011. Anatoly Karpov. The Great Chess Player of 20th century

Looking at facts as they are, without the prejudice of Nationality, According to me, Anatoly Karpov, the Russian is one of the World's greatest player. When I learnt chess, he was the World champion (1976-1985). During those days, Karpov and Kasparov were the only idols of chess and the books of every chess player and library. Games used to be adjourned after 40 moves and the players will make the 41st move the next day after intense work with their Grandmaster seconds. This practice of adjournment was discontinued after computers became more powerful than the Grandmasters. I have never played 1.e4 my whole life because Karpov does not play 1.e4. His favourite is 1.d4. Also I played Caro Kann defence to White's 1.e4 because Karpov always responds with Caro Kann defence for that move. I had to drop Caro Kann defence because these days tournaments have short time controls and Caro Kann often lead to a long game till end game phase.
Anatoly Karpov was playing at World top level for over 31 years ever since he became a World Champion at 1975. He finished 2nd at The Credit Suisse Blitz Tournament 27.08.2006 behind only Kasparov.

Anatoly Karpov at The Credit Suisse Blitz Tournament. Swiss Metropol of Zurich











































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, making it the first Category XVIII tournament ever held. Impressed by 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 possible (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 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.

Kasparov and Karpov. played 144 World Championshiop Games.
Karpov became an International Master in 1969, the next year 1970, he became a Grand Master
Kasparov became an International Master in 1979, the next year 1980, he became a Grand Master.
These people knew the World Championshiop route clearly - it seems. There is a chess player in my home town Salem. Ever since I was going to school, he has been rated 2000+ but has not crossed the 2100 rating barrier. For over 20 years he has not gone beyond 2100 rating. And there is chess player (my senior at Holy Cross school) who became an International Master (year 2005) in Salem. He has not become a GM for over 19 years till now. In Aviation ( I am an Aircraft Maintenance Engineering student), when an aeroplane approaches the speed of sound 340 m/s i.e.1200 kmph, shock waves are produced over the control surfaces making flight beyond that speed difficult unless some modifications are done to the control surfaces of the Aeroplane. Supersonic Concorde planes can fly at speeds beyond the speed of sound and the X 15 rocket planes and Scram jets can well travel at hypersonic speeds (5150 miles per hour !!). It seems chess players must find ways of removing their own rating barriers. Karpov and Kasparov chess speed from IM to GM was just one year...... Ten thousand thundering typhoons.



Karpov playing a simultaneous exhibition match





Take a look at the Honours and Awards for Anatoly Karpov










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