CHESS

The world championship match between titleholder Vishy Anand of India and challenger Vladimir Kramnik of Russia begins tomorrow in Bonn, Germany. Kramnik's three previous title contests against Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov were covered splendidly by Evgeny Bareev and Ilya Levitov in the book "From London to Elista," issued by New in Chess. The Socratic narrative won the 2008 Book of the Year Award of the English Chess Federation and surely was not overlooked by Anand.

The Longest Match

The 12-game title match in Bonn will pale in comparison with the 1984-85 Karpov-Kasparov 48-game epic battle that lasted five months and ended with no decision. That match, played to six wins, and the political maneuvering preceding it are the highlights of the second volume of Kasparov's series On Modern Chess, titled "Kasparov vs Karpov 1975-1985," recently published by Everyman Chess. It is an important historical account.

At first, the match resembled a blitzkrieg. Karpov won four out of the first nine games. Rumors kept flying that Kasparov had been ordered to lose the match. Then came a period of calm. The players drew an unprecedented 17 games in a row before Karpov scored his fifth win. Such a drawing streak had never happened in the world championships before, virtually making a farce of the system preferred by Bobby Fischer where only wins, not draws, would count. Karpov needed the sixth victory to defend his title, but in the last 21 games of the match he could not win a single game. When Kasparov began punching back, narrowing Karpov's lead to 5-3, FIDE President Florencio Campomanes, on the wishes of the Soviet officials, abruptly stopped the match. That guaranteed him the vote of the Soviets and the Eastern Communist bloc in the next FIDE presidential election in 1986.

Kasparov's Nightmare

Although he never published any proof, Fischer claimed that some games in Karpov-Kasparov title contests were fixed. The sixth game of the match aroused his suspicion. Commenting on it for the Players Chess News at that time, I joked that the players could have used GM Lubomir Ftacnik's article on the rook endgames for the adjournment analysis. In the position of today's diagram (White: Ka1,Ra2,P:f4,g3,h2; Black: Ke4,Rb8,P:a3,g7,h6) Karpov as black played 51...Rb2! (A winning idea taken straight from the game McGrillen-Formanek, London 1973, only with the colors reversed. Ftacnik also pointed out that 51...Rb3? 52.Re2+ Kf5 53.Re5+ Kg4 54.Re7 g5 55.fxg5 hxg5 56.h4 only draws.) 52.Rxa3 (The pawn endgame after 52.Rxb2 axb2+ 53.Kxb2 is clearly lost: The white king is too far away.) 52...Rxh2 53.Kb1 Rd2! (McGrillen played the weak 53...g5? and after 54.fxg5 hxg5 55.Kc1 Re2 56.Kd1 Re3 57.Ra4+ Kf3 58.g4 Rb3 59.Ra5 Kxg4 60.Ke2 Kh4 61.Kf2 g4 a draw was agreed. Karpov's move cuts off the white king from the kingside, also threatening 54...Rd3.) 54.Ra6 Kf5 55.Ra7 g5 56.Ra6 g4! 57.Rxh6 Rg2 58.Rh5+ Ke4 59.f5 Rf2 60.Kc1 Kf3 61.Kd1 (After 61.f6 Kxg3 62.Rh6 Kg2 63.Kd1 g3 64.Rg6, Karpov would have to find 64...Rf5 65.Ke2 Re5+ 66.Kd3 Kf3 67.Kd4 Rh5! [Suggested by Sergey Dolmatov, it wins a tempo. 67...Rf5? 68.Rh6 g2 69.Rg6 only draws.] 68.f7 Rf5 69.Rg7 g2 [A mutual zugzwang. If black has to move, it is a draw.] 70.Kd3 Rf4! and black wins.) 61...Kxg3 62.Ke1 Kg2 63.Rg5 g3 64.Rh5 Rf4 65.Ke2 Re4+ 66.Kd3 Kf3 67.Rh1 g2 68.Rh3+ Kg4 69.Rh8 Rf4 70.Ke2 Rxf5 Kasparov resigned.

Kasparov called it one of the most nightmarish games in his career.