born May 23, 1951, Zlatoust, U.S.S.R.
Russian chess master.
His first great success was winning the 1969 World Junior (under 20) Championship. Karpov was declared world champion in 1975 when the reigning champion Bobby Fischer and the International Chess Federation (FIDE) could not agree on conditions for their title match. Karpov defended the title several times before losing it in 1985 to Garry Kasparov . Karpov regained the FIDE championship in 1993 after Kasparov was stripped of the title. In 1999 Karpov refused to defend his FIDE title, which was won by Alexander Khalifman of Russia.