Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov has been hospitalized in Moscow with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured leg after falling under mysterious circumstances.
Media reports quoted Karpov's daughter, Sofia, on October 31 as saying that the 71-year-old former world champion, who is a lawmaker representing the ruling United Russia party, had accidentally fallen near the parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, two days before.
The newspaper Izvestia reported that Karpov was put on a ventilator after being diagnosed with a cerebral edema and multiple head injuries. The report also said Karpov sustained a closed fracture of the left femur.
Karpov's daughter's account of what happened conflicts with that of Andrei Kovalyov, chairman of the All-Russian Movement of Entrepreneurs, who wrote on Telegram on October 31 that Karpov was attacked by an unknown individual and is now in a medically induced coma.
Meanwhile, several media reports said Karpov was drunk when found unconscious near the parliament building.
None of the reports was officially confirmed and Karpov's daughter rejected them, saying that "nobody attacked" her father. Karpov's aide, Albert Stepanyan, said Karpov's injuries were not inflicted by another person and that the chess grandmaster was in stable condition.
Karpov became the world chess champion in 1975 after U.S. chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title.
Later, in 1978 and 1981, Karpov defended the title while playing against ex-Soviet chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who defected to the West in 1976.
In 1985, Karpov defended his world chess champion title, but shortly after lost it to Garry Kasparov.
Karpov has been elected to parliament as a member of the ruling party three times. He is currently under Western sanctions over Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Kasparov, who currently resides in the United States, is known as a staunch critic of the Kremlin's policies, including Russia's aggression against Ukraine.