Karpov's Chess Legacy - The Most Dramatic WCC Begins! pt1
Hello, and welcome to the most dramatic chess rollercoaster ever.
This 1978 World Chess Championship is the most dramatic and controversial championship that ever happened. Lets not lose any time and begin our story!
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as we saw in the previous episode, Karpov is the world chess champion. But let's think for a second about Korchnoi's prespective in Karpov's story.
Imagine you have to play against the whole Soviet chess school. All of them- Tal, Petrosian, Smyslov, Botvinnik. You probably feel quite uncomfortable, aren't you?
Thats exactly how Korchnoi felt during the 1975 candidates final. All the players mentioned above were in Karpov's team, and helped him to prepare and analyze the games. Korchnoi, on the other hand, got only David Bronstein, who secretly helped him with opening preparation (He was suspended from the Soviet team bacause of this).
There were some reasons for this "anti-Korchnoi" campaign. First of all, the Soviets liked young chess players, and since Korchnoi was very old compared to the rising star Karpov, the Soviet school decided to "replace" him. Second, Korchnoi wasn't a big fan of the regime. He wasn't part of the Soviet party, as opposed to Karpov.
Korchnoi, who played in the Soviet union his whole life, had received many insults during the match. Because of that, his hate for the Soviets grew, and he decided to defect from the Soviet Union and move to Switzerland. That was a decision that surprised everyone.
3 years later, Korchnoi became the winner of the candidates, and now had to play for the World Chess Champion title against his longtime rival, Anatoly Karpov.
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With that background, you can understand how tense the 1978 Championship was. FIDE decided that Baguio (Phillipines), would be the host city. This is where the fun begins, lets start!
right after the first game (which was drawn), Korchnoi's team (basically Korchnoi) begam the drama. An accusation of cheating was made, and Korchnoi said that Karpov received signals from his assistant through a blueberry yogurt!
For the 8th game, Karpov came angry to the board. He refused to shake hands with Korchnoi. The game itself is a great example of how Karpov plays when he's angry.
This game is a good example of taking advantage of an uncastled king. Well executed by Karpov, who took the lead in the match (1-0).
At this moment of the match, Korchnoi famously started to wear sunglasses, to reflect light to Karpov's eyes!
After he brung out the sunglasses, Korchnoi showed that not only Karpov can fight!
A great win by Korchnoi (perhaps a future hero of a series in this blog?).
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The score is now 1-1, after 11 games. The first to get 6 wins (draws don't count) is going to win the title. The drama is in the air, is Karpov gonna keep his title? find out in the next part!
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Karpov's Chess Legacy. If you did, consider following for more content like this. Have a great day! 
