Anatoly Karpov Explains The Sicilian Dragon - Best Of The 70s - Karpov vs. Korchnoi
In 1974, Anatoly Karpov battled Viktor Korchnoi in the final Candidates match of the World Champinonship cycle. His hard-fought victory (12.5-11.5) earned him the right to play Bobby Fischer in the 1975 World Championship match. As we know now, Fischer would never play that match (or serious chess again) due to disputes about the format.
Prior to Karpov's legendary battles with Garry Kasparov, his matches with Viktor Korchnoi were a candidate for the most intense chess rivalry ever. After this Candidates Final, Korchnoi was the challenger in 1978 and 1981. Together they played 120 games against each other in their careers. An astonishing number though it pales in comparison to the 192 that Karpov later played against Kasparov.
Top 10 Games of the 1970s
- #1: ???
- #2: ???
- #3: ???
- #4: ???
- #5: Karpov vs. Korchnoi, 1974
- #6: Karpov vs. Andersson, 1975
- #7: Diemer vs. Trommsdorf, 1973
- #8: Reshevsky vs. Vaganian, 1976
- #9: Catig vs. Mills, 1974
- #10: Keene vs. Miles, 1976
- See also: Top 10 of the 1980s, Top 10 of the 1990s, Top 10 of the 2000s, and Top 10 of the 2010s
Karpov opens with his trusty 1.e4 and selects the sharpest variation against Korchnoi's Dragon Variation, the Yugoslav attack with 9.Bc4. Prepared to the hilt, one of the most impressive things about Karpov's play in the game is how he uses prophylaxis (16.Nde2 and 19.Rd3!) to nullify any of Korchnoi's typical attempts for counterplay with an exchange sacrifice on c3.
With no worries about his own king's safety, he is ready to crash through on the h-file, but Korchnoi's Nf6 holds everything together, and his heavy pieces are desperately fending off attempts to distract that knight along the fifth rank. With a fantastic sequence, 20.g5!!, 21.Rd5!!, and 24.e5!!, Karpov collapses the fifth-rank defense and wins on move 26.
Notes, with lots of excerpts from Karpov, are below. See Karpov's incredible annotations in his book which is currently priced at over $1,000!?.
If you like the content and want to support it, subscribe and follow on YouTube and Twitch!
I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.
