a candidate master by age 11. At 12, he was accepted into Mikhail Botvinnik 's prestigious chess school, though Botvinnik made the following remark about

1176-552: The Queen's Gambit did not become commonplace until the 1873 tournament in Vienna . As Wilhelm Steinitz and Siegbert Tarrasch developed chess theory and increased the appreciation of positional play , the Queen's Gambit grew more popular, reaching its zenith in the 1920s and 1930s, and it was played in all but 2 of 34 games in the 1927 World Championship match between José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine . After

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1232-796: The United States, despite frequently visiting the country since 1972. Karpov had been scheduled to teach a summer camp at the Chess Max Academy. Dlugy said that Karpov had been questioned at the US embassy in Moscow about whether he planned to communicate with American politicians. Karpov was among the Russian State Duma members placed under sanctions by the EU and UK during the Russo-Ukrainian War . In March 2022, after

1288-508: The best tournament result in history. Karpov defended his FIDE title against the rising star Gata Kamsky (+6−3=9) in 1996. In 1998, FIDE largely scrapped the old system of Candidates' Matches, instead having a large knockout event in which a large number of players contested short matches against each other over just a few weeks. In the first of these events, the FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 , champion Karpov

1344-470: The board prize with 13/15. At Nice 1974 , he advanced to board one and again won the board prize with 12/14. At La Valletta 1980 , he was again board one and scored 9/12. At Lucerne 1982 , he scored 6½/8 on board one. At Dubai 1986 , he scored 6/9 on board two. His last was Thessaloniki 1988 , where on board two he scored 8/10. In Olympiad play, Karpov lost only two games out of 68 played. To illustrate Karpov's dominance over his peers as champion, his score

1400-863: The center to obtain freer development. In the QGD, Black usually plays to hold d5. Frequently Black will be cramped, but Black aims to exchange pieces and use pawn breaks at c5 and e5 to free Black's game. Technically, any Black response other than 2...dxc4 (or another line with an early ...dxc4 that transposes into the QGA) is a Queen's Gambit Declined, but the Slav, Albin Countergambit, and Chigorin Defense are generally treated separately. There are so many QGD lines after 2...e6 that many of them are distinctive enough to warrant separate treatment. The Orthodox Defense and

1456-407: The challenger to play world champion Bobby Fischer . He finished equal first in the Leningrad Interzonal, qualifying for the 1974 Candidates Matches . Karpov defeated Lev Polugaevsky by the score of +3=5 in the first Candidates' match, earning the right to face former champion Boris Spassky in the semifinal round. Karpov was on record saying that he believed Spassky would easily beat him and win

1512-562: The eighth game after seven draws to open the match. When the score was +5−2=20 in Karpov's favour, Korchnoi staged a comeback, and won three of the next four games to draw level with Karpov. Karpov then won the very next game to retain the title (+6−5=21). Three years later, Korchnoi reemerged as the Candidates' winner against German finalist Robert Hübner to challenge Karpov in Merano , Italy. Karpov handily won this match, 11–7 (+6−2=10), in what

1568-695: The final. In 2003, Karpov opened his first American chess school in Lindsborg, Kansas . On March 2, 2022, the school announced a name change to International Chess Institute of the Midwest due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine . Karpov has been a member of the sixth , seventh and eighth Russian State Dumas . Since 2005, he has been a member of the Public Chamber of Russia . He has involved himself in several humanitarian causes, such as advocating

1624-422: The loser of the Candidates' final against Short. The next major meeting of Kasparov and Karpov was the 1994 Linares chess tournament . The field, in eventual finishing order, was Karpov, Kasparov, Shirov , Bareev , Kramnik , Lautier , Anand , Kamsky , Topalov , Ivanchuk , Gelfand , Illescas , Judit Polgár , and Beliavsky ; with an average Elo rating of 2685, the highest ever at that time. Impressed by

1680-665: The match finished 12–12). Karpov needed to win the final game to draw the match and retain his title but lost, surrendering the title to his opponent. The final score was 13–11 (+3−5=16) in favour of Kasparov. Karpov remained a formidable opponent and the world No. 2 until the mid-1990s. He fought Kasparov in three more world championship matches in 1986 (held in London and Leningrad ), 1987 (in Seville ), and 1990 (in New York City and Lyon ). All three matches were extremely close:

1736-576: The match under the FIDE-approved rules. When Fischer did not agree, FIDE President Max Euwe declared on April 3, 1975, that Fischer had forfeited his title and Karpov was the new World Champion. Karpov later attempted to set up another match with Fischer, but the negotiations fell through. This thrust the young Karpov into the role of World Champion without having faced the reigning champion. Garry Kasparov argued that Karpov would have had good chances because he had beaten Spassky convincingly and

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1792-476: The match. Karpov built a 4–0 lead after nine games. The next 17 games were drawn, setting a record for world title matches, and it took Karpov until game 27 to gain his fifth win. In game 31, Karpov had a winning position but failed to take advantage and settled for a draw. He lost the next game, after which 14 more draws ensued. Karpov held a solidly winning position in Game 41, but again blundered and had to settle for

1848-438: The moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.Nf3 Be7. White sacrifices the pawn for a lead in development . Without a black pawn on d5, White's kingside bishop hinders Black's queenside development. The Open Catalan line has been a favorite of Anatoly Karpov and Efim Geller as Black and of Oleg Romanishin as White. Usually, White will recover the pawn with Qc2 and then a4, Ne5, or Qa4+. In order to hold

1904-427: The opening in their World Chess Championship title games. A number of other grandmasters have successfully played the Catalan, including Fabiano Caruana , Daniil Dubov , Anish Giri and Ding Liren . The Catalan derives its name from Catalonia , after tournament organisers at the 1929 Barcelona tournament asked Savielly Tartakower to create a new variation in homage to the area's chess history. It had been played

1960-560: The opponent was Veselin Topalov , and in each instance, White scored two more points than Black. Magnus Carlsen began to employ the Catalan as his main opening in the late 2010s, most notably using it in the second game of the 2021 World Chess Championship against Ian Nepomniachtchi , and used it extensively at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 . The Open Catalan, Classical Line ( ECO code E05) consists of

2016-497: The other is clear positional pressure that leads to an endgame with microscopic chances of victory.... I would choose [the latter] without thinking twice. If the opponent offers keen play I don't object; but in such cases I get less satisfaction, even if I win, than from a game conducted according to all the rules of strategy with its ruthless logic. Karpov's extensive stamp collection of Belgian philately and Belgian Congo stamps and postal history covering mail from 1742 through 1980

2072-568: The pawn without incurring a disadvantage. The Queen's Gambit is one of the oldest known openings in chess. It was mentioned in the Göttingen manuscript of 1490 and was later analyzed by Gioachino Greco in the 17th century. In the 18th century, it was recommended by Philipp Stamma of Aleppo and is sometimes known as the Aleppo Gambit in his honor. During the early period of modern chess, queen pawn openings were not in fashion, and

2128-415: The pawn, Black will have to seriously weaken the queenside with ...a6 and ...b5. Queen%27s Gambit The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves: It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a gambit because White appears to sacrifice the c-pawn; however, this could be considered a misnomer as Black cannot retain

2184-464: The pawn, for example: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 b5 ? (Black tries to guard their pawn but should pursue development with 3...Nf6 or 3...e5) 4.a4 c6? 5.axb5 cxb5 ?? 6.Qf3 ! winning a piece. The Queen's Gambit is divided into two major categories based on Black's response: the Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA) and the Queen's Gambit Declined (QGD). In the QGA, Black plays 2...dxc4, temporarily giving up

2240-614: The prestigious Bugojno tournament in 1978 (shared), 1980 and 1986, the Linares tournament in 1981 (shared with Larry Christiansen ) and 1994, the Tilburg tournament in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, and 1983, and the Soviet Championship in 1976, 1983, and 1988. Karpov represented the Soviet Union at six Chess Olympiads , in all of which the USSR won the team gold medal. He played as the first reserve at Skopje 1972 , winning

2296-431: The resumption of international chess activity following World War II , it was less frequently seen as many players moved away from symmetrical openings, tending to use an Indian Defence to combat queen pawn openings; however, it is still frequently played. With 2.c4, White threatens to exchange a wing pawn (the c-pawn) for a center pawn (Black's d-pawn) in order to dominate the center with e2–e4. Black cannot hold

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2352-417: The scores were 11½–12½ (+4−5=15), 12–12 (+4−4=16), and 11½–12½ (+3−4=17). In all three matches, Karpov had winning chances up to the last games. The ending of the 1987 Seville match was particularly dramatic. Karpov won the 23rd game when Kasparov miscalculated a combination. In the final game, needing only a draw to win the title, Karpov cracked under time pressure at the end of the first session of play, missed

2408-461: The sixth game. Following ten consecutive draws , Korchnoi threw away a winning position in the seventeenth game to give Karpov a 3–0 lead. In game 19, Korchnoi succeeded in winning a long endgame , then notched a speedy victory after a blunder by Karpov two games later. Three more draws, the last agreed by Karpov when he was in a clearly better position, closed the match, with Karpov prevailing +3−2=19, entitling him to move on to challenge Fischer for

2464-542: The start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , the FIDE Council suspended Karpov's title of FIDE Ambassador for Life. In November 2022, Karpov was placed in an induced coma after receiving a head injury. Karpov's daughter Sofia and the Russian Chess Federation said that he had accidentally fallen. Karpov made a full recovery from the injury. In March 2010, Karpov announced that he would be

2520-517: The strength of the tournament, Kasparov had said several days before the tournament that the winner could rightly be called the world champion of tournaments. Perhaps spurred on by this comment, Karpov played the best tournament of his life. He was undefeated and earned 11 points out of 13 (the best world-class tournament winning percentage since Alekhine won San Remo in 1930 ), finishing 2½ points ahead of second-place Kasparov and Shirov. Many of his wins were spectacular (in particular, his win over Topalov

2576-536: The top level when both Garry Kasparov and Viktor Korchnoi played it in their Candidates Semifinal match in London in 1983: five games of the eleven-game match featured the Catalan. In 2004, Ruben Felgaer won a tournament celebrating the 75th anniversary of Barcelona 1929 and the birth of the Catalan Opening, ahead of Grandmasters (GMs) Viktor Korchnoi, Mihail Marin , Lluis Comas and Viktor Moskalenko and International Master Manel Granados. Each game in

2632-468: The tournament, which was also held in Barcelona, began with the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Nf6. With its use by Vladimir Kramnik , the Catalan gained a good deal of attention by high-level GMs in the 2010s. Kramnik played the opening three times in the World Chess Championship 2006 . The Catalan was also played four times by Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010 ; in both instances,

2688-536: The transfer was to be closer to his coach, grandmaster Semyon Furman , who lived in Leningrad. In his writings, Karpov credits Furman as a major influence on his development as a world-class player. In 1969, Karpov became the first Soviet player since Spassky (1955) to win the World Junior Championship , scoring an undefeated 10/11 in the final A group at Stockholm . This victory earned him

2744-488: The use of iodised salt . On December 17, 2012, Karpov supported the law in the Russian Parliament banning adoption of Russian orphans by U.S. citizens. Karpov expressed support of the unilateral annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation , and accused Europe of trying to demonize Putin. In August 2019, Maxim Dlugy said that Karpov had been waiting since March for the approval of a non-immigrant visa to

2800-526: The world title. Though a world championship match between Karpov and Fischer was highly anticipated, those hopes were never realised. Fischer not only insisted that the match be the first to ten wins ( draws not counting), but also that the champion retain the crown if the score was tied 9–9. FIDE , the International Chess Federation, refused to allow this proviso, and gave both players a deadline of April 1, 1975, to agree to play

2856-422: The young Karpov: "The boy does not have a clue about chess, and there's no future at all for him in this profession." Karpov acknowledged that his understanding of chess theory was very confused at that time, and later wrote that the homework Botvinnik assigned greatly helped him, since it required that he consult chess books and work diligently. Karpov improved so quickly under Botvinnik's tutelage that he became

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2912-678: The youngest Soviet master in history at the age of fifteen in 1966; this tied the record established by Boris Spassky in 1952. Karpov finished first in his first international tournament, in Třinec , several months later, ahead of Viktor Kupreichik . In 1967, he won the annual Niemeyer Tournament in Groningen . Karpov won a gold medal for academic excellence in high school, and entered Moscow State University in 1968 to study mathematics. He later transferred to Leningrad State University , eventually graduating from there in economics. One reason for

2968-437: Was +13−1=22 versus Spassky, +8=19 versus Robert Hübner , +12−1=29 versus Ulf Andersson , +3−1=10 versus Vasily Smyslov , +1=19 versus Mikhail Tal , +19-7=23 versus Ljubomir Ljubojević . Karpov had cemented his position as the world's best player and world champion by the time Garry Kasparov arrived on the scene. In their first match, the World Chess Championship 1984 in Moscow, the first player to win six games would win

3024-409: Was a new breed of tough professional, and indeed had higher quality games, while Fischer had been inactive for three years. This view is echoed by Karpov himself. Spassky thought that Fischer would have won in 1975, but Karpov would have qualified again and beaten Fischer in 1978. Karpov has said that if he had had the opportunity to play Fischer for the championship in his twenties, he could have been

3080-504: Was seeded straight into the final, defeating Viswanathan Anand (+2−2=2, rapid tiebreak 2–0). 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 1999 . Karpov's classical tournament play has been seriously limited since 1997, since he prefers to be more involved in Russian politics. He had been

3136-400: Was shattered by Garry Kasparov (15). As a result, most chess professionals soon agreed that Karpov was a legitimate world champion. In 1978, Karpov's first title defence was against Viktor Korchnoi, the opponent he had defeated in the 1973–75 Candidates' cycle; the match was played at Baguio , Philippines, with the winner needing six victories. As in 1974, Karpov took an early lead, winning

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