Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is the most decorated and acclaimed of the championship chess players produced by the Soviet Union — the world’s largest country until its dissolution in 1991 — where chess was a deeply rooted national passion. A six-time world champion and winner of more than 160 tournaments, Karpov turned 75 on Saturday. He is living with serious health problems and is confined to Russia because, as a member of Vladimir Putin’s party in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house, he is on the list of sanctioned individuals barred from traveling to the West. This is despite having spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — although, just days earlier, he had voted in favour of annexing the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.

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Three years and four months after Alejandro Oro and Romina Simondi resigned from their well‑paid jobs as accounting experts in Argentina and moved to Spain to boost their son’s chess career, Faustino Oro has inscribed his name in a very special chapter of chess history. He has earned the grandmaster title — more demanding than a black belt in judo — at 12 years, six months, and 26 days. He is the second‑youngest of all time, surpassed only by the U.S. player of Indian descent Abhimanyu Mishra, who set the record by two months.

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