Russian chess icon hospitalized
Former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov is in hospital after sustaining a head injury, according to Russian media reports.
Karpov, 71, is widely considered among the finest chess players of all time, first winning the world title for the Soviet Union in 1975.
He reigned until 1985, and later became a three-time FIDE world champion during the 1990s.
Following his chess career, Karpov became a State Duma deputy in 2011, and is a member of the United Russia faction.
“Anatoly Karpov was taken to one of the capital’s clinics as a result of an injury. He is receiving all the necessary medical care,” United Russia said in a press release shared by RIA Novosti.
The same media outlet reported that Karpov was hospitalized on Saturday after suffering a fall, and is being treated in intensive care for a “femoral neck fracture and a head injury” at Moscow’s Sklifosovsky Institute.
Initially, conflicting reports stated that Karpov had been the victim of an “attack” outside the State Duma in downtown Moscow, although those claims were refuted by officials at the Russian Chess Federation and elsewhere.
Russia’s Arkady Dvorkovich, the current president of world chess governing body FIDE, joined others in wishing the former world champion a speedy recovery.
