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| Apr-14-12 | | JoergWalter: One thing is for sure and Karpov also admitted it that he profited from the preparations for the match with Fischer for years. He also had unlimited support against the "enemy" Korchnoi. maybe only his ambition for a clean score in 1984 prevented him from staying champion. |
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| Apr-14-12 | | HSOL: While it is all speculation, Karpov might have been a more formidable opponent in the mid-80s if he had to fight harder to become #1 and keep it rather than having the toughest challenger in a player (Korchnoi) who was two generations older and never managed to reach the very top when he "should have". That said, he might also never have become world champion if so. Since many reports seem to indicate Karpov was NOT the hardest working chess player, it is not that farfetched that he became complacent after becoming #1 by default and therefor did not attain the level he could have reached if he had had more competition and not reached the pinnacle so quickly. |
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| Apr-14-12 | | Jim Bartle: That all may be true. But didn't Karpov have an absolutely brilliant tournament record during his time as champion? |
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| Apr-14-12 | | King Death: < Jim Bartle: ...But didn't Karpov have an absolutely brilliant tournament record during his time as champion?> He did even with the caveat that he didn't have to play Korchnoi during most of his reign, they only played one tournament game while Karpov was champ: Karpov vs Korchnoi, 1984. I've seen posters here putting Karpov down because of this but he still had to beat the other top players and when AK was at his best he mostly outclassed them. Overall he was the first reigning champion since Alekhine to have more than a mediocre tournament record. To name one champ, Petrosian beating Spassky in 1966 was impressive but his numbers in tournaments during those 6 years weren't at times. See Game Collection: Second Piatigorsky Cup 1966 for an example. |
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| Apr-14-12 | | JoergWalter: <King Death> Karpov did everything he could not to be regarded "paper champion". of course, he was a true champion however the burden was on him.
I didn't check the record but did he ever loose to a soviet player in an international tournament in the years up to 1986? |
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| Apr-14-12 | | King Death: <JoergWalter> I'm not sure about that, the only game I can think of is this right now but I bet it was played in a Spartakiad. Karpov vs Balashov, 1980 |
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| Apr-14-12 | | King Death: <Joerg> I just remembered something, there was this event Game Collection: Leningrad 1977 where he lost 2 games. It was an international event though. |
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| Apr-15-12 | | JoergWalter: <King Death> disappointing affair for Karpov in 1977. And Fischer's ghost was still around: < As usual, Soviet dominance was on full display in the wake of Fischer's absence and the string of successes Karpov had been earning in the void. However, the world champion was stunned into shared fourth in this event. He was surpassed by previous world champions Tal, who shared first, and Smyslov at clear third, but the ultimate tournament winner was Romanishin in what would be his greatest victory. The uncompromising player scored wins against nearly half the field to finish with +6, beating out Tal on the tiebreaks.> Romanishin was also considered as one player from Karpov's generation who had potential for the title. What happened to him? |
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Apr-15-12
 | | HeMateMe: Romainishin might not have been allowed to leave the USSR often to play in a lot of international events and get more experience/become better known. The USSR only let two players at a time go to events in Europe. karpov played all the time. That would leave fewer chances for others to get established. |
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| Apr-15-12 | | JoergWalter: <HeMateMe: The USSR only let two players at a time go to events in Europe.> 2 players and a dozen of "helpers" selected by the KGB? |
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Apr-15-12
| | HeMateMe: Well, they wouldn't let kasparov play a Candidates match in Los Angeles. Lots of security. |
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| Apr-15-12 | | JoergWalter: <HeMateMe: Well, they wouldn't let kasparov play a Candidates match in Los Angeles. Lots of security.> however, that wasn't because of a mean Korchnoi, the travel expenses or all the drug addicts in LA. I'm not sure but wasn't it Kasparov himself who told the world that this was one of Karpov's plots to prevent him becoming the challenger? Karpov calculating his chances in a 3rd match against Korchnoi much much higher than his chances against Kasparov? |
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Apr-15-12
| | HeMateMe: The official word was that the USSR was concerned because the USA would not allow enough security personnel to be around Kasparov to keep him "safe" (Los Angeles and it's 4 star hotels being very dangerous). Unofficially, without enough security it was thought that Kasparov would defect. This would be a disaster for a country that prides itself on being the leader in chess. As one night club comic put it, When the USSR loses defectors, the West gets world class scientists, authors and athletes. When westerners defect to Russia, they get homosexual British traitors. |
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| Apr-15-12 | | Everett: <JoergWalter: <King Death> Karpov did everything he could not to be regarded "paper champion". of course, he was a true champion however the burden was on him. I didn't check the record but did he ever loose to a soviet player in an international tournament in the years up to 1986?> This information could be used by some as evidence of collusion. |
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| Apr-16-12 | | ozmikey: <Everett> I don't think so, given that (a) his games against the other Soviet representative (there were generally only two) in international tournaments during this time tended to be short draws, and (b) his results against the foreign competitors tended to be much more impressive! This is the whole problem with the theory, advanced by (among others) the habitually unreliable Larry Evans, that Karpov's results as world champion were not altogether reliable due to his having games thrown to him. His greatest successes (for instance Las Palmas 1977, Bad Lauterberg 1977, London 1984, Montreal 1979, etc.) were in multinational tournaments held in the west, where it would take the most heroic of conspiracy theories to imagine Karpov winning by virtue of having games thrown to him. |
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| Apr-16-12 | | Everett: <ozmikey: <Everett> I don't think so, given that (a) his games against the other Soviet representative (there were generally only two) in international tournaments during this time tended to be short draws,> Huh? This is exactly my point. If what you say is a fact, fellow Soviets drew vs Karpov and went for the win vs his competitors. So Karpov's results had more to do with being able to defeat foreigners, while he was given a free pass vs. his comrades. Truth his, the #2 in the world, Korchnoi, was never in the same tournament as Karpov during his reign. How does one reconcile this regarding his tournament results? Another point, since two Soviets plus Karpov were allowed in tournaments abroad, it meant the 3-5 members of the top 15 chessplayers in the world were not in the tournament, leaving weaker competition to get beat by Karpov. Karpov is a great player, a great champion, and a great competitor, but his tournament record is not the greatest thing, given the circumstances around it. Far more impressive was his neck-and-neck World Cup finish with Kasparov in 88-89, getting to the 1990 WC match by beating Hjartarson, Yusupov and Timman in matches, and continuing to be #2 in the world through 1996, despite the rise of Anand, Gelfand, Ivanchuk and others. |
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| Apr-16-12 | | Lambda: Karpov's most impressive performances in tournaments are all from when he's no longer world champion. |
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| Apr-16-12 | | goldenbear: <Lambda> By my definition of "most impressive", Karpov's "most impressive" tournament was Trinec 1966. |
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| Apr-16-12 | | ozmikey: <everett><Huh? This is exactly my point. If what you say is a fact, fellow Soviets drew vs Karpov and went for the win vs his competitors. So Karpov's results had more to do with being able to defeat foreigners, while he was given a free pass vs. his comrades.> But being given a free pass would normally mean being given a win rather than a draw, no? For what it's worth, quick draws between two compatriots in an international tournament was hardly restricted to the Russians, although they did make something of an art form of it. Looking back through Karpov's tournament record as world champion, the only case I can recall where collusion was genuinely probable was the playoff with Petrosian at the Milan 1975 tournament (and that was only because that tournament had a very strange format). Mention has been made elsewhere of Karpov vs Balashov, 1977, but the "evidence" there seems pretty circumstantial to me. <Truth his, the #2 in the world, Korchnoi, was never in the same tournament as Karpov during his reign. How does one reconcile this regarding his tournament results?> That's true enough, and in terms of preparation of course the boycott hurt Korchnoi considerably, but I don't see that as a major blight on Karpov's overall tournament record. He was still competing against the other top GMs (Timman, Portisch, Hubner, Ljubojevic etc.) regularly and came out on top regularly. Not quite the record of Capa in the 20s or Alekhine in the early 30s (or Fischer in the early 70s), but not far from it either. The same arguments hold, by the way, for Kasparov's victories in the early eighties (Bugojno, Niksic etc.). <Another point, since two Soviets plus Karpov were allowed in tournaments abroad, it meant the 3-5 members of the top 15 chessplayers in the world were not in the tournament, leaving weaker competition to get beat by Karpov.> When do you ever get a tournament where the top X number of players on the world list are ALL playing? The answer is, quite rarely. And in the "Karpov era" there wasn't quite the solid phalanx of Soviet talent just behind the world champion of the time that existed in the 50s and 60s. <Karpov is a great player, a great champion, and a great competitor, but his tournament record is not the greatest thing, given the circumstances around it. Far more impressive was his neck-and-neck World Cup finish with Kasparov in 88-89, getting to the 1990 WC match by beating Hjartarson, Yusupov and Timman in matches, and continuing to be #2 in the world through 1996, despite the rise of Anand, Gelfand, Ivanchuk and others.> A moot point I guess, but for my money his tournament record is the most impressive part of his CV. Admittedly most of the tournaments were relatively short, and admittedly they were mixed-strength in many cases, but you've still got to win 'em. |
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| Apr-16-12 | | Everett: <ozmickey> well, we disagree, which is fine, but one point bears noting: <When do you ever get a tournament where the top X number of players on the world list are ALL playing? The answer is, quite rarely. And in the "Karpov era" there wasn't quite the solid phalanx of Soviet talent just behind the world champion of the time that existed in the 50s and 60s.> This happened quite a bit, actually, during Kasparov's reign (think Linares, Wijk Aan Zee) Lasker's time (though much fewer), and currently. Member <whatthefat> has a compilation of tournament records that take ranking of participants into consideration. Perhaps someone else can track it down, but it was made clear that Kasparov and Lasker were the two competing for top tournament champion. And it is precisely this that makes Karpov's victories in relatively weak tournaments not so important compared to his other achievements. |
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| May-20-12 | | Call Me TC: <VIENNA, May 19 (Itar-Tass) —— Ex-world chess champion Anatoly Karpov on Friday received the prestigious award of the international non-governmental organization Center for Global Dialogue and Cooperation for his contribution to the promotion of the inter-cultural dialogue. The award presentation ceremony was timed for a major international conference on energy problems, which brought together leading politicians, economists and businessmen. In the capacity of a deputy chairman of the State Duma’s committee on natural resources, environment and the ecology Karpov addressed the conference to have drawn attention the need for considerate attitude to the environment and the solution of crucial world problems. One of the themes that were raised in the discussions concerned the possibility of a slump in energy prices in view of the expected growth of natural gas supplies from Qatar to Europe. “The Americans have found a way of tapping shale gas,” Karpov told Itar-Tass. “True, this technology is not impeccable. It involves underground explosions, and some ecological questions are still unanswered. However, the amount of gas the United States may be getting in this way will allow for drastically reducing import. As a result, large amounts of Qatari gas may be re-directed to the European market to offer strong competition to Russian gas. In a situation like that it would be no easy for Russia to defend prices under long-term contracts.”> http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/424...
Suck on that Korchnoi! |
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| May-23-12 | | RookFile: Happy birthday Anatoly Karpov. |
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| May-23-12 | | mohitm: Happy birthday Anatoly Karpov, the 12th world champion, one of the greatest players of all time, and my chess idol :) |
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| May-23-12 | | LoveThatJoker: Happy Birthday, WC Karpov!
LTJ |
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May-23-12
 | | harrylime: Loads of respect for Anatoly. Happy Birthday! |
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