Karpov's Chess Legacy - Who's gonna take the crown? pt2
Our chess rollercoaster continues!
Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining the second part of the most dramatic chess championship ever. check out part one if you didn't already, and let's jump into the episode!
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The situation is tense. 31 games were played, and the score is now 5-5. during the match, a couple more dramas were happening.
During the first games, a man called Vladimir Zukhar sat in the front rows of the playing hall. Why is it so special? Because he was a specialist for hypnotising, who worked for the KGB. He sat and stared at Korchnoi for hours, and Viktor began to feel uncomfortable.
He asked mr. Schmid to remove Zukhar from the first rows. After a long discussion (and Karpov's team rejection to cooperate, Zukhar moved to the 5th row. With the jury looking closely after him, Zukhar stopped his attempts to hypnotize Korchnoi.
Because of the presence of Zukhar in the hall, Korchnoi felt that he needs to bring a counter-hypnotizer. Before game 18, 2 members of Ananda Marga (an indian meditation organization) landed in Baguio and began helping Korchnoi. They taught him how to meditate, and some spectators said that they even tried to hypnotize Zukhar and Karpov.
The catch is that those 2 members of Ananda Marga were tried couple of months earlier for an attempt of murder (they stabbed an Indian politician, in attempt to free one of the organization's leaders). It isn't known till this day if Korchnoi knew about this case or not. After a couple of days, those 2 members were not allowed to enter the playing hall, and the explanation was "No one with criminal record can enter the hall". It was a controversial statement, because Zukhar probably did have a criminal record aswell, but he got a permission to enter the hall.
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The 32th game is about to start. The score is 5-5, and the winner of this game gets the crown. Would it be Korchnoi? let's find out!
Korchnoi lost the match, and Karpov managed to save his crown. He returned to the Soviet Union as a hero, winning the most controversial, drama-filled and thrilling WCC ever.
I hope you enjoyed the second part of my cover of the 1978 WCC! If you have questions/requests please write them in the comments. If you like content like this, click the follow button to receive more of it! Have a great day 
