Editing Anatoly Karpov (section)

===World champion===<!-- This section is linked from [[World Chess Championship]] -->
[[File:Max Euwe, wife and Karpov 1976.jpg|thumb|300px|Karpov with FIDE president [[Max Euwe]] and wife in 1976]]
Determined to prove himself a legitimate champion, Karpov participated in nearly every major tournament for the next ten years. He convincingly won the [[Milan]] tournament in 1975, and captured his first of three Soviet titles in 1976. He created a phenomenal streak of tournament wins against the strongest players in the world. Karpov held the record for most consecutive tournament victories (9) until it was shattered by [[Garry Kasparov]] (15). As a result, most chess professionals soon agreed that Karpov was a legitimate world champion.<ref name="WinningChessStrategies">{{cite book |last=Seirawan |first=Yasser |title=Winning Chess Strategies |year=2005 |publisher=Microsoft Press |isbn=978-1857443851}}</ref>

In 1978, Karpov's first title defence was against Viktor Korchnoi, the opponent he had defeated in the 1973–75 Candidates' cycle; the match was played at [[Baguio]], Philippines, with the winner needing six victories.
As in 1974, Karpov took an early lead, winning the eighth game after seven draws to open the match. When the score was +5−2=20 in Karpov's favour, Korchnoi staged a comeback, and won three of the next four games to draw level with Karpov. Karpov then won the very next game to retain the title (+6−5=21).<ref>chessgames.com, [https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=54641 ''Karpov vs Korchnoi, 1978'']</ref> Three years later, Korchnoi reemerged as the Candidates' winner against German finalist [[Robert Hübner]] to challenge Karpov in [[Merano]], Italy. Karpov handily won this match, 11–7 (+6−2=10), in what is remembered as the [[World Chess Championship 1981|"Massacre in Merano"]].

Karpov's tournament career reached a peak at the [[Montreal]] "Tournament of Stars" tournament in 1979, where he finished joint first (+7−1=10) with [[Mikhail Tal]] ahead of a field of strong grandmasters completed by [[Jan Timman]], [[Ljubomir Ljubojević]], [[Boris Spassky]], [[Vlastimil Hort]], [[Lajos Portisch]], Robert Hübner, [[Bent Larsen]] and [[Lubomir Kavalek]]. He dominated [[Las Palmas]] in 1977 with 13½/15. He also won the prestigious [[Bugojno]] tournament in 1978 (shared), 1980 and 1986, the [[Linares chess tournament|Linares tournament]] in 1981 (shared with [[Larry Christiansen]]) and 1994, the [[Tilburg]] tournament in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, and 1983, and the [[USSR Chess Championship|Soviet Championship]] in 1976, 1983, and 1988.<ref name="chessgames, 2002">chessgames.com, [https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=20719 ''Anatoly Karpov'']</ref>

Karpov represented the Soviet Union at six [[Chess Olympiads]], in all of which the USSR won the team gold medal. He played as the first reserve at [[20th Chess Olympiad|Skopje 1972]], winning the board prize with 13/15. At [[21st Chess Olympiad|Nice 1974]], he advanced to board one and again won the board prize with 12/14. At [[24th Chess Olympiad|La Valletta 1980]], he was again board one and scored 9/12. At [[25th Chess Olympiad|Lucerne 1982]], he scored 6½/8 on board one. At [[27th Chess Olympiad|Dubai 1986]], he scored 6/9 on board two. His last was [[28th Chess Olympiad|Thessaloniki 1988]], where on board two he scored 8/10. In Olympiad play, Karpov lost only two games out of 68 played.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Karpov at 70: "My great blunder was I agreed to hold the match with Kasparov in the Soviet Union" |url=https://chess24.com/en/read/news/karpov-at-70-my-great-blunder-was-i-agreed-to-hold-the-match-with-kasparov-in-the-soviet-union |access-date=June 2, 2022 |website=chess24.com |language=en}}</ref> To illustrate Karpov's dominance over his peers as champion, his score was +13−1=22 versus Spassky, +8=19 versus [[Robert Hübner]], +12−1=29 versus [[Ulf Andersson]], +3−1=10 versus [[Vasily Smyslov]], +1=19 versus [[Mikhail Tal]], +19-7=23 versus [[Ljubomir Ljubojević]].<ref name="chessgames, 2002" />