World Chess Championship 1984

The World Chess Championship 1984 was a match between challenger Garry Kasparov and defending champion Anatoly Karpov. The match was eventually abandoned in controversial circumstances with Karpov leading 5-3, and replayed in the World Chess Championship 1985.

Qualification

Interzonals

Three Interzonal tournaments were held. The top two finishers in each qualified. Kasparov, aged 19 years old at the time, won the Moscow Interzonal by a convincing 1.5 point margin ahead of Beliavsky. [ [http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/82842iix.htm World Chess Championship : 1982-84 cycle : 1982 Moscow Interzonal ] ] Ribli won the Las Palmas first Interzonal ahead of Smyslov [ [http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/82841iix.htm World Chess Championship : 1982-84 cycle : 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal ] ] , and the Toluca Interzonal was won jointly by Portisch and Torre. [ [http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/82843iix.htm World Chess Championship : 1982-84 cycle : 1982 Toluca Interzonal ] ]

Candidates

The six Interzonal qualifiers were joined by Korchnoi and Hubner, the Candidates finalists from the previous cycle (World Chess Championship 1981). The eight players participated in a series of knockout matches. The winner was Garry Kasparov. [ [http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/8284$cix.htm World Chess Championship : 1982-84 cycle : Candidates Matches ] ]

8TeamBracket-info

RD1T1-loc=Moscow, 1983
RD1-team1=Kasparov
RD1-score1=6
RD1-team2=Beliavsky
RD1-score2=3

RD1T2-loc=Bad Kissingen, 1983
RD1-team3=Portisch
RD1-score3=3
RD1-team4=Korchnoi
RD1-score4=6

RD1T3-loc=Alicante, 1983
RD1-team5=Ribli
RD1-score5=6
RD1-team6=Torre
RD1-score6=3

RD1T4-loc=Velden, March-April 1983
RD1-team7=Hübner
RD1-score7=7
RD1-team8=Smyslov
RD1-score8=7

RD2T1-loc=London, November-December 1983
RD2-team1=Kasparov
RD2-score1=7
RD2-team2=Korchnoi
RD2-score2=4

RD2T2-loc=London, November-December 1983
RD2-team3=Ribli
RD2-score3=4½
RD2-team4=Smyslov
RD2-score4=6½

RD3T1-loc=Vilnius, March-April 1984
RD3-team1=Kasparov
RD3-score1=8½
RD3-team2=Smyslov
RD3-score2=4½

Candidates Controversies

* The Smyslov–Hübner match was originally tied at 5-5. After playing four extra games without breaking the tie, the match was resolved by a spin of the roulette wheel.
* Politics threatened Kasparov's semi-final match against Viktor Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California. Korchnoi had defected from the Soviet Union in 1976, and was at that time the strongest active non-Soviet player. Various political manoeuvres prevented Kasparov from playing Korchnoi in the United Stated, and Kasparov forfeited the match. This was resolved when Korchnoi agreed for the match to be replayed in London, along with the Vasily Smyslov vs. Zoltan Ribli match. The Korchnoi-Kasparov match was put together on short notice by Raymond Keene. Kasparov lost the first game but won the match 7-4 (four wins, one loss).

Championship match

:

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 15 successive draws followed, through game 46; the previous record length for a world title match had been 34 games, the match of Jose Capablanca vs. Alexander Alekhine in 1927.

At this point Karpov, 12 years older than Kasparov, was close to exhaustion, and did not look like the player who started the match. Kasparov won games 47 and 48 to bring the scores to 5-3 in Karpov's favour. 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. Karpov had lost 10 kg (22 lb). [ [http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/84kk$$.htm World Chess Championship : 1984 Karpov - Kasparov ] ] But Kasparov was in excellent health and extremely resentful of Campomanes' decision, asking him why he was abandoning the match if both players wanted to continue. Kasparov had won the last two games before the suspension, and some observers believed that he would go on to win despite his 5-3 deficit. He appeared to be physically stronger than his opponent, and in the later games seemed to have been playing the better chess.

The match became the first, and so far only, world championship match to be abandoned without result.

The restarted match (the World Chess Championship 1985) was best of 24, with the champion (Karpov) to retain his title if the match was drawn 12-12. Because Karpov's 2 point lead from the 1984 match was wiped out, Karpov was granted the right of a return match (the World Chess Championship 1986) if he lost.

References