Anatoly Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was undisputed World Champion from 1975 to 1985, repeatedly challenged to regain the title from 1986 to 1990, then was FIDE World Champion from 1993 to 1999. For his decades-long standing among the world's elite chess players, Karpov has to be reckoned as one of the greatest players of all time; only Emanuel Lasker and Garry Kasparov have ever enjoyed comparable long-term dominance. His tournament successes include 161 first-place finishes. He had a peak Elo rating of 2780. Source: Anatoly Karpov's Chess Biography on Wikipedia.