Happy Birthday Anatoly Karpov

There are TEN Grandmasters who were born on this day in Chess History, and as usual, I will list those not being featured. But the one that Obviously stands out above them all is former World Champion Anatoly Karpov. The others are:

1. Aleksandar Matanović of Serbia born 1930, GM 1955.
2. Igor Novikov of the United States, born 1962 GM 1990.
3. Viktor Varavin of Russia, born 1967, GM 1995.
4. Sergei Krivoshey of Ukraine, born 1971, GM 2006.
5. Michael Bezold of Germany, born 1972, GM 1998.
6. John Paul Gomez of the Philippines, born 1986, GM 2009.
7. Liu Qingnan of China, born 1992, 2015
8. Yasser Quesada Perez, of Cuba, born 1992, GM 2017.
9. Jose Rafael Gascon Del Nogal of Venzuela, born 1995, GM 2018.

There is probably nothing I can tell you about Anatoly Evgenyevich Karpov that you do not already know. He was born in the town of Zlatoust, located in the Southern Ural Mountains in the USSR. He learned to play chess at four years old and became a candidate master by age eleven. At twelve, Karpov was accepted into the chess academy presided over by Mikhail Botvinnik. Karpov won the World Junior Championship in 1969, thereby automatically gaining the title of International Master. In 1970, he became an International Grandmaster by virtue of finishing equal fourth at Caracas. A World Championship Candidate in 1973, he defeated Viktor Korchnoi in the Karpov - Korchnoi Candidates Final (1974) to earn the right to challenge World Champion Robert James Fischer. When FIDE controversially decided to forfeit Fischer, Karpov became the 12th World Chess Champion in 1975.

Karpov defended the championship twice against Korchnoi in 1978 and 1981. After the Karpov - Kasparov World Championship Match (1984) was controversially aborted with Karpov leading by two points over Garry Kasparov, he lost his title to Kasparov in 1985. He played three more closely contested matches with Kasparov, narrowly losing the 1986 Rematch; drawing Kasparov in the 1987 Match; and again narrowly losing to Kasparov in the 1990 Match.

Karpov was thrice Soviet Champion: in 1976, 1983 and 1988, on the latter occasion sharing the title with Kasparov. In 1993, FIDE again contoversially awarded Karpov the World Championship Title after he won a match againt Jan Timman, when Garry Kasparov and the true challenger Nigel Short mutually refused to play under the corrupt auspices of FIDE. He successfully defended his FIDE title against Gata Kamsky in 1996 and Viswanathan Anand in 1998.  Karpov retired from World Championship competition in 1999 when FIDE controversially changed the rules, deciding that the World Champion would be determined by an annual knockout tournament. Apprently the corruption of FIDE even overextended the limits of Karpov's great patience.

At Linares (1994), Karpov achieved one of the greatest tournament successes ever, outdistancing Kasparov by 2.5 points, with a tournament performance rating of 2985. In May 1974, his rating reached 2700, only the second player, after Fischer, to do so.The game being featured today was played in that tournament and is dubbed by many as "Karpov's Immortal Game."