ANATOLY KARPOV: BORN TO WIN // Episode four: At Fischer’s heels… with bridge and cognac

"Let's talk about Fischer", these are the words chosen by Ilya Levitov to begin the fourth episode together with the twelfth World Champion. "Let's go!", answers Karpov... By people who know him well's admission, he tried during his whole career to fill in the blank caused by the falling apart of their 1975 World Championship match.
"Did Fischer change chess?" - "Yes, he was a remarkable player, says modestly the twelfth World Champion. He didn't have too many friends in chess, but he managed to work on his own! This didn't occur often, in particular in the U.S.S.R., where there were so many working squads."

They met for the first time in San Antonio in 1972. Karpov won that super tournament, while Bobby was merely here as a guest, and didn't play chess in the event. These two could have met once more in the Olympiad in Nice in 1974, where Bobby, instead of leading team U.S.A. stayed at home, where he sent telegrams to the FIDE Congress.

Karpov, fresh off his winning the Candidates' cycle in 1973/1974, by beating along the way Polugaevsky, Spassky and eventually Korchnoi, played in that Olympiad as the U.S.S.R. team captain, eagerly waiting to see how things would turn out there.

After Spassky had lost the crown to Fischer in their 1972 match, the head of Soviet Chess endeavoured to return it where they thought it belonged. After Karpov confidently overtook the ex World Champion, all eyes were on Anatoly.

The most interesting part was yet to come...

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