The conversation with Anatoly Karpov took place in the presence of Semyon Abramovich Furman. And, naturally, the coach also took part in this conversation.

— It is hard to suppose that your sporting goal in such a tournament was not first place.

— Even people who are very well disposed toward me wanted to enter the top ten...

S. F. — For me personally, Tolya’s success does not seem unexpected, if only because in recent years his results have been stable and keep improving with each tournament. Of course, I counted on him sharing first place, but I estimated the exact number of points he would score rather cautiously. The point is that the tournament score is not always determined only by balance; everything depends on how the struggle develops. But an equal field presupposes that such a figure will correspond to a very high place.

— And how did things turn out?

— There was no draw with Zhelebsky. She dictated a sharp and especially desirable start, not taking the opponent into account. Something did not work out. All the time one wanted more and more, but nothing sensible came of it; it was difficult to put the plan into practice. The turning point came in the meeting with V. Hort. I managed not only in a sporting sense, but also in a creative one. The mood immediately rose. As a result, I received two prizes for the best games. Here, too, there were victories over D. Bronstein and V. Korchnoi.

True, in the game with Viktor Lvovich we both unfortunately made several mistakes. But with Volodya Savon in the last round it happened that the game went “to one goal”. I expected that he would apply open variations in the Spanish, although it was difficult to guess the exact system. Already at the board I recalled one of his games, where he used a similar formation. I found a strong maneuver with the queen, which turned out to be unexpected for the opponent.

S. F. — We had considered a similar idea earlier. It should be added that Karpov was already looking for this meeting, wishing to win it without fail. Besides, he played White.

— The color of the pieces and the fighting mood mean a great deal.

— Playing Black is, of course, harder. But it is also not bad, especially when the opponent starts playing sharply for a win. The battle is not always so one-sided. But for some reason, everything does not always work out so smoothly with Black.

The amateur may find the style of twenty-year-old Karpov somewhat dry, “academic”. Often one hears: surely at such an age it is not hard to turn everything upside down, to burn every bridge — and attack!

— I am still rather narrowly limited by my repertoire. The result is that there is little free time left to work on expanding it. Of course, one wants to play sharper and more modern schemes, but unfortunately this has no direct relation to style. At least it makes no sense to abandon one’s style now. To sacrifice a piece is, of course, possible. Why not sacrifice one, if it is correct? But cowardice is foreign to me; that is not my specialty.

Our business is special. With such regulations as at the Memorial, short draws are unavoidable. True, they now seem to be introducing a difficult regulation, but after all the field is not the same everywhere. Sometimes it seems to me that I usually just go out to play chess, and we have agreed on no norms. Half-points satisfy me only if I do not get the game I want, or if these half-points allow me to achieve the desired sporting result in the competition. In general, one must learn not to lose, and wins will come later.

S. F. — Caution, or rather prudence, is his characteristic feature. I especially liked this about him already at our first acquaintance: such a valuable quality is not often found among young chess players. But for further high achievements healthy risk and great aggressiveness are necessary. One must not run the danger of turning a good quality into its opposite. Unfortunately, Tolya turned out to be a pupil too faithful, if we look at him from the chess point of view.

— Explanations are natural. They happen rarely, but they do happen. The tastes seem to converge. By the way, the most notable impression in the tournament was made by the game T. Petrosian — V. Smyslov. Short games, of which there were some, of course have no decisive significance.

S. F. — And this, obviously, is because there is and cannot be any direct similarity, but the style of play of former world champion Karpov has become his own. That is why they are interesting.

— I do not know why. I only felt that chess players were playing who understood everything fully and for whom there were no secrets.

— Have you experienced time-trouble tortures in earnest?

— Once or twice in my life. And not because I so rarely think, as people sometimes say about me. I simply do not want to make small mistakes and lose because of time trouble. So sometimes one has to confine oneself to normal — they seem good to me — moves instead of looking for the best.

— The burden of first place in such a tournament...

— Now I suppose someone will wait for a repetition of my successes, while someone else will imagine a decline.

— In general I never indulge in pointless vanity. And for the time being no burden of responsibility presses on me. I must learn to play. In the final reckoning all chess players only learn to play what they are taught.

S. F. — To achieve further goals, one will probably have to experiment somewhere. One cannot do this only in qualifying competitions. There, as grandmaster V. Ulmann puts it, “Keine Fokussin” — “No tricks”.

— What competitions lie ahead?

— Now an international tournament in Hastings, apparently in February, then the match with the Swiss junior Hugo for the right to enter the world championship, at the beginning of March the final of the All-Union Olympiad.

— Isn’t that too little?

— In the first half of 1971 I practically did not play, and beginning in June, almost continuously, I sat at the board. June was the semi-final of the USSR championship, July the Student Olympiad, August two team championships — of the country and of the Armed Forces; in September and October, the final of the national championship. If the Alekhine Tournament had not turned out so outstanding in terms of tasks, it would have been necessary to refuse.

— Don’t you need to submit to the All-Union Federation an individual plan for you as grandmaster Karpov, so that it can be approved, and then play and compete in accordance with this plan?

S. F. — Unfortunately, Karpov is expected, for reasons known to us, to make quite frequent corrections. We expected that Karpov would take part in another international tournament abroad in the spring. Now again everything has had to be changed in our plans.

— Anatoly is in fact counted among the students of Leningrad University, isn’t he?

— I am not listed; I am studying in the third year of the economics faculty. For now my record book has not been full of A grades, but in the coming session I want to make up for the gap.

— Neither down nor feather!

Interview conducted by A. Roshal.