In My Great Predecessors, Kasparov himself stated that he had put forth the provocative suggestion that in a Fischer-Karpov match, Karpov would have had real winning chances and that Fischer declined to defend his title because he was afraid of losing to an unfamiliar opponent.
Without going into detail on Kasparov’s reasoning, years ago during the infamous Karpov-Kasparov matches, I heard Bobby Fischer making the ridiculous claim that the games were prearranged computer generated games. It was clear that both the K’s had surpassed Fischer’s understanding of the game. He tried to level the playing filed by creating Fischer random just like Capa tried to introduce new pieces when it was clear the younger generation had surpassed him.
By the way, Kasparov claims that the great masters of the past can be arbitrarily divided into three groups:
1) Those with relatively poor intuition, but they had qualities of straightforward play, erudition, logic, orderliness, iron will and an extraordinary capacity for work. Steinitz, Botvinnik, Euwe and Fischer.
2) Strong, at times even phenomenal, strategic intuition. Capablanca, Smyslov, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov and maybe Rubinstein.
3) Strong specific intuition operating in sharp position where material and positional equilibrium are disturbed. Lasker, Alekhine,Tal, Chigorin,Bronstein, Stein, Korchnoi and Kasparov himself.
GM Andy Soltis said the best thing that could be said about Karpov as World Champion was that he actually played chess. Unlike some other champions before him who went into hibernation after winning the title, Karpov put his reputation on line in classy big league Category 10 or higher tournaments quite often and in his first two years as champion he actually won seven major tournaments. All told, he played in almost three dozen such events during his reign from 1975 to 1985.
Still, nobody ever liked Karpov. He did what the Party expected of him and as for his personal conduct, again, he played by the rules, but he was not, as one American political columnist put it, a gentleman like Spassky.
Particularly interesting, or should I say amusing?, was Soviet, later U.S. GM Leonid Shamkokich’s opinion of Karpov whom he clearly despised. While admitting that Karpov was a great fighter, Shamkovich stated that his refusal to continue his first match against Kasparov was not a result of cowardice, but rather Karpov was betrayed by his “frail, hairless body” which “aged visibly” during the marathon match.
I am not sure why Shamkovich considered having a hairless body had anything to do with Karpov's collapse late in the match. I met Shamkovich and he was always dressed in a suit and tie, so I don't know...maybe he was a hairy guy and equated it with manliness!? If you're interested the Live Science website has an article on why women don't fall for hairy guys.
Anyway, when Shamkovich first met the 11-year old Karpov, he was impressed but not favorably. He described Karpov as a “cold. selfish, hard, unfriendly” child that was lacking any of the “playfulness associated with normal youngsters.”
Shamkovich called it a tragedy that that Karpov’s greatness was sucked out of him by the propaganda and adulation heaped on him by the Party to the point that he really believed the propaganda that he was the ideal Soviet youth, sportsman and great Soviet man to the point that the title of World Champion became, in Karpov’s mind, part of his name. When he wrote that, Shamkovich must have forgotten about Bobby Fischer who for the rest of his life claimed he was the World Champion.
According to Shamkovich, if Karpov had been of a decent character he would have been shocked and angered when he found himself “being beaten by an Armenian Jew whose real name was Gary Weinstein.”
Karpov, according to Shamkovich, had become so used to winning from positions analyzed virtually to mate by others and the analysis given to him, or against opponents who had been ordered to lose, that he couldn’t handle it and so that’s why the first match against Kasparov was aborted.
One time I helped the late James R. Schroeder by proofreading one of his booklets and by way of saying thank you, he sent me a book of Karpov’s best games which I assume he didn’t want and to be honest, neither did I. It wasn't that I despised Karpov for being a hairless, nasty little fellow (I didn't know any of that)...I just didn't enjoy playing over his games.
Karpov possessed extraordinary positional understanding and his chess showed it. It was highly positional. He was always striving to improve his position without taking any risk. He’d just wait for his opponents to make the slightest inaccuracy and then he’d pounce. If his opponents played pretty decent chess and avoided any major errors, that was OK...his unparalleled mastery of the endgame was often sufficient to score the point.
Karpov (born May 23, 1951) was from the industrial town of Zlatoust in the Urals where his father was a factory worker and later an engineer at the factory. In his early years, Karpov wanted to become a pilot and promised all of his relatives a ride when he got his license.
He received his first chess lessons from his father and after starting school, he began playing in a club of the factory’s Palace of Culture.
His life was not limited to chess. Starting in 1978, he worked as a junior researcher in the social studies institute at Leningrad State University. Two years later, he became a junior, then senior, researcher of the political economy department.
He was also a social figure, chairing the Soviet Fund of Peace, and later a similar establishment in Russia. He is a well known philatelists and is the author and co-author of a series of books. In 1999-2003 he was a chairman of the board at the Federal Industrial Bank. In 2004, he became a member of the Presidential Council on Culture and in 2006 Karpov was appointed Acting Chairman of the Ecologic Safety and Environmental Protection Commission.
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