Anatoly Karpov was world chess champion for ten consecutive years before he ever lost the title — a record that no player has matched. His style was the opposite of his eventual successor’s: where Kasparov sought complications, Karpov reduced them; where Kasparov made theatrical moves, Karpov played the quiet ones that left his opponent without a plan.

Early years

Karpov was born in Zlatoust, a small industrial town in the southern Urals. He learned chess from his father at four. By eight he was the youngest Soviet schoolchild ever to receive the Candidate Master title. He moved to Leningrad as a teenager to study at the chess school of Mikhail Botvinnik, where he was a contemporary of several future grandmasters but the only one Botvinnik described, decades later, as “the next world champion.”

He earned his grandmaster title in 1970 at nineteen, won the Soviet Championship for the first time in 1976, and won the World Junior Championship in 1969. The Soviet establishment recognised early that they had a player who could carry their championship line after Boris Spassky lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972.

Becoming champion by default

The 1975 World Championship match between Karpov and Fischer was scheduled for the Philippines. Fischer’s demands — including a “first to ten wins” format with the champion retaining the title at 9–9 — were rejected by FIDE. Fischer forfeited. Karpov became world champion without playing a game for the title.

The circumstance shaped Karpov’s career for the next decade. He had to prove, through tournament results, that he deserved the championship he had been given. Between 1975 and 1984, he won nearly every major tournament he entered — Milan 1975, Skopje 1976, Bugojno 1978, Montreal 1979, Tilburg in multiple years, and the unofficial “world championship” tournament victories at Linares. His career tournament-win total — over 160 victories at the time of his retirement — is unmatched in chess history.

The Korchnoi years

Karpov’s first true title defenses came against Viktor Korchnoi, the Soviet defector. The 1978 match in Baguio City, Philippines, was a sporting and political event of unusual intensity. Korchnoi had defected from the USSR in 1976; the Soviet apparatus put its full resources behind Karpov. Karpov won 6–5 in won games (with 21 draws) over a marathon match that lasted three months.

The 1981 rematch in Merano, Italy, was less close — Karpov won 6–2. Korchnoi was past his peak; Karpov was at the height of his strategic powers.

The Kasparov marathons

Between 1984 and 1990, Karpov played five world-championship matches against Garry Kasparov. The first — Moscow 1984 — was the longest match in chess history, eventually terminated by FIDE without a result after five months. Karpov led 5–3 in won games when the match was called off; Kasparov, twelve years younger, was visibly the one improving as the marathon stretched.

Karpov lost the title in their 1985 rematch (also in Moscow), 13–11. He came within half a point in the 1986 London-Leningrad rematch (12.5–11.5). The 1987 Seville match ended 12–12, which let Karpov retain — but the title belonged to Kasparov by champion’s privilege, not by superiority. Their 1990 New York/Lyon match was again narrow (12.5–11.5 to Kasparov), and Karpov never challenged for the unified title again.

He won FIDE’s split-off title in 1993, after Kasparov broke from FIDE to form the PCA, and held the FIDE title until 1999. His total time at the top of the chess world — combining both championship periods and his rating dominance — exceeds Kasparov’s in absolute years.

Legacy

Karpov’s legacy is positional. His games are textbook studies in restraint: he created weaknesses, restricted his opponent’s pieces, and converted endings that other elite players would have drawn. His handling of the Caro-Kann Defense in his world-championship matches against Kasparov produced theory still studied today. His Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation games against Kasparov and Korchnoi are reference material for every serious student of the structure.

He has remained active in chess politics throughout his post-championship life, serving as a member of the Russian Duma and continuing to play occasional exhibition events. His tournament-win total of over 160 has not been approached by any other player.

References

For original sources and further study:

Cross-links inside Caissly: the Caro-Kann Defense article cites his 1984 World Championship games directly. His Queen’s Gambit Declined practice is referenced in the QGD Exchange article.