Karpov versus Kasparov – 25 years on

One of the greatest sporting rivalries of all time resumed in Valencia in late September when Anatoly Karpov faced Gary Kasparov, 25 years after the two grandmasters first competed for the world chess title.

The rematch, which took place in the lecture theatre at the Palau de les Arts Opera House, was an occasionally tetchy affair with the two chess divos complaining about the lighting, although commentators attributed their remarks largely to a desire to defuse tension.

When Karpov meets Kasparov the result is invariably high drama, a tradition set in motion back in 1984 when the two great brains of the game met for the first time in Moscow and established their great mind-wrestling feud. On that occasion the encounter lasted for five months, at the end of which it was called off without a victor being declared. Such was his level of concentration and focus that Anatoly Karpov lost eight kilograms from his already lean frame.

On his arrival in Valencia Karpov joked with a reporter from Super newspaper, “Apart from the prime minister and the president, we are probably the most famous men in the country,” indicating that his ego at least was still in excellent health.

Perhaps with the sheer bloody-minded length of their first encounter in mind, the organisers of the Valencia event sensibly set limits on the games and the two chess giants played only a dozen “semi-rapid” and fast “blitz” games.

The final result was a victory for Kasparov by nine games to three, a result that he attributed to Karpov’s inability “to sustain the enormous psychological pressure on the board.”

Karpov’s response was predictably terse, merely promising his revenge at the pair’s next meeting in Paris in December.

New post on at Wednesday, 7 October, 2009, 6:29 am and is archived in Culture, Lifestyle, People, Sport. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.