Linares 1994

Karpov's greatest tournament. A 2985 performance rating. 11/13 against an all-time field including Kasparov. Perhaps the greatest single tournament performance in chess history.

The Karpov Masterpiece

Linares 1994 brought together the strongest field ever assembled in a tournament: Kasparov, Karpov, Anand, Kramnik, Shirov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Short, and others. Kasparov was the overwhelming favorite, as he had dominated Linares for years. Instead, Karpov produced the performance of his life.

He scored 11/13 (nine wins, four draws, zero losses) against the strongest field in tournament history. His performance rating was 2985, the highest ever recorded at the time (surpassed only by Caruana's 3103 in 2014). He finished 2.5 points ahead of Kasparov and Ivanchuk, an almost inconceivable margin in such a strong field.

The performance was particularly remarkable because Karpov was 42 years old, had recently lost the World Championship to Kasparov, and was widely considered past his prime. Linares 1994 proved that Karpov at his best could still dominate anyone, even Kasparov, even at 42.