With a long list of victories behind him, here is the story of Anatolij Karpov and the interesting anecdotes of his career in the world of chess.
Who is Anatolij Karpov
Anatolij Evgen’evič Karpov (Zlatoust, 23 May 1951) is a Russian chess player and politician.
It grows in what used to be the Soviet Union becoming passionate about the world of chess since childhood thanks to his father. The latter, moreover, finished his university studies in mechanical engineering when Anatolij was still young and once he had obtained the role of manager in a factory in the city, he took up the few free moments to teach his son the game.
However, the child’s childhood is not always easy, especially because of his own poor health. Fortunately, however, this does not prevent him from persevering in his great passion and thus being able to reach very high levels at only twelve years old. After a great finish in the race he is admitted to the prestigious school of Michail Botvinnik.
The beginning of Anatolij Karpov’s career
Once he gets to know the great minds of the academy he discovers that he is little more than mediocre, but to determine a turning point in the quality of the game is themeeting with José Raúl Capablanca, the well-known Cuban champion.
In fact he owes to him the great strategies and techniques learned thanks to the reading of his “Chess Manual”. He began in 1967 to participate in some championships in the junior category achieving great results, but not yet excellent. Thanks to the teachings of another great chess player, Semen Furman, in 1969 he managed to obtain the title of junior world champion.
In the years to come his score only goes up eland his victories increase but being able to replicate the same results in the adult category seems very difficult. In fact, after the defeat of the Soviet Union by Bobby Fischer, choosing your own representative is not easy. There are many names that the federation thinks about, but they all seem unsuitable for the role, including Karpov given his very young age.
Anatolij Karpov and the title of world champion
Between Anatolij and the American champion it will never be possible to attend a match. The latter in fact was known for having imposed rules on the previous opponent Spassky that were considered unacceptable. The long decision necessary to understand who should be Fischer’s new challenger leads him to lose the title and automatically decree Karpov as the new world champion. For many this choice is unfair, but Karpov proves he deserves the title when he wins the 1975 Milan tournament, declared one of the toughest ever.
A memorable meeting which sees Karpov as protagonist is undoubtedly that of 1978 which sees him against Florencio Campomanes, chess player from the Philippines. Their clash, in addition to arousing the curiosity of many due to the evident differences in age and technique of the participants, becomes a pretext for a veiled political confrontation. Among the memorable matches one cannot fail to mention the one against “The terrible Viktor” reached its highest level in the game. However, this is not enough to stop him as Karpov confirms himself as the best player along with other Soviet colleagues.