Karpov's Chess Legacy - Kasparov's striking again!

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Karpov's Chess Legacy!

Today, we are continuing with the developing Karpov vs Kasparov rivalry. If you want to check up how did the fight between those 2 end in 1984 you can check it here.

Lets begin our recap of the 1985 World Chess Championship!

What Was the Format?

This time, the World Chess Championship was held in Moscow. 2 of the best players in the world were playing. Lets look at their stats, and the format:

After the too-long 1984 match, the amount of games was restricted to 24. In my opinion, that was a logical decision. Lets look at the beginning of the match - how those 2 managed to begin their journey to the World Chess Champion title?

a Shocking Start

Both Kasparov and Karpov were holding high expectations from the beginning of the match. Kasparov was a fresh, great-playing star, while Karpov enjoyed wide populatiry and support around the Soviet Union. As they sat in their chairs, waiting for game 1 to begin, they both didn't even think about how crazy this match would start. 

Kasparov was chosen to play white at the first game, by a lottery. lets look at the game.

Kasparov jumps to a 1-0 lead already from the first game! And by the game itself, we can see that Kasparov used strategic problems in Karpov's position (his light-squared bishop, the hole on d6) to his favour. 

Karpov Fights Back

As we know from previous blogs, Karpov is a fighter. With his highly accurate style of play, he did not resign to the idea of losing the match.

Game 4, which you would see now, indicates that. A couple of interesting insights before diving into the game:

  -Karpov abandoned his 1.e4 systems, and focused on developing solid positions with 1.d4           during the match. That trend started from this game.

   -Kasparov was in a 2-1 lead, so that was a must win game for Karpov to go for a safe middle         of the match.

Lets look how all those factors showed up in the game!

Karpov demonstrated a hard consept - make use of the squares your opponent can't control. A good game by him, and Kasparov simply couldn't do much to stop the loss.

But the worst part for Kasparov, is that he lost game 5 too!

The psychological effects are hard. To win the first game, and get such a comeback from the opponent by game 6! 

The End of an Era

Kasparov, despite the loss in game 4 and 5, went on to play some successfull games. and here we came to the last game of the match, game 24. Kasparov is in a 12-11 lead, and only need a draw to win the match. Karpov is in a must-win situation, playing white. Tensions are high, lets look at the last game of the 1985 World Chess Championship!

Why is e5 a blunder? Can you find the tactical knockout? Try to solve it yourself!

With this great Sacrifice, with this great match, and with those 10 years of wonderful strategic games - Kasparov ends Karpov's reign as the World Chess Champion, and becomes the new one! 

Here's the results table of the match:

Conclusion

What a great match. Today, you saw some of the greatest games played in the 80s, by the best players of the time, with the most intriguing tactics and the best strategical play. But the rivalry doesn't stop! In the next episode of Karpov's Chess Legacy - we will discuss the 1990 World Chess Championship - With an exclusive surprise!

Hope you enjoyed, and have a great day!