The thirteenth world chess champion had an unrivaled mastery of opening-move theory and was unstoppable when he had the initiative. But “he was not so strong when his king was in danger,” says archrival Anatoly Karpov.

Question: What are Kasparov’s strengths and weaknesses?

Anatoly Karpov: So, opposite to me he knows chess theory, even now very well.  And he was always big expert in Chess openings, and then probably he is not so good in positional play, but he is fantastic in the positions where he has initiative. And so he can he sacrifice material to get initiative and so he, in active positions, he is very strong.  Maybe he’s less strong in boring positions, and then maybe his weakness was, of course now he is not playing so active like before, so he was not so strong when his king was in danger.

Recorded on May 17, 2010
Interviewed by Paul Hoffman