Anatoly Karpov

Reader's Guide

His career spanned 25 consecutive years as champion or challenger, a record surpassed only by Emanuel Lasker. He is currently the oldest living World Chess Champion.

Did You Know?

• Karpov learned to play chess at age four and became a candidate master by age 11.
• Karpov owned one of only about four Mercedes-Benz cars in the Soviet Union during Leonid Brezhnev's presidency.

A Record Shared by Three

Karpov's six World Championship victories place him in a rare and exclusive tier of chess history. He shares this record for the most championship wins with Emanuel Lasker, who held the title for a remarkable twenty-seven years, and with Garry Kasparov. No other player in the long history of the championship has matched this particular number of victories. Within that structured framework, Karpov's six triumphs represent an extraordinary and sustained consistency at the highest level of competitive chess, a feat that stands alongside the single longest reign in the title's history.

The 1993 FIDE Tournament

The reigning champion Garry Kasparov, together with his rival Nigel Short, departed from FIDE's administration and arranged their championship match under the newly established Professional Chess Association. In response, FIDE organized its own tournament to determine a champion under its banner. Anatoly Karpov emerged as the victor of that FIDE event. This single tournament result set in motion a period of division that would define the next decade and a half of the game. Rather than a single undisputed world champion, the chess world now had two competing claimants to the title, each operating under different organizational umbrellas. Karpov's victory in that FIDE tournament was thus not merely a personal achievement but the catalyst for one of the most significant institutional splits in the sport's history.

Thirteen Years of Two Champions

Karpov, as the FIDE tournament winner, held a rival claim to the title of World Champion alongside the PCA-lineage champion. For thirteen years, the sport existed in a state of institutional division, with two separate organizations each asserting authority over the world title. This was a departure from the earlier period when FIDE had maintained a unified cycle of qualifying tournaments and championship matches on a three-year schedule. The split meant that the question of who was truly the world champion became a matter of organizational allegiance rather than a single decisive match. Karpov's role as the FIDE-side champion during this era made him a central figure in one of the longest periods of division in the championship's history.

Unification and the Modern Era

That event marked the unification of the split titles, bringing the two competing claims to a single champion under one administration.