Chess Greats set to meet again.
It was probably the greatest chess battle ever seen, an epic world title encounter between two brilliant Russians that mirrored the tensions between reformers and hardliners in the Kremlin at the time.
On one side was Anatoly Karpov, the reigning champion, whose solid dominance of the game and crushing positional style represented the stranglehold that the Soviet Union exerted over its people and its dominions.
On the other was a young pretender, Garry Kasparov, 21, whose flashing brilliance came to represent hopes that a new Soviet leader called Mikhail Gorbachev would change Russia forever.
Now, 25 years after the series was controversially called off after five gruelling months because of the stress that it put on both players, the adversaries are to clash again across the chequered board.
This time organisers in Valencia, eastern Spain, have been careful to fix a strict time limit. The former world champions will play 12 games — four semi-rapid and eight rapid — over one week.
The estimated ten million spectators will see very fast thinking from two of the world’s finest grandmasters: semi-rapid games last 25 minutes, with five seconds for each move, while rapid games run for only five minutes, with two seconds for moves.
The old enemies began yesterday by warming up against local players but the real action takes place today when Kasparov, 46, and Karpov, 58, renew their rivalry for real.
“The duel will put chess in the spotlight once again, as it did 25 years ago,” Kasparov said. He insisted that, despite the passing of time, both players remained capable of “high-quality chess”.
However, Kasparov, who officially retired from the game in 2005 to concentrate on the cut and thrust of Russian politics, admitted that the game would lack the same suspense of the 1984 showdown.
World Chess Federation Rules
Florencio Campomanes, the president of the World Chess Federation (Fide) at the time, controversially halted the match, claiming that the players’ health was suffering.
Despite having lost weight under the strain of the games, both men said that they felt fine and wanted to carry on playing. Karpov, then 33, had raced to a 4-0 lead after nine games in a “first to six wins” match.
But Kasparov battled back, drawing the next 17 games. He then closed the gap to 5-3. In a rematch the next year Kasparov went on to defeat Karpov.
Kasparov has been preparing for their new trial by training in Norway with the teenage prodigy Magnus Carlsen.
Meanwhile, Karpov, who was the Fide World Champion between 1993 and 1999, has been practising with a computer and a group of grandmasters in Spain.
Kasparov Set to enjoy the Chess game
Kasparov, who is a leading opposition politician in Russia, called for the promotion of chess, saying that the game could play an outstanding social role as an educational tool.
The two masters have been reunited by a consortium called Valencia, Cradle of Modern Chess. It contends that in the 15th century Valencia led a movement that proposed that the queen figure should have greater importance.
The tournament has been backed by a series of sponsors, including banks and local authorities, but the players’ fees have not been disclosed. The match was due to be staged in London until negotiations collapsed and Spanish organisers stepped in.
Karpov Set to Play a great Game of chess
Karpov, who is involved in a number of humanitarian causes in Russia, said: “The initial plan is to play for about six months in all countries where we once had world championship matches.” A further contest is scheduled for France in December.
The last time the two played at world championship level was in 1990 when Kasparov narrowly won. The men are not friends but are on good terms.
After Kasparov was arrested in Moscow in 2007 at a political rally Karpov visited him in jail with a copy of a chess magazine.
Source - times.co.uk |
