In the history of chess, what can go down as the best rivalry ever?

K-K

Is that Kasparov Karpov, or Korchnoi and Karpov?

Both of them where pretty good though.

I was referring to Kasparov-Karpov, although at this point I wish I could say that I thought ahead on this and left it purposely ambiguous so as to include both ;)

I would have to say Kasparov vs Karpov. 

In five world championship matches, Kasparov had 21 wins, Karpov 19 wins, and 104 draws in 144 games.  Could they have been any more equally matched?

Some people seem to remember Kasparov as dominating, be he only won 2 more games, right?

Another good one was Fine & Reshevsky -- Fine did better in international tournaments, but couldn't seem to win a US championship, always coming in behind Reshevsky.

There was an inter-continental series of matches played between Steinitz and Chigorin that popularized a gambit line against the Fried Liver Attack. Steinitz was, as many of you already know, the first undisputed world chess champion, while Chigorin was instrumental in forming the Soviet chess school. They both had a great amount of respect for one another, and played their matches by wire communication. Here is one of the matches:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1440169

Well you can look at it in terms of games or you can look at it in terms of sets or matches.  For instance in tennis you can go 7-6 0-6 7-6 and officially loose more games while winning the match.  In terms of Matches the record between Kasparov and Karpov is officially 3-1-1 and like tennis, you don't get extra points by only loosing by 1 game. 

If you look at Botvinnik vs. Smyslov 1954 was a 12-12 tie and 1957 was 12.5-9.5 in favor of Smyslov.  So out of 46 games they were separated by 3.   

No other rivalry comes close to the Kasparov-Karpov rivalry. They played over 180 serious games against each other including 5 world championship matches. Karpov has played 10 world championship matches and Kasparov played 8 ! There are only a handful of rivalries in chess history in which 2 top players played more than 100 games against each other. Karpov also played more than 100 games against Korchnoi. I believe also Smyslov-Botvinnik played over 100 games between them. Are there others with 100 +  ? 

Spassky-Korchnoi only have c. 70 games between them.

Capa-Alekhine were 50 as I recall from a recent count.

Alekhine-Euwe were c. 86 games.

Spassky-Petrosian=54

Petrosian-Korchnoi=69  but they were such good friends how can we call it a rivalry.

Spassky-Portisch=83   with some of those rapids.

korchnoi had friends!!  ive seen him in interviews he seems like a nice guy, and funny too, but i heard he hated everyone...Fischer vs the USSR was the greatest rivalry ever, but between two individuals id agree with kasparov vs karpov

Me vs. My Dad

Epic rivalry!!

truly!?  i dont do the facebook thing so i cant go verify it, but i thought they couldnt tolerate each other! 

the second is my favorite, karpov looks like he's got ice in his veins and kaspy looks like he's about to puke with fear!

Bishop-Knight definitely

They not only share the chess stuff that virtually no one else can share but Karpov visited and supported Kaspy when he got thrown in jail for his political activism.

I still wouldn't trust Karpov if I were him--Kaspy accused him of stealing his opening preparation in Seville I believe--but they seem to have settled in as friends.

I think Karpov and Korchnoi sat down at the bridge table a few times as well lol.

I believe

the white pieces and the black pieces are the biggest rivarlies!!! with over 2 trillion games played against each other!! :D

awsome for karpov to visit kaspy in jail, i figured karpov was in putin's pocket...never trust karpov though, i read he "has the ethics of ocean drift wood" and then there's this pic

kinda SCARY in that "im a serial killer" type of way...look at his shoes, theyre not "farmboy out in the fields working all day" boots...that jacket isnt what i would wear if i were cutting grass with a scyth...whats he up to...

Kasparov V Karpov

Karpov vs. Kasparov...

jpd303:

Thanks for the great pics of K and K.  I like that second one too.  Ice in his veins, definitely not intimidated at all.