Russian Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov, PhD was born on 23 May 1951 in Zlatoust. He learnt to play chess at the age of four. He was an outstanding student, and improved steadily in chess. At the age of eleven he was already a Candidate Master. At the age of twelve he was accepted into Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. His peak World Ranking was 1th (in 14 different months between January 1976 and July 1994). He was considered to be one of the ten best chess players of the world between 1972 and 1999. His peak rating was 2848 according to Chessmetrics. During his carrier he won several different World Championship titles: World Junior Champion in 1969, World Champion from 1975 to 1985 and FIDE World Champion from 1993 to 1999.

Junior years

 In 1969 at the very young age of 20 he became World Junior Champion. In the finals in Stockholm he got 10 points out of 11. Not much later he became International Grandmaster.

World Champion

Karpov held the World Championship title from 1975 to 1985. First he got the title without winning a match. Bobby Fischer held the World Champion title and Anatoly Karpov won the Candidates Tournament and challenged Fischer. However Fischer had such demands towards the World Championship match that FIDE could only partially accept. Fischer did not agree with the counter offer therefore FIDE withdrew his World Championship title and granted it to Karpov on 3 April 1975 without a match. In the 1978 World Championship match Karpov’s challenger was Viktor Korchnoi.  Karpov won the match by 6-5 and defended his World Championship title. In 1981 Korchnoi challenged Karpov again, and Karpov won by 6-2 that time defending his title for the second time against Korchnoi.

Karpov-Kasparov

In the 1984 Chess World Championship match defending champion Anatoli Karpov was challenged by Garry Kasparov, winner of the Candidates tournament. The Championship match was held in Moscow between 10 September 1984 and 15 February 1985. The 6 months long event was interrupted after the 48th game by the FIDE president and it was repeated under new rules in 1985 (Wikipedia). The 24 round World Championship match ended with the victory of Garry Kasparov by 13-11 who became the 13th Chess World Champion. The return match was held in 1986 where Garry Kasparov won by 12 ½-11 ½ and thus defended his title. Karpov did not give up and challenged Kasparov again in 1987 at the World Championship match and although Karpov came closer to win against Kasparov, the 12-12 draw meant that Kasparov could keep his title. In the 1990 World Championship match Karpov challenged Kasparov again, but Kasparov won by 12 ½-11 ½.

FIDE World Championship

Kasparov founded the Professional Chess Association (PCA) and together with British Nigel Short he challenged FIDE’s authority. As a result FIDE ejected both of them and in the 1993 FIDE World Championship Jan Timman, finalist of the Candidates Tournament and Anatoly Karpov who was defeated by the rejected Nigel Short in the semi-finals could play for the title. Karpov won by 12 ½-8 ½ and became FIDE World Champion again. In 1996 Gata Kamsky was Karpov’s challenger and Karpov won by 10 ½-7 ½ and defended his FIDE World Champion title. Karpov’s last World Championship match was held in 1998 where in a knockout system Viswanatan Anand qualified to challenge Karpov. Karpov won by 5-3 in a playoff. However in 1999 FIDE changed the World Championship format again, and according to the new rules the defending World Champion also had to qualify for the finals that Karpov refused and gave up his title.

Olympiads

Anatoly Karpov represented the Soviet Union in six Chess Olympiads. In 1972 in Skopje he won both individual and team gold medal. In 1974 in Nice he won both individual and team gold medal again. In 1980 in La Valetta he won team gold medal and placed fourth individually.  In 1982 in Luzern he did not place individually but won team gold medal. In 1986 in Dubai he won team gold again but only placed twelve. In 1988 in Saloniki he won team gold again and individual silver based on ranking, and individual gold on board two.