Talk:Anatoly Karpov

Untitled
Why no mention of his being the owner of the Russian oil company named Petrom and having an estimated net worth in the billions?

This company came under some scrutiny when allegations were made that claims of a natural gas discovery were false. There was no followup to the investigation. (Gee I wonder why) And it seems that any mention of Karpov's affiliation with this company have remained mysteriously absent from this article.

older entries
About his peak Elo rating: it can't be 2725 - I remember him having a higher grade than that, and Chessbase says he was at 2780 in 1994. I guess that's his peak, though I suppose there's a slim chance he was higher before 1976 (which is when the graph seems to stop), so I won't add it (I'll see if I can check it somewhere). Also, where do the details of his "overall record" (1,118 wins, 287 losses, 1,480 draws) come from? Does this record just include top-level games at normal time controls (as I think it ought to) or does it also include blitz games, off-hand games, simuls and so on? Also, when is it up to? Karpov is sitll playing, so his record is always subject to change. --Camembert

Yeah, I remember him being at 2780 too, I'll use that as the number. I got the win/loss from www.chessgames.com, which is prety accurate for now.--Etaonish 13:23, May 16, 2004 (UTC)

Arguably his 2720 (around the time of the match with Kasparov?) was more meaningful than his later peak, due to ratings inflation. Anyway, Kasparov and Kramnik are the only ones to have passed the 2800 mark.

Anand and Topalov have since attained the 2800 mark. ```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abenr (talk • contribs) 00:19, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Hacking?
I'm pretty sure that the statistics appearing about Karpov's penis size aren't relevant. Has somebody hacked this page?

Yeah, vandalism is pretty common. It gets reverted, though. -- Etaonish 13:03, Sep 12, 2004 (UTC)

Karpov, when not playing chess
I'm a little bit disappointed that next to nothing is said about Karpov, when not playing chess. -- Pjacobi 15:47, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

That's because most of his non-chess life revolves about affairs involving a corrupt oil company called Petrom. It's not surprising that mention of this is absent from the article. I'm sure his manager has people that take care of this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.182.194.195 (talk) 08:46, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I've tried and I am unable to find much on his life regarding his non-chess activities. I'll attempt to correct this. -- Etaonish 18:30, Sep 12, 2004 (UTC)

After some more searches - Karpov does have biographies and autobiographies out. If anyone could possibly get a hold of them, could you please add to this page? Thanks. -- Etaonish 18:40, Sep 12, 2004 (UTC)


 * Perhaps some speaker of Russian has a lot more sources available, but without promising anything, I'll put it on my to-do. See for example: http://www.russiatoday.ru/en/top100/most_fam/3177.html -- Pjacobi 18:51, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Canadian?!
EDGE - do you have any sources for that? I find it highly unlikely. -- Etaonish 18:54, Sep 12, 2004 (UTC)

Hair
I seem to remember something about Karpov not washing his hair when he was on a winning streak or something. Was this just a myth? Mintguy (T) 22:33, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Name
The article uses both Anatoly and Anatoli - are both right? If so, I think it should a) comment on this and b) pick one and use it for internal consistency. -- S

Link suggestions
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Would appreciate...
...if someone added the Topalov game mentioned into the article, perhaps using the format of Hastings 1895 chess tournament. provides a lot of good material, as well as the board set-up. Even better would be if the Tatai game could be added as well

Normally I'd do this but this is laborious and I'm tired.-- Etaonish 17:48, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)

Request for references
Hi, I am working to encourage implementation of the goals of the Verifiability policy. Part of that is to make sure articles cite their sources. This is particularly important for featured articles, since they are a prominent part of Wikipedia. Further reading is not the same thing as proper references. Further reading could list works about the topic that were not ever consulted by the page authors. If some of the works listed in the further reading section were used to add or check material in the article, please list them in a references section instead. The Fact and Reference Check Project has more information. Thank you, and please leave me a message when a few references have been added to the article. - Taxman 19:09, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)

Removal of incorrect references
The statement about his private chess library consisting of 9000 books must be removed together with the external reference (the reference doesn't exist, or at least not anymore) unless we can find a different but suitable reference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mlombaard (talk • contribs) 10:53, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Mistakes
This doesn't make sense but I am not sure what the truth is... Under "Rival" section this sentence appears: "Instead, in the final game, needing only a draw to win the title, Karpov blundered on his 33rd and 64th moves and lost, ending the match in a draw and allowing Kasparov to keep the title." sYx66 01:27, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Karpov lost the final game and therefore the 24-game match was a draw. David Sneek 16:43, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Rating
In the "Towards Retirement" section, it is mentioned that Karpov achieved an ELO rating of 2985, yet in the "Elo Rating System" article, it mentions that "Only Garry Kasparov of Russia, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, and Viswanathan Anand of India have ever had a rating of 2800 or above." One of them is wrong. Any thoughts?
 * No contradiction there: it doesn't say his rating was 2985, but that his performance rating at that one tournament (Linares 1994) was 2985; in other words, he scored a result there that would normally be expected of a 2985 player. David Sneek 09:51, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Where did you get 2985 from? Google led me to a site with some chess records (but no references) that gives 2899. That number is mentioned in a chessbase article as well. Besides that, there is no official way to calculate a TPR, so I find it strange to mention this at all. 82.74.127.243 (talk) 16:44, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

I corrected a very minor - though extremely annoying and widespread - mistake. I changed "ELO" to "Elo", as it should be. All three letters are not to be capitalised. Smyslov 01:10, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Notable games
In the "Notable games" section it is stated that in the game Viktor Korchnoi vs Anatoli Karpov, Moscow 1973 Karpov could have won his opponent's queen in the final position. Apparently that is not true, 41. ... Ne3 42. Nd2 leads to a roughly even game maybe with advantage for Karpov, but certainly without a forced queen win. So i think the part about that game should be removed, or at least rewritten, if its still to be considered as a notable game, even with Korchnoi apparently resigning in a position not ripe for resigning. Desaran (talk) 18:15, 5 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Done. I've also removed the 1974 game 2 win - that was an opening laboratory win, it's a backhanded compliment to Karpov to put that into his most notable games. Peter Ballard (talk) 03:37, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Karpov is a multi billionaire
Maybe someone, who has the time, should add this fact to the article in a coherent and factual way.

Yes, but there needs to be a reference. 82.70.155.252 (talk) 12:11, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I can see it, he's a stamp collector.24.68.50.33 (talk) 03:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Other Karpov Books
Byrne, GB Robert - The New King, Anatoly Karpov, The Road to the World Chess Championship, 1976 Bantam Books, Inc. Karpov, Anatoly - Chess at the Top 1979-1984, Pergammon Press, english translation 1984 K.P. Neat Karpov, Anatoly - Karpov on Karpov, Memoirs of a Chess World Champion, translated 1991 by Todd Bludeau Levy, David - Karpov's Collected Games, All 530 Avaliable Encounters: 1961-1974 Mednis, Edmar - How Karpov Wins, 1975, 1994 Dover Publications24.68.50.33 (talk) 22:17, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Karpov's Games
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=100515524.68.50.33 (talk) 22:08, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Removal of undisputed tags
Fischer said time and time again that he was still world champion since he never lost a world title match. It is therefor laughable to say that Karpov was ever the undisputed world champion, sure he was undisputed FIDE champion but not the undisputed world champion. If anyone wants to discuss this matter then lets talk about it otherwise the undisputed tags will go down soon without further discussion.--194x144x90x118 (talk) 20:27, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * My suggestion is that you not cause disruption here (or anywhere else on wikipedia, for that matter). The article does a good job of explaining the circumstances of Karpov's claim to the World Championship title.  I'm not certain specifically what changes you would like to make to the article, but I suspect that the edits you seem to propose would be reverted by many other editors (WP:RS and WP:UNDUE).  Most of these other editors actually contribute to improving articles, something that is not apparent in your brief contribution history which seems to consist almost entirely of pot-stirring on Talk and Wikipedia space pages with almost no useful work on articles.  I also suspect that many editors don't want to talk with you as it seems to be an entirely unproductive use of the time and energy of people who are actually improving this encyclopedia.  Do not try to use this as implicit approval of your views.  Quale (talk) 20:52, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It's you that's causing the disruption with a personal attack, I simply wanted to discuss this matter with other editors not engage in a food fight, if you don't have an opinion regarding this then I'll see if others do, if nobody does then there are no objections and article changes will be made.--194x144x90x118 (talk) 21:07, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * "It's you that's causing the disruption with a personal attack, I simply wanted to discuss this matter with other editors not engage in a food fight" - Ha! Good one! As for the substance of your position, I would be most surprised if you could find a reliable source who regards Fischer as having a legitimate claim to be the world champion after 1975. Since he had refused to play in the 1975 world championship, FIDE had no reasonable choice but to forfeit him and declare Karpov, the challenger, world champion. Krakatoa (talk) 05:27, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Quoting the OP "Fischer said time and time again that he was still world champion since he never lost a world title match. It is therefor laughable to say that Karpov was ever the undisputed world champion". In a sense Fischer never lost a W.C. match, but he did in effect forfeit the 1975 match.  I don't know of any reliable source that does not consider Karpov the world champion starting in 1975.  If it was "disputed", it was only disputed by Fischer, and Fischer chose not to defend his title against Karpov.  Bubba73 (talk), 06:07, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

There are some factual errors in your claims, Fischer never forfeited any 1975 match and FIDE did not forfeit him. Fischer did resign his FIDE world chess champion title. That has nothing to do with the lineal World Championship that he held both before he resigned the FIDE title as well as after and until his death in 2008. There are obvious errors in various articles regarding this matter that need to be corrected other adjustments might be more controversial and require further discussion.--194x144x90x118 (talk) 13:33, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * FIDE declared Karpov the world champion in 1975 (because Fischer would not defend the title) and that is the direct lineage of the world championship. Bubba73 (talk), 15:46, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Just for the record, Fischer resigned his FIDE title first (the only "World Chess Champion" title then in existence), in mid-1974, a resignation which was not accepted by FIDE President Euwe. See, e.g., this Sports Illustrated article.  Only later did FIDE forfeit him.  --72.70.28.109 (talk) 12:36, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Fischer never forfeited his Classical World Chess Championship only the FIDE title he held, and FIDE was not able to forfeit Fischers classical World Chess Championship only their own FIDE title. In 1992 Fischer infact defended his World Chess Championship VS Spassky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer#1992_Spassky_rematch he would have gone on to defend it VS Kasparov and Karpov but they were more interested in participating in fixed matches see this link and this link than in taking on the REAL! World Champion Bobby Fischer--194x144x90x118 (talk) 13:08, 12 July 2009 (UTC).


 * Priceless ... and this is all explained in which authoritative text on the subject? Brittle heaven (talk) 15:57, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
 * This is an obvious conclusion that any reasonable person would come to simply from reading the wikipedia articles regarding these men.--194x144x90x118 (talk) 17:01, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
 * LOL ... well maybe those with fertile imaginations, eh? Brittle heaven (talk) 17:36, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
 * It would be easier to take Fischer's argument that he was still the World Championship seriously if he had continued playing after 1972. He could have refused to play for the World Championship, but still continued to play in tournaments. He could have even played crappy chess, but as long he was playing he could have still argued he was the champion. He never said he retired, but if it quacks it's a duck, and he did retire. When you retire you are no longer World Champion.BashBrannigan (talk) 04:50, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Wow - I know Fischer claimed that he was still World Champion, and that Karpov and Kasparov's match games were all pre-agreed, but I didn't realize that there was anyone else on Earth who actually believed that. Bobby would be proud of you, 194x. Krakatoa (talk) 08:08, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Introduction
Karpov was champion for ten years. He was an unusually dominant tournament player for a champion. Nonetheless, the statement that "only Emanuel Lasker and Garry Kasparov have ever enjoyed comparable long-term dominance" is ridiculous. First of all, it is unsourced opinion. Second, it is blatantly false. Mikhail Botvinnik, for example, was clearly one of the top five players in the world from 1936 until 1963, a period of 27 years. Certainly there is no need to elevate Karpov's dominance over Steinitz, Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Smyslov or Fischer.

Moreover, calling Karpov a humanitarian when he was a devout Communist is more than a bit of a stretch.

Wikipedia should strive for fact, not the biased opinion of a fan. This intro is an embarrassment

Fielding ````
 * When it is talking about Karpov's long dominance, I think it means the number of years as world champion. Bubba73 (talk), 03:44, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Okay, but Karpov was champion for only ten years, which is less than Steinitz and Botvinnik. He only defended his title successfully once, and even that match was not a fair fight.

Fielding

Fielding makes valid points regarding this matter and it does indeed seem as if Karpovs dominance is unnecessarily elevated.--194x144x90x118 (talk) 05:10, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Right, what Bubba73 said plus I think the sentence is referring to dominance as consecutive years as champion. Botvinnik's achievement was remarkable, but his reign was interrupted repeatedly as he never won a championship match as reigning champion.  (The tie with Bronstein allowed him to retain the title in 1950, but he lost every other match as champion and regained his title in the return matches.)  It may be that the claim could be made clearer, and it definitely needs to be sourced.  The IP added material had a kernel of truth but was unsourced, biased, and constituted undue weight.  It seems designed solely to smear Karpov, probably with the intent to elevate Fischer.  The World Chess Championship 1978 article needs considerable expansion and there is plenty of room there to detail the bizarre antics on both sides of that match.  The chess itself and the course of the match also made it one of the most dramatic in championship history as well.  There was no way to know then that it would be exceeded later by the K-K matches. Quale (talk) 05:24, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Steinitz was official world champion for only 8 years. Of course, he was probably the strongest in the world before that.  Karpov was undisputed world champion for 10 years and then the FIDE world champion for six more years during the disputed era.  (and during that period everyone still considered Kasparov stronger than KArpov, IMO.)  Bubba73 (talk), 05:53, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Karpov's 10 consecutive years as world champion is an unusually long reign; in chess history, only Lasker and Kasparov had longer reigns. Note also that between 1935 and 1985 inclusive there were only three matches in which the reigning world champion won, and two were Karpov's: Petrosian-Spassky 1966, Karpov-Korchnoi 1978, and Karpov-Korchnoi 1981. (Botvinnik was world champion for 13 out of 15 years, but amazingly never won a one-on-one match as world champion; he drew Bronstein in '51, drew Smyslov in '54, lost to Smyslov in '57, as the challenger won the rematch in '58, lost to Tal in '60, as the challenger won the rematch in '61, and lost to Petrosian in '63.) While world champion, Karpov also had unusual success in tournaments; he was far more successful in that regard than, for example, Petrosian, Spassky, and of course Fischer (who never played in a tournament after becoming world champion). I don't have a source at hand, but I have heard that he won more tournaments than anyone in history (most of those while he was reigning world champion). Krakatoa (talk) 07:19, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for correcting me both on the year of Bronstein v. Botvinnik and also the first tied championship match with Smyslov which I had forgotten. Of course I could have looked that up instead of trying to rely on memory if I were a little less lazy, since I hear that somewhere there's a free online encyclopedia with fair but improving coverage of chess topics.... Quale (talk) 08:35, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I've been meaning to look for that encyclopedia thing myself. Krakatoa (talk) 10:21, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

They didn't have FIDE when Steinitz was alive, so there was no "official" World Championship. Nonetheless, Steinitz is generally considered to have been World Champion for 28 years. He won several matches easily over challengers during those years. To say that only Kasparov and Lasker had "comparable long term dominance" to Karpov is absurd.

Wikipedia is not supposed to contain original research or opinions. This unsourced and demonstrably false opinion has no business in the intro paragraph.

Karpov was a great player, but there is no need to embellish his record with falsehood. I ask the "non-IP" how giving a balanced portrayal elevates Fischer? This is a ludicrous assertion. I thought that wikipedia was supposed to collect documented truth, rather than the conjecture of fans.

You are treating wikipedia as a private club, which is why so many people have a negative view of wikipedia. It is sad how the acts of a few can destroy the reputation of a benevolent institution.

66.108.132.176 (talk) 18:23, 27 June 2009 (UTC)Fielding


 * "Steinitz is generally considered to have been World Champion for 28 years." Not true; this is a controversial matter. From the Wilhelm Steinitz article:"There is a long-running debate among chess writers about whether Steinitz' reign as World Chess Champion began in 1866, when he beat Anderssen, or in 1886, when he beat Zukertort.[25][36] In April 1894 the British Chess Magazine described Steinitz as holding 'the chess championship of the world for 28 years'.[37] However there is no evidence that he claimed the title for himself in 1866, although in the 1880s he claimed to have been the champion since his win over Anderssen.[38] It has been suggested that Steinitz could not make such a claim while Paul Morphy was alive.[39] – Morphy had defeated Anderssen by a far wider margin, 8–3, in 1858, but retired from chess competition soon after he returned to the USA in 1859, and died in 1884. The 1886 Steinitz-Zukertort match was the first that was explicitly described as being for the World Championship" Krakatoa (talk) 20:22, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

So your point is that Steinitz is not "comparable" to Karpov? I could argue about whether Steinitz was champion for 8 or 28 years, but it is completely irrelevant to the point. The intro statement about Karpov is biased, unsourced opinion, and has no place in wikipedia.

66.108.132.176 (talk) 20:43, 27 June 2009 (UTC)Fielding


 * What odd statements. First, the thing that gives wikipedia a bad name are edits like these.  If an experienced and knowledgable chess editor like Krakatoa disagrees with you, you ought to consider whether it's possible that you're wrong.  That's what I do when he and I differ.  Second, based on what we've seen here I don't doubt that you could argue whether water was wet, but that too is irrelevant.  I don't see anything that anyone wrote that said you can't compare Steinitz to Karpov.  Be our guest.  Karpov compares rather favorably.  Karpov's match record is at least as good as Steinitz's (probably Karpov is better) and his tournament record is incomparably better than that of Steinitz, as Steinitz didn't really impress in that format. Quale (talk) 21:01, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Your statement that Karpov's match record was better than that of Steinitz is utterly ridiculous. Karpov won only two matches as world champion, both against Korchnoi, who by then was an old man. Karpov used the entire Soviet chess machine and yet barely won the first match. Before the second match, he had Korchnoi's son arrested and sent to a labor camp. In the next cycle, Karpov was unable to defeat Kasparov, and was on the verge of mental collapse when Florencio Campomanes stopped the match. Karpov played five matches against Kasparov and did not win any of them. Steinitz, by contrast, defeated Andersson by 8 - 6, Bird by 7 - 5, Blackburne 7 - 0 (!), Zuckertort by 10 - 5, Chigorin by 10 - 6, Gunsberg by 6 - 4 and Chigorin again by 10 - 8. Steinitz won all seven matches he played, many convincingly, and yet you think Karpov's Championship match record is better? If that is what you really believe then you have no right to edit a wikipedia entry on Chess.

Karpov was indeed a great tournament player, one of the greatest in Chess history. But so was Akiba Rubinstein, and I don't hear anyone arguing that Rubinstein was better than Steinitz, Alekhine and Botvinnik.

BTW, I suggest you read Kasparov's "My Great Predecessors" series to get some perspective on Karpov's place in Chess history. Steinitz basically invented a new school of chess, and Kasparov is very taken by him. Kasparov also has some very positive things to say about Karpov, but these are balanced against descriptions of Karpov's behind the scenes machinations. It is just this balance that I was trying to bring to wikipedia.

I don't now anything about Krakatoa. His/her comments seem reasonable to me. I'm new to editing wikipedia articles. Based on this experience, I don't know if it is worth the effort to try to help edit wikipedia. It's not worth trying to improve wikipedia if people are going to defend unsourced biased opinions that are easily rebutted by facts. If someone wants to discuss the editing process of wikipedia with me, please feel free to e-mail me at fielding99@gmail.com.

66.108.132.176 (talk) 13:31, 28 June 2009 (UTC)Fielding


 * Yes, I really believe Karpov's match record is better than Steinitz's. Kortchnoi being old did not seem to work against him.  His chess was much stronger in the 1970s than it had been earlier in his career as he was one of the extremely rare players whose strength markedly increased after age 40.  Karpov's matches against Kasparov alone, who I would rate as the greatest chess player in history, support this.  Those matches were as close as any in championship history.  Unfortunately by the time Steinitz received an equivalent test of his strength against Lasker he was too old.  Steinitz greatly outclassed his contemporaries but he didn't have many true rivals in that era.  This isn't his fault and it is really unfair to discount Steinitz because he was so far ahead of those in his time, but competitive chess since the 1980s is much, much tougher than it was even in Fischer's time let alone in Steinitz's.  (Fischer of course was another admirer of Steinitz.)  Fischer would have had to significantly up his game to have been dominant in the era following him.  There's no particular reason to believe he couldn't have done that had he chosen to, but the time of a monstrous gap in skill and knowledge of the game between the best player and his closest rivals seems to be gone, probably forever.  Steinitz's rather poor showing in tournaments is a stark contrast to his immediate successors Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine, each of whom was outstanding in tournaments.  It is true that Steinitz's contributions to the understanding of chess strategy can't be overstated, and Lasker always acknowledged his debt to his predecessor.  There will never be a single player who changes the whole concept of how chess is played to the extent that Steinitz did, and he occupies a unique and honored place in the chess pantheon.  But judging on the overall body of competitive play, I think Karpov's work is superior.  P.S. Kasparov's recent books are great, but (in general, not on this specific issue) there are concerns about historical inaccuracies in them so they bear scrutiny, as does any source.  Also, as I'm sure you understand, it is particularly hard to take Kasparov as a neutral source on Karpov.  Karpov was involved in some unseemly activity in some of his matches, but so was Kortchnoi and this requires careful, sourced edits.  Better coverage at World Chess Championship 1978 would be a good start.  Quale (talk) 18:18, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Propsed compromise For his decades-long standing among the world's elite chess players, Karpov has to be reckoned as one of the greatest players of all time. The text regarding Kasparov and Lasker would be deleted and the link to the methods for comparing top chess players throughout history would be connected to the word greatest players. Opinions?--194x144x90x118 (talk) 22:15, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * That sounds OK to me, and link to the section: Methods for comparing top chess players throughout history. Bubba73 (talk), 23:07, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

This sounds much better. Thank you. 66.108.132.176 (talk) 13:31, 28 June 2009 (UTC)Fielding.

POV Revisions
On reading this piece as it stood, it became obvious that there was some work to do-it was hard to imagine how this ever became a feature article in the first place. There's more to be done, but I trust things are headed in the right direction. Hushpuckena (talk) 15:56, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I've largely deleted the massive-now there's a subjective term-POV statements, as well as rewritten large portions of this article. While I don't consider it anywhere near perfect, would it be now be reasonable to remove the headings regarding neutrality concerns and peacock terms? Hushpuckena (talk) 08:17, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Removed template now. If there is still peacock or POV issue please feel free to add them back but explain the bit here on the talk so they can be resolved. SunCreator (talk) 23:17, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Weight Loss in Kasparov-Karpov 1984
The website http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/84kk$$.htm states that Karpov lost 10kg during the course of the match, and that somehow this shows he was in worse health. I find this claim to be very dubious - especially having read some of the material on winter's chess notes. Furthermore, I do not know if I actually trust this source. Can anyone back up this claim with other sources - PLUS is it meaningful, I mean how much weight had Kasparov lost?--ZincBelief (talk) 22:49, 9 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Can't think of sources off hand but some old memories come back. IIRC Botvinnik and Smyslov lost about 10kg each in their matches in the 1950s. And I remember Korchnoi giving an interview before his 1978 match w Karpov, where Korchnoi thought exhaustion would be a big problem for Karpov as the match progressed, since Karpov is not robust. Re Kasparov, I expect he lost some weight, but the stamina factor was in his favour because Karpov was less rugged than Kasparov.
 * Karpov was not the only champion for whom stamina was a problem. Mikhail Botvinnik consistently struggled in the late stages of events throughout his career, see the article. Although Botvinnik paid attention to physical preparation, he was not naturally robust. --Philcha (talk) 07:10, 10 September 2009 (UTC)


 * There was never any actual proof given that Karpov was exhausted though, wild claims were floated about as people cried scandal. All sorts of lies were thrown around as to why the match was cancelled.--ZincBelief (talk) 11:45, 10 September 2009 (UTC)


 * There was lots of public discussion of Karpov's physical condition just before the match was abandoned, so we can't ignore the issue. OTOH there were no objective sources with a good view of what really went on. We can't ignore the issue, so we may need to report it as "claims", "speculation", "rumours", etc. --Philcha (talk) 11:53, 10 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I see no reason why wikipedia should perpetuate rumours. Either Karpov did lose weight or he didn't. If he did, this weight loss should be put in context. 10kg as a percentage of his initial weight - OR compared to Kasparov's weight. I really doubt anything like this exists.--ZincBelief (talk) 23:32, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Asteroid 90414 Karpov
Asteriod 90414 Karpov is named for Karpov. I couldn't find a good place to put it in the article right now, but it would be nice to get it in somewhere. I wonder what other chess players have had asteroids named for them? Quale (talk) 12:05, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Taking a quick look through Category:Asteroids named for people for World Champions I found only 1909 Alekhin for sure. Nikolai Chernykh discovered many asteroids including 5413 Smyslov, but I don't know if it's named for Vassily. (He also discovered 5414 Sokolov which made me think he might have been a chess fan, but that asteroid dates to 1974 when Andrei was quite young. There are many people named Sokolov.)  There is 23323 Anand, but it is not named for Vishy.

Candidacy for FIDE
I don't know if Karpov's article would be the right place to talk about it but I have found no mention of the complex politics that occured during the recent elections for the FIDE presidant. If there is an article about it could anyone please show me where it is. The Gaon (talk) 22:20, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Soviet
Karpov can't be a soviet grandmaster if the soviet union does not exist. The Gaon (talk) 22:22, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Karpov v Topalov
Does anyone think that Karpov's Immortal (played at Linares 1994) should be added to the notable games section.The Gaon (talk) 08:38, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Done! This was long overdue; though there are many fine Karpov games, this surely rates as one of his best. Hushpuckena (talk) 23:00, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Picture
The photograph used in this article is horrible. Is no preferable photograph in the public domain? Toccata quarta (talk) 17:16, 15 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Here are the few available on Commons. I don't think the one used is horrible, but maybe the first one is a little better.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 17:38, 15 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Well, that one is used later in the article. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 17:42, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Not an accurate or balanced portrait
I just read this entry for the first time in a few years, and it has gotten much worse. All references to Karpov's negative behavior in the Kortchnoi and Kasparov matches has been deleted. All references to Karpov's role in the Soviet Union's Commmunist Party have been deleted. These issues are well documented and not open to honest debate. Karpov was a great chess player, has taken on some positive causes in the last ten years, and even visited Kasparov when he was imprisoned, but he is not a humanitarian. This article is half fact, and half propaganda.```` — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fielding99 (talk • contribs) 21:20, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Using "cite book"
I did some minor cleanup of the cite book template parameters. Template:Cite book/doc says not to Wikilink author names, but to use the "author-link" parameter instead. Moreover, since the books listed were authored by Karpov himself, I'm not sure if it's necessary to keep listing him as the author and wikilinking to himself. Therefore, I suggest using the "author-mask" parameter for all references to Karpov and removing the "author-link" parameters. - Marchjuly (talk) 02:58, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Regarding using "author-link" for Karpov himself, the template apparently won't wikilink a page to itself so it instead places the page's name in bold. This is another reason why I think it's best to remove the "author-link" parameter for Karpov altogether and use "author-mask" instead. -Marchjuly (talk) 03:14, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

I have removed the "author-link" parameter for Karpov's book because the bold looks really bad. It can be easily re-added if anyone disagrees, but a page cannot be wikilinked to itself so it seems kind of pointless. - Marchjuly (talk) 04:44, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Layout
WP:ORDER recommends that "Works or Publications" should come before "References". Since its safe to assume that "Books" equals "Works or Publications", I think it should swap places with "References" in the article. Personally, I think "References" should come at the very end just before any footers, but that's just my opinion. - Marchjuly (talk) 04:59, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

His top5
I dont know if it is worthy to add here or not but here is his top5 in no particular order: Capablanca (his teacher), Tal, Fischer, Kasparov and himself. http://www.chessintranslation.com/2010/03/karpov-on-the-pozner-show/ --Sir artur (talk) 12:53, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Confusing, misleading wording
"Karpov played five matches against Kasparov for the title from 1984 to 1990 without ever defeating him in a match, later becoming FIDE World Champion once again after Kasparov broke away from FIDE in 1993." This is confusing and does not appear accurate. Karpov beat Kasparov for the first 5 games of the Wold Campion match in 84 (5 vs 3 before it was stopped); then the next year Kasparov won the title with 13 vs 11 for Karpov.76.14.117.19 (talk) 00:27, 28 February 2021 (UTC)