“To come up with such a text that no one can blame me in the West. And on the other hand, to fully justify the expectations of the Kremlin "

Anatoly Karpov recalls one of the most striking episodes of the chess history of the 20th century - his fight for the title of world champion with Victor Korchny in 1978

Left: Victor Korchny in January 1978. On the right: Anatoly Karpov in 1977

Photo: Hans Peters, Koen Suyk/ Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage

The Bombor publishing house has just published the autobiographical book of Grossmaster Anatoly Karpov “Life and Chess” . The great chess player, the twelfth world champion (1978–1985) in detail, very fascinatingly and quite fascinatingly talks about the big policy of the chess world, with emphasized knowledge of the matter, describing dizzying intrigues and complex hardware, in which Soviet party functionaries were no less experienced grandmasters than international chess officials.

With the kind permission of the author and the publishing house, we chose to publish an excerpt from the chapter “Different battles” , which tells about one of the most striking episodes of the chess life of Anatoly Karpov - and the entire history of chess in the 20th century.

This event was the match for the title of world champion 1978, in which Grossmaster Viktor Korchno, who refused to return to the USSR from the international tournament and devoid of Soviet citizenship, played against Karpov (the current champion).

A three -month duel between the Soviet champion and the “irrevocable”, held in the Philippine city of Bagi, predictably acquired a political coloring, was accompanied by continuous scandals and mutual accusations of violations of the rules and an unscrupulous game. Korchny, in particular, argued that he was subjected to psychological pressure by certain members of the Soviet delegation (Karpov partially confirms this). Meanwhile, Soviet newspapers, illuminating the tournament, generally avoided calling a korchny one, calling him just a “contender” ...

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