4: Anatoly Karpov
Karpov won his World Championship title without the final match – Fischer refused to play and resigned the title in latter’s favour. Because he felt he had been handed the title, Karpov wanted to prove he is worthy of it. In the next decade, he entered almost every major tournament and won the majority of them. In Olympiads, USSR won six team golds whenever Karpov was playing. His lifetime Olympiad record is very impressive – he lost only two games out of 68.
The Russian dominated the world of Chess by being World champion from 1975 to 1985. His 90 total months at world number one is second all-time behind only Garry Kasparov since the inception of the FIDE ranking list in 1970. He also has 9 Chess Oscars to his name, only behind Kasparov.
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