KRISTEL SATUMBAGA

Chess legend and former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia is set to visit the country on Tuesday, Jan. 31, for a lecture.

The National Chess Federation of the Philippines announced it on Monday, Jan. 30, inviting chess enthusiasts to join the event dubbed “Meet the Legend: The Life and Chess of Anatoly Karpov.”

The event will take place at 3 p.m. at the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Admin Building inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Vito Cruz, Manila.

Aside from the lecture, the event will also hold a Question and Answer with Karpov and a screening of the movie, “The Champion of the World.”

The event is to commemorate the 1978 World Chess Championship played between Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio City from July 18 to Oct. 18, 1978 where Karpov retained the title.

The said movie, released in 2021, is based on this tournament.

Karpov was the 12^th world chess champion from 1975 to 1985, a three-time FIDE World Champion, a two-time world chess champion as a member of the USSR team, and a six-time winner of Chess Olympiads as a member of the USSR team.

He had a peak ELO rating of 2780 and his 102 total months at world No. 1 is the third-longest of all time behind Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov since the inception of the FIDE ranking list in 1970.