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Karpov's reply to that was to create the most phenomenal streak of tournament wins against the strongest players in the world over the next ten years. This tournament success eclipsed the pre-war tournament record of [Alexander Alexhine]?, and was thought to be unmatchable in today's tournament standards. |
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Karpov's reply to that was to create the most phenomenal streak of tournament wins against the strongest players in the world over the next ten years. This tournament success eclipsed the pre-war tournament record of [Alexander Alekhine]?, and was thought to be unmatchable in today's tournament standards. |
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One of the first pinnacles of Karpov's tournament career was the exceptional Montreal "Super-Grandmaster" tournament in 1979, where he ended joint first with Mikhail Tal ahead of a field of superb grandmasters (Timman, Ljubojevic, Spassky, Kavalek). |
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One of the first pinnacles of Karpov's tournament career was the exceptional Montreal "Super-Grandmaster" tournament in 1979, where he ended joint first with Mikhail Tal ahead of a field of superb grandmasters (Jan Timman, Ljubojevic, [Boris Spassky]?, Kavalek). Karpov's first title defence in 1978 was against Viktor Korchnoi, the opponent he beat in the previous Candidates tournament. The situation was vastly different to the previous match. In the intervening years Korchnoi had defected from the Soviet Union. The match was played in Bagiuo in the Phillipines, and a vast array of psychological tricks were used during the match, from Karpov's Dr Zukhov who attempted to hypnotise Korchnoi during the game, to Korchnoi's mirror glasses to ward off the hypnotic stare, Korchnoi not being allowed to play under the Swiss flag (his adopted country) so offering to play under the "skull & crossbones" flag, to Karpov's yogurt being used to send him secret messages, to Korchnoi inviting two local cult members (being trialled for attempted murder) into the hall as members of his team. The off board antics are better remembered than the actual chess on it, which is saddening. Karpov took an early lead, but Korchnoi staged an amazing comeback very late in the match, and came close to winning. Karpov narrowly won the last game to take the match 6-4. Three years later Korchnoi re-emerged as the Candidates winner to challenge Karpov in Merano Spain. This time the psychological trick was the arrest of Korchnoi's son for evading conscription. Again the politics off the board overshadowed the games, but Karpov easily won what is remembered to be the "Massacre of Merano". Karpov had cemented his position as the World's best player, and real world champion when Kasparov arrived on the scene. After the aborted first match, Karpov lost his title - a ten year tenue was over. Karpov remained a formidable opponent for most of the eighties, fighting Kasparov in over five arduous World Championship matches, all of them were close. It came as a surprise that Karpov lost a Candidates Match against [Nigel Short]? in 1992, but Nigel's success was richly deserved. But Karpov reacquired the FIDE World title when Kasparov and Short split from FIDE in 1993 by overwhelming [Jan Timman]? - the loser of the Candidates match against Short. The nineties showed the gradual decline of Karpov's playing strength - apart from one awesome performance against the World's best players in Linares in 1994. Karpov won the tournament, which included Kasparov by a large margin, which put his tournament performance way over 3000 Elo. Karpov's serious tournament play has been seriously limited since 1999, preferring to be more involved in politics of his home country of Russia. |
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