Monday, Jan. 11, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.
A world champion who estimates he has circled the globe 150 times during 30 years of appearances in more than 100 countries is spending some time in Las Vegas and says he could get used to this, that the city is perfect for the ancient game that he has mastered like no champion before him.
Anatoly Karpov, who has a nice home in central Moscow - big enough for all of his collections, including 9,000 chess books - breezed into Las Vegas Friday for a bit of negotiating and fun.
The world chess champion took in the McGuire sisters Friday night and afterward rubbed elbows with some of the city's bigger names, among them Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, legendary gaming figure Bob Stupak and Paul Fisher, the Boulder City businessman famous for inventing the Fisher Space Pen.
Karpov will leave town with more than the 15 or so pens given him by Fisher. He seemed optimistic Sunday about the chances for his participation this summer in a world championship tournament in Las Vegas, featuring 100 of the world's best players. The tournament would bring monumental publicity to Las Vegas, as dozens of countries would be represented.
But he won't be leaving town without having a little more fun on this trip. He plans on attending the Tyson fight Saturday, and negotiations are under way for a chess game between Karpov and Fisher, probably Thursday or Friday.
If it happens, the game will actually be a contest between Karpov and American grandmaster Walter Browne, who will be advising Fisher. Brown is the 10-time winner of the National Open and five-time winner of the North American Open - international tournaments that are played in Las Vegas each year.
Although Fisher will be only a nominal opponent, just for fun, the sound of his name vs. that of Karpov will set chess fans thinking about the greatest match in chess history - the one that was never played.
Karpov became world champion in 1975, when American Bobby Fischer refused to meet him over the board in a title match, angrily proclaiming that the match rules dictated by the world chess federation were unfair. It was a grave disappointment to the world's chess fans when the match did not take place. When Fischer first won the title, in 1972 against Boris Spassky, it became difficult to find a store with chess sets in stock - the game became that popular.
Karpov, who had earned the right to meet Fischer by winning matches against a slew of the world's top players, went on for the next 10 years to become the most active and winningest champion since world chess champions were recognized last century.
Gary Kasparov wrested the title from Karpov in 1985 and held it till 1993 when he dropped out of the world chess federation to form his own organization. Karpov has held the official world title ever since.
The format for winning the world championship has radically changed since the era of Fischer-Karpov, when the title was decided by a multiple-game match featuring long time controls and adjournments that could stretch the match out for months. The modern format, harshly criticized by many top players and chess writers, now calls for 100 invited players to compete quickly in knock-out matches until one remains - that one being the champion.
Karpov won the competition a year ago, after being seeded into the final round - another aspect of the format harshly criticized.
A Karpov-Fisher match, therefore, would be more than a local hoot - it would jar the memories of chess fans, remind them of what they missed - a Karpov-Fischer match where the two top players compete under match conditions that leave no doubt at the end as to who is the superior player, the true champion.
Karpov said over the weekend that he has "no objections" to a match with Fischer, who now lives in Budapest, Hungary. In October, speaking with the Sun from Moscow, Karpov mentioned a letter to President Clinton that he had written about Fischer, in which he said he was ready to play him "anywhere, anytime in the world or even on the moon."
"I believe that Fischer was one of the greatest players in history and one of the greatest representatives of the United States," Karpov wrote to Clinton.
Karpov wrote that letter in hopes that the United States will pardon Fischer for playing a comeback match against Boris Spassky in 1992 in war-ravaged Yugoslavia in violation of sanctions against that country for brutal crimes committed in the name of "ethnic cleansing."
The October interview revolved around a proposed "Battle of the Sexes," in which Karpov had hoped Fischer could participate as a commentator. That match was to have taken place last month in Las Vegas between Karpov and World Women's Champion Susan Polgar but now the date is unclear. Polgar, who is pregnant, became concerned about traveling, said Karpov's agent, Shiloh Quinn.
Karpov said Sunday the match could still take place here, perhaps in May or June.
This week's planned Karpov-Fisher match, with Browne acting as Fisher's advisor, is likely to feature the same style of chess - Fischerandom - as the Karpov-Polgar match. This style, being popularized by Bobby Fischer, features a rearrangement of the pieces so as to avoid well-known opening theory.
Browne, from his home in the Berkeley, Calif., area, confirmed Sunday that he would come to Las Vegas this week to assist Fisher. He said Fischerandom has a great future and told of once playing it in Key West, Fla., using people for pieces on a field-sized board.
"It was an exciting game," he said. "We reached some unique positions."
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Chess champions are often perceived as brooding, solitary figures who spend their whole lives poring over chess games. This is true especially in the United States, where the game is gaining in popularity but is still relatively obscure.
Karpov's stay in Las Vegas is dispelling some of that imagery. Friday, he walked through the Sun newspaper, smiling and greeting reporters, photographers and editors. And on Sunday, at Caesars Palace, where he is staying, he spent two hours talking with the Sun, allowing an insight of the man who may become a familiar figure here.
"Las Vegas is a beautiful place. I like it more and more and plan to be here often," Karpov said. "It's a great place for chess."
During the interview, Karpov received a call from the executive director of the United States Chess Federation, Mike Cavello, with whom he talked optimistically about participating in the world championship match scheduled for this summer, possibly at Bellagio. Originally, the world chess federation had planned to hold the spectacle last month in Las Vegas, but Karpov, arguing that he still had a year left on the two-year title he won in January 1998, scuttled the plans.
Now, Karpov says, if the world chess federation and organizers deal with him openly and according to his contract, he will have no problem allowing the tournament to proceed. The champion did, however, note wistfully that such a format "is dangerous for the quality of chess."
Outside of chess, Karpov is active politically and socially in the former Soviet Union. Children are one of his biggest concerns, and he has become an ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund as well as a supporter of youth chess events the world over. His own 19-year-old son is doing just fine in his chosen field - computer graphics and design.
Answering a question about Moscow, in reference to reports that crime is out of control there, Karpov offered some assurances for travelers. "It's not more dangerous than New York," he said. "Las Vegas is more safe, I agree, but every big city in the world has places that are dangerous. It is much better now than four or five years ago, and during the day, no problem."
He skiis and plays tennis, but his true passion outside of chess is collecting - particularly stamps and pins. He has perhaps the world's best collection of chess stamps and his overall collection is so impressive that he has been invited to an exposition next month in Monte Carlo that is open to only 100 collectors in the world. Each will bring one exhibit. Karpov says he will bring an envelop mailed out of Belgium in 1861 with stamps then worth $356 on it.
"I do not know the contents of the letter," he said.
Another stamp in his collection, featuring Termonde, Belgium, shows one of the buildings upside down. He said there are only 14 such stamps in the world, and that this one stamp alone in his vast collection is worth $100,000.
As for pins, he says he has about 30,000 featuring chess, sports in general and Olympic sports.
About Gary Kasparov, Karpov criticized his play against the IBM computer Deep Blue. The computer's 1997 victory over Kasparov was hailed by many people as machine finally triumphing over man. But Karpov said the triumph may actually have been over human pride, not skill.
"Except for the first game, there were several mistakes in each game," Karpov said. "Kasparov played weak." Of one Kasparov move, Karpov said, "If my pupil make such a move, I tell him you must stop playing chess, because you understand nothing about chess."
In the end, Karpov said, Kasparov caved in to the "terrible psychological pressure."
"Perhaps he was too proud of himself."
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