Karpov - Kasparov World Championship Match 1984/85

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WCC Overview

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HISTORY OF THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

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Karpov vs Kasparov, 1984-85
The Aborted Match

From the age of 12, the chess genius from Azerbaijan Garry Kasparov was setting new standards. After becoming the youngest player to win the USSR Junior Championship he went on to win the World Junior Championship at age 16. His style was aggressive and dynamic. On his seventeenth birthday he achieved the grandmaster title.

After defeating Beliavsky, Korchnoi, and Smyslov in the candidates matches, Kasparov earned the right to challenge Anatoly Karpov for the title. The match was held in Moscow. Once again, the format was the first to 6 wins, draws not counting.

Karpov vs Kasparov
Karpov and Kasparov, 1984
Karpov secured quick lead in the match, winning games 3, 6, 7, and 9 to establish a dominating score of 4-0. However, due an incredible series of draws, it wasn't until game 27 when Karpov claimed his 5th point. With the score 5-0, Karpov's victory appeared imminent, but this marathon struggle was outlasting everybody's expectations. Finally, on the 32nd game, Kasparov beat Karpov for the first time. After another long series of draws, Kasparov won game 47 and game 48, making the score 5 to 3.

At this stage, FIDE President Florencio Campomanes made a most unexpected and controversial decision: he called the match off.

At the press conference at which he announced his decision, Campomanes cited the health of the two players, which had been put under strain by the length of the match, despite that both Karpov and Kasparov stated that they would prefer the match to continue. Karpov had lost 10kg (22lb) over the course of the match. Kasparov, however, was in excellent health and extremely resentful of Campomanes' decision, asking him why he was abandoning the match if both players wanted to continue. It would appear that Kasparov, who had won the last two games before the suspension, felt the same way as some commentators: that he was now the favorite to win the match 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.^[1]

The match lasted from September 10, 1984 to February 8, 1985. It was aborted after 48 games, making Karpov the de facto winner. A new match was scheduled to take place later in 1985.

click on a game number to replay game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Kasparov ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½

Karpov ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½

click on a game number to replay game 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Kasparov ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½

Karpov ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½

click on a game number to replay game 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Kasparov ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1

Karpov ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0

FINAL SCORE: Karpov 5; Kasparov 3 (40 draws)
Reference: game collection WCC Index [Karpov-Kasparov 1984/5]

NOTABLE GAMES [what is this?]

    · Game #9     Karpov vs Kasparov, 1984     1-0
    · Game #6     Kasparov vs Karpov, 1984     0-1
    · Game #27     Karpov vs Kasparov, 1984     1-0

FOOTNOTES

Garry Kasparov from Wikipedia.com

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 31 OF 31 · Later Kibitzing>
Sep-20-17		offramp: <Petrosianic: <offramp: It was a purely financial decision. FIDÉ was paying a fortune in hotel and venue costs. The venue had already been changed to somewhere cheaper.> That may be true, but it's not what Campomanes said. He cited only the health issues, and the fact that neither player was able to continue (even though neither player was making that claim, and Campomanes was not a doctor.)...> He would, wouldn't he? When a company is about to go bankrupt the CEO comes on telly and says that the responsibility lies with interest rates, market corrections, crop failure in Tashkent, Hurricane Irma - anything except "Our business system has proved a total failure."

Sep-20-17		WorstPlayerEver: Whoa I guess my memory is not that bad. But I can find nothing about Karpov's weight loss. Although I remember that as well. I mean... didn't he eat enough?

Sep-20-17		nok: Iirc that's some crapola that appeared in the British press. (When Keene is around, beware.) At the end the players may have been more tired by the negotiations than anything else.

Sep-20-17		Howard: As far as Karpov's "weight loss" he was reported to have lost weight during his near-marathon 1978 match with Korchnoi. Inside Chess, in fact, mentioned it in a 1991 issue.

Sep-20-17		Petrosianic: That's because they were serving him yoghurt during the game. If Yoghurtgate had been Pork Rind Gate, Karpov would have gained.

Sep-22-17		Howard: Petrosianic, I'll make the same comment to you that I made to the Chessmind blog about a week ago... ....when are people going to stop using the suffix "gate" when referring to scandals or controversies ?! Not all of us were around from 1972-74, after all. The Chessmind blog, incidentally, used the term "shortsgate", which prompted me to email them about it.

Sep-22-17		Petrosianic: I feel your pain on this. I guess it'll stop happening when there's a different scandal with a catchy name that people can riff on. But it's not just "Gate". There are a LOT of phrases that people use without having any idea where they come from. Like "he's down to his last red cent". Do you have any idea what a red cent is? Neither do I, but we've both heard the expression. A lot of software seems to allude to machinery that doesn't exist any more. You may never have seen a mechanical cash register, but I'll bet you know that a "Ka-CHING" sound refers to raking in money. One of my favorites is Modem software with an icon of an old style desktop rotary phone. Most people have never seen such a thing. To them a phone is a flat, rectangular thing, not this weird looking contraption. So I can see how it may be annoying, but really for better or worse, "Gate" has passed into the vernacular as a way of labeling something a scandal.

Sep-22-17		Petrosianic: But hey, it could be worse. If not for Watergate, all scandals might be named after Teapot Dome. Karpov-Korchnoi would have Yoghurt Dome, the Kovalyov business would be Shorts Dome. And so on. I think we're better off with gate.

Sep-22-17		WorstPlayerEver: <Petro> I guess "he's down to his brown cent" means something completely different.. ☺ Hint: in Holland cents were made from copper. And they get brown after a while.

Sep-22-17		beatgiant: <Petrosianic> <Do you have any idea what a red cent is? Neither do I> I thought it was because cents used to be pure copper and were indeed reddish, and I did not think this was an obscure bit of knowledge. Your larger point does still stand. Language is full of these things. When will "-thon" stop being used for any lengthy and arduous effort? (marathon, telethon, walkathon...) How many even think of the original Battle of Marathon when using these words? So, I'm afraid <Howard> will just have to bite the bullet.

Sep-22-17		Petrosianic: <beatgiant>: <When will "-thon" stop being used for any lengthy and arduous effort? (marathon, telethon, walkathon...) How many even think of the original Battle of Marathon when using these words?> That's a really good example, that had never occurred to me at all. I guess all those words do come from marathon, don't they? <I thought it was because cents used to be pure copper and were indeed reddish, and I did not think this was an obscure bit of knowledge.> I might have heard that before, but had forgotten it. I've never seen copper that looked red to me, and I saw a lot of copper ornaments on a trip to Santa Fe recently. But maybe they weren't pure.

Sep-22-17		beatgiant: <Petrosianic> <I've never seen copper that looked red to me> You're right, "brown cent" as in the Dutch idiom cited by <WorstPlayerEver> must be a more accurate description of the least valuable possible coin. I just googled "red penny" and learned that it is a coin collecting term, where "red" is mint condition and "brown" is used condition. They are more colorful but not really "red," and "red" ones are actually more valuable for collectors than "brown" ones. So this theory for the origin of the "red cent" idiom makes no sense! You were right, I have no idea why we say that.

Sep-22-17		WorstPlayerEver: My mother used phrases like: "Sit your brown cent down!" Little wonder I was kind of restless 😯

Sep-22-17		Petrosianic: <beatgiant>: <You're right, "brown cent" as in the Dutch idiom cited by <WorstPlayerEver> must be a more accurate description of the least valuable possible coin.> I did a little checking to try to find out why being redder or purer would make it less valuable. One site I found says that it really doesn't, that "red" is merely an intensifier, and that you could say "down to his last darned cent", and be saying the same thing.

Sep-26-17		diceman: <Everett: As I said above, it's only the nature of the match length that stopped Karpov here. The fact that it is Fischer's idiocy that suggested this format in the first place adds extra irony to it all.> Proves Fischer's point exactly. He knew Karpov was weak the longer a match went on. He knew a match where winning mattered, not draws, favored Fischer. That said, Fischer probably couldn't imagine all the cheap draws they took.

Oct-22-17		rayoflight: <diceman>If you look at second-half of Fischer-Spassky 1972 match (if your Fischerism even allow it), you would observe several draws.Then how long should such a match goes on? If you look at Carlsen-Karjakian 2016 match (again if your Fiscehrism allows it), you would observe several draws even in those games which Carlsen really pushed for a win and he failed.Then question is how long should such a match goes on? Keep playing till one side hits 6 wins was and is pure @#$%*&!#. Fischer knew very well he is never going to compete again therefore he issued some absolute nonsense to forge a justification for it.

Jan-04-19		MissScarlett: I imagine that most people familiar with the K-K matches became so primarily through the prism of Kasparov's books, so it should be interesting to see another take on events: <In The Longest Game Jan Timman returns to the Kasparov-Karpov matches. He chronicles the many twists and turns of this fascinating saga, including his behind-the scenes impressions, and takes a fresh look at the games.> https://www.newinchess.com/the-long...

Jan-04-19		Howard: Judging from the pages-sampling on the NIC website, there doesn't seem to be much of a "fresh look at the games". Offhand, the book doesn't look like much to brag about.

Jan-18-19		mu69: In the book, Soltis , What it takes to become a Grand Master p234-238 Backward Ho, a comment by Korchnoi, regarding Karpovs Backward moves (retreats) played a part in Karpov's superiority over Kasparov in the first K-K match. Can someone point which games they are?

Apr-06-21		macer75: <Keep playing till one side hits 6 wins was and is pure @#$%*&!#. Fischer knew very well he is never going to compete again therefore he issued some absolute nonsense to forge a justification for it.> Damn that's brilliant! If I were in the same position I'd do the same thing, not even as a justification but just to troll people.

Apr-06-21		Joshka: Fischer is correct IMHO, draws do not count... play to a certain number of wins. Bring back fighting match play chess!!! In fact this should be incorporated for the US Championship as well!! Screw these silly tournaments.

Nov-10-21		SirChrislov: <Joshka> No kidding, 12-game mini world championships, the absurdity!

Nov-10-21		perfidious: This match, as nothing else, pointed up the absurdity of the unlimited games format in modern-day play, but neither are the 12-game sprints a solution. Best of 24 is best by test.

Nov-10-21		RookFile: Karpov tried to be a hero by going for 6-0. If he had to do it all over again he'd start going all out for that 6th win every single time, even if he had to lose a couple of games. That's better than the 14 straight draws and total exhaustion. By today's standards just the draw series alone is comparable to a Carlsen match.

Nov-11-21		perfidious: Long ago, Pfleger wrote of how Karpov might well have chosen that approach, rather than falling in with his opponent's intentions and taking all sorts of quick draws.

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