Anatoly Karpov

Anatoly Karpov was born in 1951 and became the 12th World Chess Champion in 1975, holding the crown until 1985. For 25 consecutive years, from 1974 to 1998, he was either champion or challenger — a stretch of sustained contention exceeded only by Emanuel Lasker. He won the FIDE World Championship three times in the 1990s, took six Chess Olympiad golds with the Soviet team, and became the first World Rapid Chess Champion in 1988. The International Association of Chess Press gave him nine Chess Oscars between 1973 and 1984. His peak rating reached 2780, and he spent 102 months ranked number one…