Anatoly Karpov is 64!

I am not trying to troll. I just do not believe you read your statement carefully/correctly.

Try reading it again:

The below are the 3 statements you said.

Can we please not go into this who's "the best ever" discussions?

However, the question of who is the best is simply indeterminable.

Obviously, Karpov is one of the best.

If Karpov is one of the best. He will remain as one of the best forever. Do not try to read to much into it. I am not trying to compare Karpov to other players through out time. I simply believe he was the best during his time. I believe those chess metric systems are a complete joke.

As for indeterminable. It was Determinded for 10 years he was World Champion. NO one could beat him during that time.

Greedy, who do you keep saying he was world champion for 16 years? He was from 1975 to 1985.

That aweful USSR flag says it all about what an ugly regime Karpov represented.

Ehem!

Whatever. Karpov was a great world champion. His duels with Kasparov were epic.

Happy Birthday, Tolya!

Actually Greedy Pawn Eater does bring up an interesting point.

From 1975 to 1985 Karpov crushed chess for that time frame. He was World Champion for that 10 year span.

What ended up happening was Karpov ended up losing to Kasparov during that time. Kasparov than reigned as World Champion for about 8 years (1985-1993).

Now this reign was under FIDE rules.

What ended up happening in 1993 was Kasparov ended up for what ever reason leaving FIDE to create his own chess organization. I have never read the full reasons of why he did that.

The organization he created was called PCA ( Professional Chess Association)

He than Became World Champion of PCA

Well FIDE upset about this split stripped Kasparov of his Title and held a championship match of there own.

Which The winner was of that match was Karpov.

Which for the first time in history there was 2 World Champions lol.

World Champion of PCA Kasparov

World Champion of FIDE Karpov

If you was to count the years Karpov was in fact World Champion longer than 10 years. However, Usually people do not bring it up or remember it.

The reason is becuase for 10 years he was the Undisputed World Champion. After those years he did start to lose to other people.

Than in 1999 FIDE Changed there format and Karpov got upset with it so he retired and stop being World Champion.

Kasparov reigned as PCA champion until about 1993-2000. Which gave rise to a new sheriff in town. *Vladimir Kramnik*

Vladimir Kramnik became PCA champion from 2000-2006.

Eventually what ended up happening was Vladimir Kramnik ended up crushing all the World Champions lol. From PCA and FIDE making a reunification of both organizations with him as the Solo World Champion. He was a monster. This didn't happen until 2006 though. Which there was several different FIDE Champions inbetween the years 1999-2006

• 1999 (Khalifman)
• 2000 (Anand)
• 2002 (Ponomariov)
• 2004 (Kasimdzhanov)
• 2005 (Topalov)

The 2006 match was FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov vs PCA World Champion Vladimir Kramnik.

Which Vladimir Kramnik did end up winning. Becoming World Champion of Both and bring the 2 organizations together under FIDE.

Its actually pretty funny becuase that is how the Topalov Water Gate Bath Room Scandal happened. Topalov peeps believed Kramnik was using some forms of Help when ever he went to the bathroom lol. He made his critical decisions during his bathroom breaks with computer help is what they proposed. You have to admit chess history is amusing.

However, In total Karpov was World Champion from 1975-1985  to 1993-1999.

In total it is 16 years.

However, I always considered Karpov with 10 years. For during those 10 years he was untouchable.

I mean it sounds crazy but when you think about it. No one esle besides Kasparov could touch Karpov really. An once Kasparov left the scene lol of course Karpov is going to dominate the rest of the peeps. Is it really a surpise Karpov won in 1993 after Kasparov left lol.

Same old crappy pic spamming as that other thread.

Yep, Bogoljubov was also a WC, don't forget it: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=80764

Here is one of my all time favorite Immortal games of Karpov.

His Opponent was considered to be one of the Strongest Amateur players in history. Who never played professionally. He had another career in his life and didn't consider chess as his main profession. Many people believe if he had taken chess more serious. He would of been a World Chess Champion.

His name was Wolfgang Unzicker.

As it turns out even though he was not World Champion he was a German Champion. He won German Championship title 6 times.

He played on 12 Chess Olympiads being first board 10 of the 12.

I don't know about you but that doesn't sound like an Amateur to me. However, that is what they coined him as. World Champion of Amateurs.

In this game he ended up finding himself on the Black side of Karpov's Ruy Lopez and it got nasty.

Move 24 by Karpov is considered a Novelty! The reason why is becuase it avoids piece exchanges and allows Karpov the chance to untangle his pieces. You see white is not doubled and if black can trade pieces off black would be a happier man.

So what Karpov did was find a way to stall for some more time(Moves). Karpovs move 24 gives him that extra time he needs to untangle his position. It is the most brillant move in chess. An when you see that game you see the pure power and terror of allowing your opponent more space than you. Black is completely helpless.

People once said "Karpov did not play chess just to win the game. He played a chess match to prove to the world his opponent never had a chance of winning."

When most Grand Masters looked at the board and tryed to calcuate the most crushing sacrifice.

Karpov looked at the position and played moves like a3 or h3. Bascially telling his opponent " There you go you have an extra move now. What are you going to do with it in this position."

They would resign becuase there was nothing they could do in that position. Even with the extra free move.

He was a positional monster. A Python that squeezed his opponents to death.

Karpov's loss against Anthony Miles in Skara 1980 was a world sensation. The game started with the moves: 1. e4 a6!?? (Karpov had the white pieces). I will never forget that game.

Well, then we don't disagree, do we? I simply pointed out that it is indeterminable who's the best.Obviously, when saying this I meant who's the best of all time. And of course Karpov is one of the best since he had been the best of his time. I think the case is closed there and there's no argument.

Karpov was the best from 1975-85. The FIDE title from the 90s doesn't count since Kasparov was the real champion. However, one might argue that for a brief periods of time somebody is on the top of the world. Like after Karpov won the 1994 Linares tournament. You could argue that during that period he was the best and there's a merit to that argument.

But to say that Karpov, or any other player, is the best player of all time is simply inaccurate. So, I respectully disagree with you there.

P.S. Karpov was one of the few people who was among the best for so long. He was clearly high up there in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and maybe even early 2000s. With a rating of 2600+, he is still a force to recon with. And he does come back and compete at a high level on occasion.

P.P.S. It would be kinda cool if he does live another 64 years!

One can argue that any regime is ugly. By the way, speaking about ugliness, here in America we're now required to have a health insurance or pay a penalty. I also heard that in Australia you folks are required to vote or pay a fine. How's that for ugliness? Obviously any country has some good things and some bad things. Depends on your perspective. So cheer up!

Perspective?The USSR(Russia)was responsible for the murder of 60million people with the KGB and GULAG.Putin is a KGB trained official who wants to restore the old totalitarian regime.He eliminates opposition politicians and also pesky journalists and now,by way of murderous suterfuge, has full control of the electronic media to enable him to spruik his filth.

Hey, nobody's denying the facts. However, if you look closer at the hisory of the world, every country has its hands fully soaked in blood. The Europeans and Americans killed the natives by millions, enslaved and deported millions of more Africans. Sure, it was a long time ago but its still part of the history... Not sure about Australia's history but if my memory serves me well it started as a penal colony...

By the way, if we're talking about recent events think of how Julian Assange and Edward Snowden were treated - just to name the few. Gitmo is still operatinal and who knows how many secret prisons there are...

So I suggest you to stop being a hypocrite here... PEACE OUT.

I think I remember seeing that game. That was a strange game.

Karpov did have his share of strange losses - just like most chessplayers do. I remember seeing him lose a game to Larry Christiansen in just 12 moves. I believe the game was played in 1993. Nobody is infallable, I guess. :)

Putin is a warmonger who has invaded Crimea and is now attacking eastern Ukraine all the time denying the fact.He is KGB trained and has twice publicaly stated that no-one is allowed to leave the KGB.Witness what happened to Alexander Litvinenko, a KGB officer who defected to Britain in order to co-publish a book detailing Putin's nefarious role in the Chechyan conflicts and a series of mysterious bombings in Moscow.He died from radioactive plutonium poisoning administered in his tea by two KGB colleagues that he dined with when they visited him from Moscow.His book "Blowing up Russia" was published and is available in the free world.It is banned in Russia because of its chronicaling Putin's hooligan deeds.

Ukraine and Crimea have, historically, been tied to Russia for longer than Europeans have been in the Americas. If, say, Texas were to break away from the Union and then a seperatist conflict then erupted in Texas you better believe the US would get involved.

Such lies thats not what Sarah Palin says. She has an american flag pin on her shirt.

In the first instance,Russia has invaded Ukraine via Crimea and eastern Ukraine.Ukraine gave up its inherited nuclear weapons after the demise of the evil USSR as a genuine display of peaceful co-existance.Western nations,in turn,signed a treaty honouring Ukraine's border.KGB officer Putin has broken regional harmony and started a war.Putin is a most despicable character.