Karpov and the Caro-Kann

Karpov scored many famous victories on the black side of the Caro-Kann but one of his earliest Caro-Kann games was at age 13 playing the white pieces in a simul against the legendary Mikhail Botvinnik.

Karpov was completely outplayed in the game until Botvinnik blundered his queen in a winning position. Whether intentionally as a sign of respect for his opponent or not, Karpov gave a piece back a few moves later and the game was agreed drawn.

Botvinnik famously said of the young Karpov:

“The boy doesn’t have a clue about chess and there’s no future at all for him in this profession.”

Botvinnik apparently took distaste to Karpov’s relaxed work ethic and affinity for blitz chess. However, he would change his mind about the young man a few years later as Karpov became one of the most promising juniors in the Soviet chess school.

The first recorded instance of Karpov playing the black side of the Caro-Kann was two years later at the USSR Junior Championships against a player known only as “Samadov”.

Interestingly Karpov was rather badly outplayed in this game and probably should have lost, though he would swindle a win after a series of blunders by both sides. Perhaps due to this game the young Karpov would not play the black side of the Caro-Kann again for 8 whole years.

By 1974 Karpov was among the best players in the world and a favorite to challenge reigning World Champion Bobby Fischer. In the Candidates Semifinal he used the Caro-Kann effectively against Boris Spassky.

The game is an excellent exposition of Karpov’s positional style. After trading queens he piles the pressure onto white’s weak d pawn and eventually forces a mistake from Spassky in the endgame.

In the World Championship matches against Kasparov, Karpov actually did not employ the Caro-Kann very often and especially not to play for a win. After the trilogy of matches against Kasparov in 1984, 1985 and 1986, Karpov was forced back into the Candidates cycle in 1987 and would play rising star Andrei Sokolov in the Final for the right to challenge Kasparov.

Many predicted the young Sokolov would defeat Karpov but they were proven wrong: employing the Caro-Kann in all 6 of his black games Karpov did not lose a single game in the match. In the final game he would handily defeat a desperate Sokolov in a wild tactical encounter to take the match 4-0 and face Kasparov for the fourth straight year in the World Championship.

In his later years Karpov would more often employ the variation named after him, perhaps most famously against Gata Kamsky in Dortmund 1993. He used the novelty 11... Ke7! in the main line and his superior endgame play brought home the full point.

I hope you enjoyed this post on Karpov’s history with the Caro-Kann defense. If you think I missed a famous Karpov Caro-Kann game, feel free to mention it in the forum! Until next time,

Dan