Karpov's Chess Legacy - a New World Champ!

Hello and welcome to yet another exciting episode of Karpov's Chess Legacy!

Note: if you haven't read the previous episode, it is highly recommended to read it before this one.

The drama continues. After the win in the semifinals of the 1974 candidates, Karpov advances to the finals, and now has to face the legendary Viktor Korchnoi. Two great, positional players have to battle it out to decide who's gonna play against Bobby Fischer and try to take the crown back to the Soviet Union. Lets get started with the best game of the final!

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A critical position. We should decide what to do, and if we'll get it wrong Korchnoi will swipe us off the board.

Lets start with asking ourselves: what are the Imbalances in the position?

in terms of Pieces, white is better. He's knights are dominating the queenside, with a big help from the g2 bishop. We should exchange some pieces, or kick those out of the queenside.

Kingside- black is not castled yet, so we should castle soon to make sure our king is safe.

Control over strong squares - We should not give white the d6 square, as a knight there would be deadly.

With all that in mind, let's see what Karpov did:

Karpov got into a tricky position, got out of it and used strategic concepts to get an upper hand on Korchnoi.

He proceeded to win the match, becoming the player who would take on Fischer in 1975.

But here's the catch: Fischer didn't want to play!

Fischer wanted the match to be in a format similar to the first world cup - the first one to get to 10 points wins (not counting the draws). This way, he showed his hate to the Soviet method of winning a game and then drawing all the other ones in a match. 

FIDE rejected the demand, and Fischer refused to play. Many believe that FIDE (which was ruled by the Soviets) was trying to get rid of Fischer, as the 1978 world championship was played in a similar format to Fischer's. 

But for our protagonist, Anatoly Karpov, it meant one thing: He is the world champion!

Such a deserved win! Now Karpov should defend his title. His dramatic and controversial rule as a world champ begins. In the next episode, we will discuss the most Drama-filled world championship ever. Did Karpov defend his title? See in the next episode!

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