Garry Kasparov vs Anatoly Karpov: The Greatest Rivalry In Chess History. The championship match between Karpov and Kasparov had many ups and downs, and a very controversial finish. Karpov started in very good form, and after nine games Kasparov was down 4--0 in a "first to six wins" match. Fellow players predicted he would be whitewashed 6--0 within 18 games. But Kasparov dug in and battled Karpov to 17 successive draws. He lost game 27, then fought back with another series of draws until game 32, his first-ever win against the World Champion. Another 14 successive draws followed, through game 46. Games 47 and 48 were both won by the contender, making the score 5--3 in favor of Karpov and the eventual outcome far less certain. Then the match was ended without result by Florencio Campomanes, the President of Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), and a new match was announced to start a few months later. The termination was controversial, as both players stated that they preferred the match to continue. Announcing his decision at a press conference, Campomanes cited the health of the players, which had been strained by the length of the match (5 months: September 10, 1984 to February 8, 1985). The match became the first, and so far only, world championship match to be abandoned without result. The 1985 championships represented a restart of the abandoned match. Due to the extreme duration of the previous match, FIDE agreed at a meeting in Tunisia in July 1985 that the re-arranged championship would be of fixed length, played as the best of 24 games. If the match had ended at a 12-12 draw, Karpov would have retained his title. As Karpov had been leading the 1984 championships, he was also granted an automatic rematch if he lost. The playing regulations were that 40 moves should be made by each player in 2 hours 30 minutes, with games being adjourned to the following day after 40 moves were completed. Kasparov's preferred venue was Leningrad and bids for the match had been received from London and Marseille. In the end, with the backing of the Soviet Chess Federation, FIDE selected Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall as the venue for the match. The opening ceremony was held on 2 September, at which the draw for colors was made and won by Kasparov. This meant that he took the white pieces in Game 1, which started on 3 September 1985 Kasparov called game 24 the "game of his life" and has stated that working out the strategy for this encounter was difficult for him. His playing style did not lend itself to playing for a draw, so he decided to accept an open battle, with chances on both sides. Karpov began a direct attack on Kasparov's king as early as move 15, and had chances to build up a strong attack. Kasparov defended strongly and seized a chance to launch a counterattack. Under pressure from the clock, Karpov made a decisive error on move 36. Karpov resigned on move 42 to leave the final score at 13-11 to Kasparov, the new World Champion. The 1986 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in London and Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) from July 28 to October 8, 1986. Kasparov won. Anatoly Karpov was already assured of this rematch during his previous year's match, which was won by Garry Kasparov. The 1987 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in Seville from October 12 to December 19, 1987. Before the 24th game, Kasparov was down 12-11, but in the 24th game, Kasparov made a comeback by using the English Opening to win the final game to retain his title. The World Chess Championship 1990 was played between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. It was the fifth and final Kasparov-Karpov championship match, Kasparov winning by a single point. SOURCE: Wikipedia Full name: Garry Kimovich Kasparov Country: Soviet Union Russia Born: 13 April 1963 (age 50) Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union Title: Grandmaster (1980) World Champion 1985--93 (undisputed) 1993--2000 (classical) FIDE rating: 2812 (September 2013) (inactive) Peak rating: 2851 (July 1999, January 2000) Peak ranking: No. 1 (January 1984) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov Full name: Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (Анатолий Евгеньевич Карпов) Country: Russia Born: May 23, 1951 (age 62) Zlatoust, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Title: Grandmaster (1970) World Champion 1975--85 1993--99 (FIDE) FIDE rating: 2619 (September 2013) (No. 177 on the July 2011 FIDE ratings list) Peak rating: 2780 (July 1994) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Karpov

• published: 03 Sep 2013
• views: 326