12th World Champion Karpov Wins 184th Career Event

According to his own count, Anatoly Karpov won the 184th event of his career at the Chess Legends tournament in Platja d'Aro, Spain ahead of Anatoly Vaisser, Ljubomir Ljubojevic and Eugenio Torre.

The four chess legends need little introduction to most of the chess fans—especially Karpov (67). Besides one or two Bundesliga games each year, the 12th world champion doesn't play classical chess anymore, but he does play rapid and blitz events every now and then. In February he defeated Hou Yifan 3.5-2.5 in China.

Anatoly Karpov. | Photo: David Llada/Official site.

Linares resident Ljubojevic (67) is a former world number three. The Serbian grandmaster, who worked as a commentator at the Shamkir tournament a few times, hardly plays these days. He did participate in two rapid events last year in Spain, one of them being the first edition in Platja d'Aro. Back then, Karpov also played, and the other two were Jan Timman and Zoltan Ribli.

Ljubomir Ljubojevic. | Photo: David Llada/Official site.

Before Wesley So, who has now moved to the U.S., Torre (66) was the only world class player produced by the Philippines. Early in his career (1976) he won a famous game against Karpov, and these days he is known for the player to have participated in the most Olympiads: 23.

Eugenio Torre. | Photo: David Llada/Official site.

Kazakhstan-born Vaisser (69) was a strong Soviet grandmaster in the 1980s, and moved to France in 1991. He won the World Seniors Championship title no less than four times.

Anatoly Vaisser. | Photo: David Llada/Official site.

The tournament was held June 25-30 in Hotel Aromar in Platja d'Aro, a coastal resort town 80 km north of Barcelona. It's a place where many Russians like to go, including Karpov, who met some friends there. The town also hosts summer chess camps for kids of several Karpov schools.

The four legends at age had a nice and slow playing schedule: two rapid games on day one, two on day two, then a rest day, then two more rapid games, and then six blitz games on each of the last two days. As could have been expected perhaps. their play varied from flashes of excellence to heavy blunders.

Karpov won a nice endgame in round two against Ljubojevic.

However, four rounds later, in their "return game" in the rapid part, an early blunder led to a devastating loss against the same opponent:

After this, Karpov would score 5.5/6 against "Ljubo" in the remaining games. This was probably one of his best:

Another tournament victory for Karpov. | Photo: David Llada/Official site.

With one game to go, Vaisser was on 16/23, half a point more than Karpov. However, the French GM lost to Ljubojevic, who played a powerful last game:

Karpov won against Torre (who blundered in time trouble), but still didn't realize immediately that he had won the tournament. As soon as he heard, the first thing he said was that it was his 184th victory! Whether that number is accurate is another story, but few chess players are allowed to boast more about their career.

One of the games between Torre and Karpov. | Photo: David Llada/Official site.