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76-399: Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (Russian: Анатолий Евгеньевич Карпов , IPA: [ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf] ; born May 23, 1951) 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

152-479: A Category , based on the average rating of the contestants. For instance, it was decided that 'Category 1' status would apply to tournaments with an average Elo rating of participants falling within the range 2251–2275; similarly Category 2 would apply to the range 2276–2300 etc. The higher the tournament Category, the stronger the tournament. Another vital component involved the setting of meritorious norms for each Category of tournament. Players must meet or surpass

228-635: 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 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

304-431: 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;

380-541: A GM or IM does not count for the purposes of this requirement if he had not had a GM or IM result in the five years prior to the tournament. In addition, no more than 50 percent plus one of the players can be from the same country for tournaments of 10 to 12 players, or no more than 50 percent plus two for larger tournaments. Seventy-four GM titles were awarded in 1951 through 1968. During that period, ten GM titles were awarded in 1965, but only one in 1966 and in 1968. The modern system for awarding FIDE titles evolved from

456-564: 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

532-546: 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

608-630: 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 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

684-475: 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

760-637: 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

836-511: A quadruple round-robin in the Candidates tournament in May and June 1962. The winner was Tigran Petrosian , who then played Botvinnik in a match for the championship in 1963. Thus, Interzonal tournaments were held approximately every three years from 1948 until 1993 (1948, 1952, 1955, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990, and 1993). However, by 1972 the system

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912-781: A resolution of the FIDE General Assembly and the Qualification Committee, with no formal written criteria. FIDE first awarded the Grandmaster title in 1950 to 27 players. These players were: Since FIDE did not award the Grandmaster title posthumously, world-class players who died prior to 1950, including World Champions Steinitz , Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine, never received the title. A few strong still living players such as British India's Mir Sultan Khan , Germany's Paul Lipke and France's Eugene Znosko-Borovsky were not awarded titles. Sultan Khan

988-636: 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 –

1064-552: A zone with many countries. For example, all of South America and Central America combined originally formed one zone. The top players in each Zonal tournament would meet in the Interzonal tournament, which would typically have between 20 and 24 players. The top finishers (e.g., the top six in 1958) would qualify for the Candidates Tournament , which would take place the following year. They would be joined in

1140-404: 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

1216-648: Is open to all players regardless of gender. The great majority of grandmasters are men, but 42 women have been awarded the GM title as of 2024, out of a total of about 2000 grandmasters. There is also a Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements awarded only to women. There are also Grandmaster titles for composers and solvers of chess problems , awarded by the World Federation for Chess Composition (see List of grandmasters for chess composition ). The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) awards

1292-399: Is recorded from 1590. The first known use of the term grandmaster in connection with chess was in the 18 February 1838 issue of Bell's Life , in which a correspondent referred to William Lewis as "our past grandmaster". Subsequently, George Walker and others referred to Philidor as a grandmaster, and the term was also applied to a few other players. The Ostend tournament of 1907

1368-569: 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

1444-820: 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 the Ministry of Defence. Karpov was born into

1520-510: 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 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

1596-598: The Chess World Cup has filled a similar role. In the first year of the cycle, every FIDE member nation would hold a national championship, with the top players qualifying for the Zonal tournament. The world was divided into distinct zones, with the USSR , United States and Canada each being designated a zone, thus qualifiers from these three zones went directly to the Interzonal. Smaller countries would be grouped into

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1672-720: The FIDE World Championship. Since 2005, the Chess World Cup has filled a somewhat similar role to the Interzonal. As with the Interzonals, players qualify via zonal tournaments, although some leading players are seeded directly into the World Cup. The winner (and sometimes also the runner-up) qualifies for the Candidates Tournament. (In contrast to the Interzonal, from which six or more players would qualify). See Candidates Tournament for

1748-618: 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

1824-549: The World Junior Championship , or the World Senior Championship , or a Continental Chess Championship, given that the player's peak FIDE rating is at least 2300. Current regulations can be found in the FIDE Handbook. FIDE titles including the grandmaster title are valid for life, but FIDE regulations allow a title to be revoked for "use of a FIDE title or rating to subvert the ethical principles of

1900-548: 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 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

1976-627: The "Dorazil" proposals, presented to the 1970 Siegen Chess Olympiad FIDE Congress. The proposals were put together by Wilfried Dorazil (then FIDE Vice-President) and fellow Committee members Grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić and Professor Arpad Elo . The recommendations of the Committee report were adopted in full. In essence, the proposals built on the work done by Professor Elo in devising his Elo rating system. The establishment of an updated list of players and their Elo rating enabled significantly strong international chess tournaments to be allocated

2052-509: The 1965 Congress in Wiesbaden FIDE raised the standards required for international titles. The International Grandmaster title regulations were: To fulfill requirement 2b, the candidate must score one GM norm in a category 1a tournament or two norms within a three-year period in two Category 1b tournaments, or one Category 2a tournament and one Category 1b tournament. The categories of tournaments are: Since FIDE titles are for life,

2128-481: The Candidates by the loser of the previous candidates' final and the loser of the previous world championship match. The winner of the Candidates tournament would play a 24-game match with the World Champion the following year, and need to win outright to gain the title. For instance, in the World Chess Championship 1963 cycle, nine different Zonals were played. Each qualified between one and four players for

2204-590: The FAV system, in recognition of the work done by International Judge Giovanni Ferrantes (Italy), Alexander (probably Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander ), and Giancarlo Dal Verme (Italy). Under the 1957 regulations, the title of International Grandmaster of the FIDE was automatically awarded to: The regulations also allowed titles to be awarded by a FIDE Congress on recommendation by the Qualification Committee. Recommendations were based on performance in qualifying tournaments, with

2280-471: The Interzonal, depending on the strength of the region, with 23 players qualifying for the Interzonal. The Interzonal was played in January to March 1962, with the top six players qualifying for the Candidates. They were joined by Mikhail Tal (loser of the 1961 match for the championship with Mikhail Botvinnik ), and Paul Keres , who had finished second at the 1959 Candidates tournament. Those eight played

2356-481: The Soviet Union's Chess Federation established the title of Grandmaster of the Soviet Union, in the form of the German loan word "Großmeister". At the time Soviet players were not competing outside their own country. This title was abolished in 1931, after having been awarded to Boris Verlinsky , who won the 1929 Soviet Championship . The title was brought back in 1935, and awarded to Mikhail Botvinnik , who thus became

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2432-455: 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 a peak Elo rating of 2780, and his 102 total months world number one

2508-793: 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

2584-411: The actual score that participants must achieve to attain a GM or IM result (nowadays referred to as a norm ). To qualify for the Grandmaster title, a player needed to achieve three such GM results within a rolling period of three years. Exceptionally, if a player's contributory games totalled 30 or more, then the title could be awarded on the basis of two such results. There were also circumstances where

2660-548: 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 the transfer was to be closer to his coach, grandmaster Semyon Furman , who lived in Leningrad. In his writings, Karpov credits Furman as

2736-507: 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

2812-469: 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

2888-610: 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 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

2964-568: The earliest known sources that support this story are an article by Robert Lewis Taylor in the June 15, 1940, issue of The New Yorker and Marshall's autobiography My 50 Years of Chess (1942). Before 1950, the term grandmaster was sometimes informally applied to world class players. The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE, or International Chess Federation) was formed in Paris in 1924, but at that time did not award formal titles. In 1927,

3040-692: 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

3116-448: The first "official" Grandmaster of the USSR. Verlinsky did not get his title back. In 1950 FIDE created the titles of Grandmaster (GM), International Master (IM) and Woman Master (WM, later known as Woman International Master or WIM). The grandmaster title is sometimes called "International Grandmaster" (IGM), possibly to distinguish it from similar national titles, but the shortened form is far more common today. Titles were awarded by

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3192-410: 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 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

3268-422: 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

3344-664: 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:

3420-476: 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

3496-566: 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 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

3572-420: The number of registered players rated over 2200 had increased even faster. Since that FIDE congress, discussion of the value of the grandmaster title has occasionally continued. Starting from 1977, FIDE awarded honorary Grandmaster titles to 32 players based on their past performances or other contributions to chess. The following players have been awarded honorary Grandmaster titles. Marić and Honfi were awarded

3648-402: The number of whom has grown considerably over the years, have some name recognition in the world of sport and are typically the highest earners in chess. FIDE titles are only awarded at the quarterly FIDE Council meetings. Players who have qualified for the GM title but have not yet been awarded it are informally referred to as "GM-elect". Usage of grandmaster for an expert in some field

3724-523: The old regulations, although a provision was maintained that allowed older masters who had been overlooked to be awarded titles. The new regulations awarded the title of International Grandmaster of the FIDE to players meeting any of the following criteria: After FIDE issued the 1953 title regulations, it was recognized that they were somewhat haphazard, and work began to revise the regulations. The FIDE Congress in Vienna in 1957 adopted new regulations, called

3800-468: The opportunity to play Fischer for the championship in his twenties, he could have been 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

3876-496: 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

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3952-613: 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

4028-431: The regulations. The subcommittee recommended that the automatic award of titles be abolished, criticized the methods used for awarding titles based on qualifying performances, and called for a change in the makeup of the Qualification Committee. Several delegates supported the subcommittee recommendations, including GM Miguel Najdorf who felt that existing regulations were leading to an inflation of international titles. At

4104-438: The relevant score to demonstrate that they had performed at Grandmaster (GM) or International Master (IM) level. Scores were expressed as percentages of a perfect maximum score and decreased as the tournament Category increased, thereby reflecting the strength of a player's opposition and the relative difficulty of the task. Tournament organisers could then apply the percentages to their own tournament format and declare in advance

4180-533: The required score depending on the percentage of Grandmasters and International Masters in the tournament. Concerns were raised that the 1957 regulations were too lax. At the FIDE Congress in 1961, GM Milan Vidmar said that the regulations "made it possible to award international titles to players without sufficient merit". At the 1964 Congress in Tel Aviv , a subcommittee was formed to propose changes to

4256-482: 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 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

4332-417: 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

4408-538: 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

4484-517: 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

4560-432: The strongest players in the world. Karpov held the record for most consecutive tournament victories (9) until it 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

4636-522: The system could be adapted to fit team events and other competitions. The full proposals included many other rules and regulations, covering such topics as: To become a grandmaster, a player must achieve both of the following: The Grandmaster title is also automatically conferred, without needing to fulfill the above criteria, when reaching the final 16 in the World Cup , winning the Women's World Cup ,

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4712-461: The title of International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (ICCGM). Both of these bodies are now independent of FIDE , but work in cooperation with it. "Super grandmaster" is an informal term to refer to the world's elite players. In the past this would refer to players with an Elo rating of over 2600, but as the average Elo rating of the top players has increased, it has typically come to refer to players with an Elo rating of over 2700. Super GMs,

4788-641: The title or rating system" or if a player is found to have violated the anti-cheating regulations in a tournament on which the title application was based. Exact regulations can be found in the FIDE Handbook . A report prepared by Bartłomiej Macieja for the Association of Chess Professionals mentions discussion at the FIDE congress of 2008 regarding a perceived decrease in value of the grandmaster title. The number of grandmasters had increased greatly between 1972 and 2008, but according to Macieja,

4864-491: The title posthumously in the year of their death, and Sultan Khan 58 years later. Bibliography Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the Candidates Tournament . Since 2005,

4940-489: The top two players qualified from each. Further increases in the number of qualifiers led to the Interzonal being staged as a single Swiss system tournament in 1990 and 1993. The last FIDE Interzonal was in 1993 . The short-lived Professional Chess Association also held one Interzonal, in 1993 . The system was dropped altogether from the mid-1990s, being replaced by a series of short, knockout-style matches among qualifiers. From 1998 to 2004 , these tournaments were for

5016-485: 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

5092-642: The winner needing six victories. As in 1974, Karpov took an early lead, winning 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

5168-436: 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

5244-624: Was a designated grandmaster event. Rubinstein won with 12½ points out of 19. Tied for second with 12 points were Aron Nimzowitsch and Rudolf Spielmann . By some accounts, in the St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament , the title Grandmaster was formally conferred by Russian Tsar Nicholas II , who had partially funded the tournament. The Tsar reportedly awarded the title to the five finalists: Emanuel Lasker , José Raúl Capablanca , Alexander Alekhine , Siegbert Tarrasch , and Frank Marshall . Chess historian Edward Winter has questioned this, stating that

5320-598: Was awarded the GM title posthumously in 2024. Title awards under the original regulations were subject to political concerns. Efim Bogoljubow , who had emigrated from the Soviet Union to Germany, was not entered in the first class of Grandmasters, even though he had played two matches for the World Championship with Alekhine. He received the title in 1951, by a vote of thirteen to eight with five abstentions. Yugoslavia supported his application, but all other Communist countries opposed it. In 1953, FIDE abolished

5396-496: Was becoming unwieldy. The number of top-level players had grown, with the increasing popularization of chess, and the cost of staging these events had become too great. It had become impractical to put all of the top players into a round robin tournament , so in 1973 the system was changed to two Interzonals (with the first three in each qualifying for the Candidates). In 1982 it changed again to three Interzonal tournaments, where

5472-664: Was divided into two sections: the Championship Tournament and the Masters' Tournament. The Championship section was for players who had previously won an international tournament. Siegbert Tarrasch won the Championship section, over Carl Schlechter , Dawid Janowski , Frank Marshall , Amos Burn , and Mikhail Chigorin . These players were described as grandmasters for the purposes of the tournament. The San Sebastián 1912 tournament won by Akiba Rubinstein

5548-514: 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 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,

5624-503: 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

5700-475: Was sold by David Feldman's auction company between December 2011 and 2012. He is also known to have large chess stamp and chess book collections. His private chess library consists of 9,000 books. Karpov has authored or co-authored several books, most of which have been translated into English. Grandmaster (chess) The title of Grandmaster, along with the lesser FIDE titles of International Master (IM) , FIDE Master (FM) , and Candidate Master (CM) ,

5776-562: 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 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

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