Codename: Raul - Karpov of the KGB

Excerpts from "The KGB Plays Chess" by GM Boris Gulko, Vladimir Popov (KGB Colonel, retired), Yuri Felshtinsky, and GM Viktor Korchnoi

One of the central figures in this book is the twelfth world champion, Anatoly Karpov.  There was evidence that Karpov collaborated with the KGB even before this book was written.  Now we know even the secret codename given [to him] by the KGB ... "Raoul".

Possessing a powerful intellect, a great player and a great manipulator, Karpov made splendid use the opportunities which opened up before him as an agent of the KGB.

- from the Foreward by Boris Gulko, pg 10

With respect to Korchnoi, the Soviet government [from 1974] pursued a policy of outright outright harassment, and he was left with no other choice than to leave the Soviet Union forever.  The Soviet government machine placed its bets on Anatoly Karpov, a rising star in the chess firmament, who was obedient and easily manageable.  Korchnoi, an emotional nonconformist and a Jew, was of no use to the Soviet system.  In 1976, while attending an international tournament in Holland, Korchnoi requested political asylum, which he soon received in Switzerland.... Korchnoi, whose family was still in the USSR, had litle notion of how many trials and battles with the Soviet system he still had to endure.

- by Popov and Felshtinsky (P&F), pg 19

In 1978, a world championship match was scheduled to take place in Baguio, in the Philippines, between the Soviet world champion, Anatoly Karpov, and the "defector" and "traitor to his homeland" (as he was referred to in the Soviet Union) challenger Viktor Korchnoi.  When he was still a young man living in Leningrad, Karpov had been recruited as an agent of the KGB, operating under the codename "Raul."  The choice of the codename had been evidently inspired by [events] in Cuba, and as his moniker, Karpov chose the name of Fidel Castro's brother, Raul.

Not fully trusting the information about chess he received from his subordinates in the Fifth Directorate, [Yuri] Andropov, head of the KGB, had regular meeting with Karpov himself, in order to stay fully informed about [Anatoly's] problems and wishes, since Karpov was a favorite of the General Secretary of the Central Committee, Leonid Brezhnev.  The outcome of these meetings was that Lt. Gen. Filipp Bobkov, head of the Fifth Directorate of the KGB, was instructed that Karpov had to remain the world chess champion.

P&F, pg 20

The outwardly quiet Karpov, who spoke in a high and not very manly voice, repeatedly met with Andropov without having any panic attacks.  After their first meeting, Andropov, who had received instructions from Brezhvev to use any means necessary to prevent the "traitor Korchnoi" from winning the world chess championship, ordered the creation of an "operational group" of KGB agents to accompany Karpov to the title match in Baguio in 1978.

P&F, pg 21

What was a good thing?  A KGB plan to assassinate Korchnoi??

The KGB was a lawless organization.  One of its mandates was to carry out assassinations.