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    Entries in Anatoly Karpov (38)

    Wednesday
    Feb022022

    Anatoly Karpov: Born To Win

    That's the name of an interview of the legendary Anatoly Karpov (conducted by Ilya Levitov for his YouTube channel). Episode one, "A self-taught genius", is here; episode two, "Chess in dreams and reality", is here. The interview is in Russian, but clicking on the closed captioning button provides English subtitles.

    Highly recommended, as is Levitov's channel in general.

    Friday
    Jul022021

    "Closing Gambit" - A Quick Comment or Two

    In the preceding post I mentioned the 2018 chess documentary, "Closing Gambit: 1978 Korchnoi vs. Karpov and the Kremlin". It's short, so I took a short vacation from normal life to watch. As a comment to the aforementioned post suspects, the narrative is, unsurprisingly, slanted in Korchnoi's favor - and why wouldn't it be? But it's not portrayed as saint vs. devil. Viktor Korchnoi's prickliness is acknowledged by all, and it does not ignore the fact that he abandoned his family. And while Anatoly Karpov is portrayed as opportunistically accepting every advantage that his Soviet supporters could bestow on him, he is presented with humanity, and he is one of the major participants in the documentary, as an interviewee. Near the end of the film, he is painted in a somewhat sympathetic life - at least after he lost his title.

    It's difficult for me to know exactly how someone who doesn't already know the story and have long-standing opinions about the dramatis personae would see it. I don't think they'd come away from it hating Karpov or believing that Korchnoi is the embodiment of goodness and light, though they probably would see Korchnoi as a man with an admirably strong fighting spirit, and this helped him not only as a competitor but as a survivor in life.

    Should those of you who know the story well already watch it? There's a good chance you won't learn anything new, but many of you are probably young enough to learn quite a bit. And it's always fun to see all the old footage of these players, not to mention contemporary interviews with Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Boris Gelfand and other greats reflecting on the match and its participants. So, crack open your wallets and spend 99 cents over on Amazon to watch a tale of one of the two most important matches of the previous century.

    Thursday
    Jul012021

    "Closing Gambit"

    Perhaps in the context of my recent post about grandmasters on TV, reader Pedro E. wrote in to mention a 2018 documentary about the circus that was the 1978 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi. Somehow I had missed this, but it seems to widely and inexpensively available at various sites. More about the film, here.

    Friday
    May072021

    Carlsen Ranks the World Champions

    Not all of them, but I spotted short videos on Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, and Anand; also on Judit Polgar (technically not a women's world champion, but the female player for a very long time) and Hou Yifan on the distaff side. And also, on himself!

    Saturday
    Mar232019

    Karpov Interview

    This interview came out last September, prior to the Carlsen-Caruana match, but is still of interest. Former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, interviewed by his long-time friend (the long-retired GM Ron Henley), talks about Viktor Korchnoi, Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen and much more besides.

    HT: Ervin Middleton

    Wednesday
    Dec192018

    Great Moments in Advertising: New in Chess Says Timman is Better Qualified to Write About Kasparov's Matches than Kasparov

    How can someone write such a thing with a straight face? Here's a bit of ad copy (received by email; I haven't managed to find it on the web) promoting Jan Timman's new book, The Longest Game: The Five Kasparov-Karpov Matches for the World Chess Championship:

    From 1984 to 1990 Garry Kasparov and Anatoli [sic] Karpov played five matches for the World Chess Championship. The matches lasted a staggering total of 14 months. The two K's played 5540 moves in 144 games, and in the end the score was only 73-71 in Kasparov's favour.

    It was front page news all over the world.

    I have always wondered why the fiercest rivalry in sports history had never resulted in a single book that told the full story and explained the chess . [sic]

    Now such a book exists, written by the man who is probably the best qualified person in the world to do so.

    In The Longest Game Jan Timman chronicles the many twists and turns of the fascinating saga, including his behind-the scenes impressions, and takes a fresh look at the games.

    Timman annotates 50 key games and 17 fragments, in a much more accessible and objective way than has ever been done before, Kasparov’s own forests of variations included.

    I'm sure it's a very good book - Timman's books typically are - and I intend to buy a copy. But saying that Timman is "probably the best qualified person in the world" to write about the Kasparov-Karpov matches is prepare-the-electric-shock-therapy crazy. (Alternatively, one might prefer the standard idiom these days, which makes reference to a flying mammal and its digestive processes.) One can reasonably believe that Timman will be more objective than Kasparov when it comes to evaluating some of the behind-the-scenes matters, like the stoppage of the first match, but it's also possible that Kasparov's knowledge of how things worked in the USSR gives him the better perspective.

    No doubt it will be interesting to compare their reports and opinions. But when it comes to the chess, Timman is the vastly inferior player, and it's absurd and perhaps even offensive to pretend that he could be the best qualified player for the most important aspect of the matches: the chess itself. Kasparov is past his prime, obviously, but he still held his own in rapid and blitz against the world's best players in 2016 and 2017. Even now he's still clearly able to play chess at a 2700+ level. Timman, by contrast, never got higher than a 2680 rating - in 1990 - and is presently 2540. The point isn't to insult Timman, who was one of the world's best players for a couple of decades and played for one of the world championship titles in 1993 (and an outstanding study composer as well), but to show that the ad copy is ridiculous.

    Two further peccadilloes: First, note the use of the adjective in the phrase "single book". Chess fans who have been around for a while know that Kasparov wrote three books on his games with Karpov, and the matches are distributed across the three books. But to younger players, or those who haven't followed chess literature very closely, they may read it as "there are no books on the matches that tell the full story and explain the chess". (Yes, he refers to Kasparov's analysis, but doesn't note that it's from a book or series of books by Kasparov himself. For all the reader knows, it could have been in ChessBase, or the Informant, or New in Chess Magazine, or somewhere else.)

    Second, the little dig at Kasparov's "forests of variations" also induces the grinding of teeth. Aren't they thoughtful? They don't want their poor readers to hurt themselves looking at deep lines. (Isn't it awesome that the analysis can be more objective than Kasparov's without Timman's needing to delve as deeply into the variations?) Poor wittwe weader might get a headache! (Maybe the concept can be improved even further - see this "review" of another book, and this fuller review of its sequel, for a promising suggestion.)

    It's condescending, and readers shouldn't appreciate it even if they prefer their annotations to be relatively light. If the occasional "forest" is required to get at the truth of a given position, so be it. I trust Kasparov (and Mozart) more than the ad man when it comes to the issue of "too many notes". The reader may not always want to bother with the full analysis and that's fine, but the analysis should be there all the same - especially for something as grand as the "fiercest rivalry in sports history", between two of the greatest players of all time. (If the ad man wants to say, "That's what Kasparov's books are for," then he's conceding that the Kasparov books are objectively greater (at least for the analysis), and Timman's is simply useful as a one-volume abridgement. And note that it is an abridgement, covering fewer than half of the games. While there were a few short and boring draws when Kasparov was in survival mode in the first match, very few of the games in the next four matches were of that sort. That it is an abridgement is significant, and one more reason why this book cannot claim to be "the full story".)

    I'd also add that the "forests" weren't as dense as the ad suggests. Yes, there are some games when Kasparov goes to town - though he's never Huebnerian (for those of you who get the reference) - but for the most part the lines are manageable, with a lot of talk. And for some of the games - some of the Zaitsev Ruys, for instance, like games 14 and 16 of the 1986 match - I don't see how one can even pretend to have covered those games without some deep analysis. (And if Timman does cover such games in the way they deserve, I wonder if New in Chess will have a little note telling the reader to take some aspirin or Tylenol while pleading for forgiveness.)

    So once again, let me say that Timman is a fine analyst and I'm very likely to get the book. But please, ad people, just tell the truth about the book. Timman was a leading grandmaster and remains a strong player and analyst, as his award-winning book from two years ago (Timman's Titans) will attest. There's no need for over-the-top claims that insult the reader's intelligence.

    Friday
    Dec142018

    Back in the USSR, 1988 Championship Edition (Updated with the link)

    The last great Soviet Championship took place in 1988, and finished in a tie between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. (There was supposed to be a 4-game playoff, but it never happened, and contrary to what is says here Kasparov did want the playoff.)

    The tournament was ridiculously strong, featuring a host of other greats including former world champion Vasily Smyslov, former FIDE world champion Alexander Khalifman, Artur Yusupov (three times a semi-finalist in the Candidates matches), Valery Salov (once rated #3 in the world), Vassily Ivanchuk (one of the greatest contemporary players never to become world champion), two-time Candidate Leonid Yudasin, 1987 Candidates finalist Andrei Sokolov, multiple-time Candidate and former 2700 Alexander Beliavsky, former top-5 player Jaan Ehlvest, former Candidate Rafael Vaganian, former 2700 player Ilia Smirin, and former Candidate Mikhail Gurevich. Of course not all of the players were at their peak then, but they were still (or already) very strong, and the two super-Ks had to play very well to share first.

    Anyhow, for those of you who like old footage, here's an (almost) 15-minute clip with footage from the event, showing plenty of scenes from the playing hall followed by and commentator GM Sergey Makarichev's presentation of Kasparov's famous win from that event against Ivanchuk.

    HT: Les Kistler

    Wednesday
    Aug082018

    Karpov Wins 184th Career Event

    It's not a big event, but as someone who grew up during his world championship tenure I'm always happy to see Anatoly Karpov in action - at least when he's playing pretty well. He's 67 now and hasn't played as a true professional for nearly 20 years, and his openings are fundamentally subpar for a player of his level, and yet he can still hold his own against strong opponents in games with a short time control.

    Here's a report on his latest success, a close victory in a four-player event whose other participants were Anatoly Vaisser, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, and Eugenio Torre. Vaisser made it a surprisingly close race, while Torre's result was disappointing, especially considering his fantastic result in the 2016 Olympiad. (Torre finished with a 2836 TPR, taking the bronze medal on board 3.)

    Wednesday
    Feb072018

    Karpov-Hou Yifan Match

    This rapid match took place on Monday and Tuesday, and was won by Anatoly Karpov 3.5-2.5. Karpov got off to a good start and clinched the match after five games, with Hou Yifan getting a last win in "garbage time" to narrow the margin. More on the event, and the games, here.

    Saturday
    Nov262016

    The World Champion in 2030?

    It's a wee bit early to crown anyone as the 2030 World Champion, but if you'd like an early candidate born in this decade you could do worse than to suggest 3-year-old Mikhail Osipov.

    Sure, he lost, but it was to Anatoly Karpov. Not bad for a near-toddler!