ISIS leaders and their heartful ally.
Codename: "Raul" - Karpov of the KGB
@Marignon
Even if this proto was true and original - back in 2013 today's ISIS leaders were legitimate opposition to Assad's regime.
Rest in peace, Victor Korchnoi - a REAL world champion!
Bump for Santero
It's been a while...
The KGB (and its predecessors) maintained a roster of informants to control any dissent from the official Party line. Karpov may have been the FIDE "king" at one time, but he was a pawn of the Soviet chess system.
JamieDelarosa wrote:
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
That is a good thing.
Regardless if Karpov was a recruited KGB informer or not, he behaved always fairly and politely towards his chess opponents.
Korchnoi lost his matches vs Karpov simply because he was the weaker player of these two. That was the most decisive factor: not yoghurt, not Zukhar, but the actual ability to play chess over the board. Brezhnev and Baturinsky may have preferred Karpov as champion, but they would have been powerless to prevent Korchnoi becoming a champion, if he had played better than Karpov. Extreme measures (ie murdering Korchnoi) were out of question, for many reasons.
Petra Leeuwerik's behaviour in Baguio 1978 was just inappropriate.