Anatoli Karpov

His father worked as a steelworker but worked his way up to become a chief engineer. Karpov learned to play chess in his early childhood. From 1964 to 1968 he took part in a distance learning course in chess. In 1966, at the age of 15, he became the youngest chess master in the USSR. From 1968 onward, Karpov studied economics, English and Spanish, first in Moscow and then in Leningrad. In 1978 he received his diploma. In addition to his studies, Karpov continued to pursue his chess career. In 1969 he won the World Youth Championship. When Bobby Fischer did not compete against Karpov at the 1975 World Championship, the 23-year-old Russian student was made the twelfth FIDE World Chess Champion without a fight. As a result, Karpov was able to successfully defend the world championship title several times. In 1978 and 1981 he prevailed against challenger Viktor Kortschnoj. For this he was awarded the Order of Labor and the Order of Lenin.

In the period from 1973 to 1977, Karpov was also awarded the Chess Oscar by the international chess press five times in a row. In the 1985 World Championship decision, Karpov lost to challenger Garry Kasparov after the longest World Cup competition in chess history, who thereby became the youngest world chess champion in the history of the sport. Karpov tried to win back the world championship title in further encounters with Kasparov in 1986, 1987 and 1990, but he was unable to do so despite a tie in Seville (1987). At the 1993 World Chess Championship, Karpov was eliminated in the semifinals, which ended the duel between him and Kasparov. However, since Kasparov was disqualified in a conflict with the World Chess Federation FIDE and was now organizing his own world championship, the "Professional Chess Association" (PCA), Karpov was still admitted to the world championship fight.

In 1993, Karpov emerged as the clear winner of the dispute with Timmen, so that he was able to call himself FIDE World Chess Champion in the future. Kasparov faced him as PCA world champion. Kasparov was able to defend the new title against Gata Kamsky in 1996 and against Visanathan Anand in 1998. However, due to differences with FIDE over the once again changed participation and competition conditions, the world champion no longer took part in the fight in 1999. His successor as FIDE World Chess Champion in 1999 was his compatriot Alexander Khalifan. Karpov continued to play chess and also took part in subsequent international tournaments. He is considered one of the best position players in chess history. He won the Chess Oscar as the best player of a year a total of nine times. There are also more than 100 tournament victories - a world record.