Ex-World Champion GM Anatoly Karpov played simultaneously against 15 young Finnish chessplayers in Library Oodi in Helsinki on Sat 24.8. The effort took 2 hours 50 minutes and resulted into 14 wins for Karpov and one draw. The happy half-point grabber was Ilkka Koota, who had travelled from Turku some 160 km’s just for this game.

The venue was a totally public and open on the 3rd floor of the library, people passing by, stopping for discussing ”Is that REALLY the word champion?” ”I remember his huge matches against Kortshnoi, Kasparov” ”As a young man I got to play against him in a simul he held in Finland in 1989 – so great to see him again”, etc etc. I circulated in the audience and most of the people knew him by name, and very many cold name his biggest successes.

I can just imagine the thrill the players felt, when sitting at the table, seeing Karpov apporoaching, shaking hands and making the first move. And during the coming hours to feel his playing strength, grabbing another advantage and squeeqing out the win. There was some good tries and Heljä Lehtinen’s game was mentioned later in our our lunch as good play up to a certain point. Way to go! Enjoy chess!

Also Finland’s leading newspaper Helsingin sanomat reported of the simul  https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/art-2000006215412.html?fbclid=IwAR2z-KSPZZwkFG0MQl710o9qxOLlP65EGDgvOAG–kO9w6lG55hedWA7st4