Anatoly Karpov

Of course, in our list of the most famous chess players in history, Anatoly Karpov will definitely be among the top. Karpov was the youngest Soviet National Master (15 years old), World Junior Chess Grandmaster in 1969. He easily beat Spassky and Korchnoi in 1974, and faced Bobby Fisher for the World Championship. Fisher resigned from the title match, resulting in Karpov's automatic victory.

His reign from 1975 to 1985 and from 1993 to 1999 was contested, and he won 160 first-place events. Still, unfortunately, he lost his championship to Garry Kasparov around 1985, a year after successfully defending it against Kasparov himself.

The tournament he won in 1995, Linares, is regarded as the strongest in history. After defending his championship against Gata Kamsky in 1997, Karpov surrendered it in 1998 in protest of FIDE rule revisions - which altered the measurements and criteria based on which the title was determined. This record firmly establishes him as being one of the greatest chess players ever.

Among thousands of impressive games he played, Anatoly Karpov left the strongest impression in a Linares tournament in 1994. In this competition, Karpov won with an astounding score of 11/13. Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov, Boris Gelfand, and Evgeny Bareev, to mention a few, were among the many opponents he left behind in the final rankings back then.

Born: 1951

Nationality: Russian

World Champion: 1975 - 1985; 1993 - 1999