Chess - The Scotsman 06/11/12 - News - Scotsman.com IF Frank Sinatra could come out of retirement once or twice in his career, then why not Anatoly Karpov? In the ultimate chess comeback of the modern age, the former world champion defied the odds and age barrier by beating Vassily Ivanchuk, the Ukrainian world No 11, to sensationally win the Trophée Karpov Rapid tournament at Cap d'Agde in France over the weekend. Despite the event being weaker than some previous editions, Karpov rolled back the years with a masterful performance to first beat the French champion Romain Edouard to reach the final, and then going on to beat the top seed and defending champion Ivanchuk to take the title - but only after a pulsating six-game blitz playoff between the two, after the regular rapid games ended tied at 1-1. Things started to go wrong in the final for Ivanchuk as early as game one, where, from today's diagram moment, Karpov (black), despite the time pressure - and the notoriously drawing rook and knight vs rook ending - found the mating net with 64...Kf3! 65 Kh2 (65 Rf8+ Nf3! also leads to checkmate) 65 ...Rg2+ 66 Kh3 Ng5+ 67 Kh4 Nf7 68 Kh5 Rg5+ 69 Kh4 Rg6 and White resigned soon enough. Karpov, 61, and world champion from 1975-85, has been semi-retired for over a decade. He's now a successful politician in Russia, and in late 2011 he was elected as a Deputy of the State Duma for Tyumen Oblast in West Siberia, representing President Vladimir Putin's "United Russia" Party. A Karpov - V Ivanchuk Trophee Karpov Final, (2.4) Grünfeld Defence 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7 7 Be3 c5 8 Rc1 Qa5 9 Qd2 0-0 10 d5 e6 11 c4 Qxd2+ 12 Kxd2 f5 13 Bxc5 Bh6+ 14 Be3 f4 15 Bc5 f3+ 16 Kc2 Rf7 17 Nxf3 Bxc1 18 Kxc1 Na6 19 Bd6 b6 20 Kd2 Nc5 21 Bd3 exd5 22 cxd5 Bg4 23 Bxc5 bxc5 24 Ke3 Bxf3 25 gxf3 Kf8 26 Bc4 Rb7 27 d6 Rab8 28 e5 Rb1 29 Rxb1 Rxb1 30 f4 Rd1 31 Bd3 Kf7 32 Ke2 Ra1 33 Bc4+ Kf8 34 e6 Rb1 35 e7+ Ke8 36 a4 1-0