3 min readMar 19, 2026 06:38 PM IST Former world champion Anatoly Karpov has claimed in an interview with a Russian newspaper that reigning world champion D Gukesh got the crown by “accident”. It must be noted that Karpov’s own first world championship title back in 1975 had come after a forfeit from the American world champion Bobby Fischer. Karpov’s comments echo a familiar refrain in Russia, which last had a world champion in 2007, when Vladimir Kramnik was on the throne. Since then, two Russians—Sergey Karjakin in 2016 and Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021 and 2023—have come close but have been thwarted. In the interview, when Karpov was asked about chess becoming younger and younger, with a 19-year-old currently on the throne, the 74-year-old said: “First of all, the Indian chess player became [champion] by chance, because he wasn’t supposed to win the match against the Chinese player [Ding Liren]. The Chinese player lost a game there that he shouldn’t have lost. Had he not, the Chinese player would have remained the world champion.” Karpov …