Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov was the world chess champion for a decade, from 1975 to 1985. He won the title when Bobby Fischer, the American grandmaster and reigning world champion, failed[…]
The Russian grandmaster admits that he found it boring to study chess openings.
Question: What are your weaknesses as a player?
rn
Anatoly Karpov: Weaknesses? So, I didn’t know so well rnchess theory, the theory of chess openings. And so, of course I knew rnthe theory, but not on the level of the best players, so this was my... rnthis was always my weakness. But this is you know, this is weakness andrn this is advantage because if I would know Chess theory so well, so rnprobably I would not work out this style to defend difficult positions rnbecause from my childhood I could receive difficult positions against rneven weaker players, but okay nothing happened, so I was continuing to rnfight. And so this is weakness, this is positive thing, but still more rnthis is weakness. It is better to know Chess Theory and not to get in rndifficult positions from the beginning.
rnQuestion: Why didn’t you study chess openings?
rn
Anatoly Karpov: So, it was boring to study this, so rnpeople consider that it is boring to study end games, but for me it was rnmore boring to study openings and then also I didn’t want to play when Irn know everything till almost 25 or 30. I wanted to create something overrn the board.
Recorded on May 17, 2010
Interviewed by Paul Hoffman
rn
Anatoly Karpov: Weaknesses? So, I didn’t know so well rnchess theory, the theory of chess openings. And so, of course I knew rnthe theory, but not on the level of the best players, so this was my... rnthis was always my weakness. But this is you know, this is weakness andrn this is advantage because if I would know Chess theory so well, so rnprobably I would not work out this style to defend difficult positions rnbecause from my childhood I could receive difficult positions against rneven weaker players, but okay nothing happened, so I was continuing to rnfight. And so this is weakness, this is positive thing, but still more rnthis is weakness. It is better to know Chess Theory and not to get in rndifficult positions from the beginning.
rnQuestion: Why didn’t you study chess openings?
rn
Anatoly Karpov: So, it was boring to study this, so rnpeople consider that it is boring to study end games, but for me it was rnmore boring to study openings and then also I didn’t want to play when Irn know everything till almost 25 or 30. I wanted to create something overrn the board.
Recorded on May 17, 2010
Interviewed by Paul Hoffman
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4 min
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