Happy Birthday, Anatoly Karpov!
The chess legend Anatoly Karpov, world champion from 1975 to 1985 and FIDE champ (during the divided era) from 1993 to 1999 turns 60 today. If you don't know much about Karpov, take a look at Wikipedia's biography, some of his notable games on chessgames.com, and this nice profile piece on ChessBase.
I'd also like to mention a remarkable later result of Karpov's that goes unmentioned by Wikipedia and ChessBase, and that's his second-place finish in the Eurotel Trophy rapid event in Prague in 2002. All he did in this knockout event was to beat Short, Kramnik, Morozevich and Shirov before losing to Anand in the final. (Are you kidding me?) Among the other players in the event were Kasparov, Topalov, Gelfand, Grischuk, Svidler, Adams, Leko, Polgar, Bareev and Radjabov. Ho hum. I think most GMs who pulled off such a result might get the knockout bracket tattooed on their arm; for Karpov, then just shy of his 51st birthday and already semi-retired from serious play for several years, it doesn't even merit a mention in his chess biographies.
Reader Comments (5)
Karpov fought Kasparov in three more world championship matches, in 1986 (London and Leningrad), 1987 (Seville), and 1990 (in New York and Lyons). All three matches were extremely close: in all three he had winning chances up to the very last games. All were won by Kasparov.
Whoa, there! One of those matches was drawn, ChessBase!
I'm not sure what's most remarkabke: That Karpov has 160 tournament wins, or that as he was on the downhill side of his career he was only -2 against Kasparov in WC matches. I keep wondering how good Karpov might have been if he had had someone to push him harder in the yearsfrom 1974 to 1984. If Karpov had been a little more willing to take risks in 1984 he might have untterly destroyed Kasparov with a score of 6-1 or 6-2 in 16 or so games.That might have irreparably damaged even an ego so strong as Kasparov's...
[DM: I don't think he was on the "downhill side" during the period of his matches with Kasparov. Even through 1996 he was still playing at an extremely high level, and his career peak rating then.]
Happy birthday Karpov! I agree with you Karpov is one my favorite players as well and I think he is very underrated and belongs in the league of epic players such as Kasparov and Fischer.
[SNIP! DM: Please don't use my combox for advertising for-pay sites.]
Korchnoi didn't push him hard enough?
[DM: ?]
Korchnoi was (shamefully) being boycotted by the Soviets in the 1970s. So if Korchnoi was playing, the Soviets weren't. So Karpov and Korchnoi didn't meet as often as they should have. (World Championship related matches were the one exception.) And Korchnoi, for all his own greatness, relied on Karpov's physical frailty to keep the 1978 match close. (Kasparov learned that lesson too well.)
Dennis, Karpov definitely showed changes to his game and improvement after Kasparov started clashing with him. (They both improved a lot, actually.) But Karpov was already in his mid-30s when that happened. What if he had been pushed like that when he was still in his twenties? I can't help but think he would have improved even more - his energy levels would have been higher. For one thing he might have had to exert himself more in tournaments. A lot of people were thrilled when the "Karpov Era" came to an end in 1985 because not only did Karpov tended to coast at times, but it seemed like everyone else was trying to do the same thing. Lots of boring grandmaster draws as I recall.* How dominating would Karpov been if he had to compete with a Fischer or Kasparov through the 1970s?
* Tilburg 1983 was a good example. Karpov won with a 3+ 8= 0- score. Those draws were 21 moves, 19, 44, 26, 29, 13, 13, and 36 moves. Not exactly a maximalist effort, although still better than the current Candidate’s matches. But in 1988 the post-Kasparov Karpov won Tilburg with a +7 score in a tournament that was only three rounds longer. Not as impressive as Kasparov’s +10 in 1989, but much better than the +3s and +4s Anatoly used to roll out. I’m just saying – what if he had been playing to that level in his 20s? What if he had someone to push him, both competitively and artistically, sooner rather than later?
@Icepick: You're cherry-picking a bit. Karpov won many more tournaments, before Kasparov came on the scene, with dominant margins of victory. He was a wrecking machine in the years after winning the title, as he felt the need to prove that he was a real champion and not merely one on paper in the wake of Fischer's forfeit. But there's no question that he was pushed to brand new heights after Kasparov took his title.
Btw, I don't understand why the second paragraph starts "Dennis, Karpov definitely showed changes to his game and improvement after Kasparov started clashing with him" - it makes it sound like I had suggested the opposite. Unless I'm losing my marbles, you had suggested in the earlier comment that Karpov was on the "downhill" part of his career by then and I had rejected that claim.]