Chess is a game that requires a strategic mind and requires a great amount of logic. Chess can be a highly competitive game. There are annual championships to determine the grand master among all chess players. The 1985 World Chess Championship brought with it a controversial finish that's still talked about today.85 World Chess Championship
The World Championships in chess have a storied history - dating back to 1886, although FIDE's version has existed since 1948 (including a breakaway event from 1993 to 2006). Era's have come and gone and despite the sport being fought over a table, a board and two chairs, plenty of drama has come to be associated with the World Championships.
In terms of popularity, chess in the Soviet Union was akin to the NFL in the U.S.A.
It was one of the most controversial decisions in chess history: on 15 February 1985, the President of FIDE (The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation), Florencio Campomanes, terminated the World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov after 48 games.
The match had lasted five months, longer than any other World Championship before or since. Somewhere along the way, the contest had picked up some sort of symbolic value, an understanding that the result would reflect the future of the Soviet Union as a whole.
If Karpov won, it would be a sign of life for the old guard in a country which seemed to be slipping towards inevitable dissolution. If Kasparov won, it would be confirmation that times were changing, that something fresh and exciting and terrifying was coming.
With the Cold War bubbling away and the USSR looking for any opportunity to promote Soviet ideals on the world stage, chess players were no different. Their supremacy in the sport was fueled, in part, by the fact that they were looked after exceptionally well by the state.
The 1984 World Chess Championship, which was a "first to win six games" match, started with four victories in the first nine games by the reigning champion, Anatoly Karpov. At that point, with experts predicting a quick 6-0 whitewash, his challenger did something extraordinary: playing super-solid chess, Garry Kasparov dug in and battled Karpov to 17 successive draws. He lost game 27, then fought back with another series of draws until game 32, his first-ever win against the World Champion.
The next 14 games were tied, but in games 47 and 48, Kasparov won two in a row to pull the score back to 5-3. Suddenly, Karpov was floundering. The intensity of the situation was apparently getting to the reigning champion, who lost 22 pounds over the course of the match.
It was at this point, with Kasparov apparently having turned the tide and both players keen to continue, that Campomanes took one of the most infamous decisions in chess history. He flew to Moscow and, citing the health of the players, announced that he was abandoning the match. The ruling, he added, was supported by the Soviet Chess Federation.
In the 40 years since, there has never been a definitive answer as to whether Campomanes – who has since been referred to as, "Karpovmanes" in some circles – had any ulterior motive when he made the decision.
Kasparov won the rematch later that year, then beat Karpov again in each of the next three World Championships and is now known as one of the greatest players ever. Perhaps even more crucially though, present-day Russia is using sports to promote it's interests throughout the world.
There was speculation that Campomanes had yielded to political pressure but the rematch came soon after in 1985. Kasparov won the best of 24 contest 13-11 and became the youngest world champion.
Kasparov defended his title in 1986 against Karpov again but was at his peak in the 1987 World Championship. After 23 games, Karpov led 12-11, which meant Kasparov had to win. The defending champion then went on to play one of the greatest games of chess ever, and came out triumphant after 64 moves, retaining his title with a win under immense pressure - which Kasparov described as his, 'Mount Everest'. He would remain victorious against Karpov again in 1990, winning his fourth world title.
It's really hard to form an opinion on this. I'm not an active chess player. As such, I don't believe I'm in a position to say something critical. However, playing a match for five months does seem to be a bit rough. Perhaps Florencio Campomanes was right in ending the match. People's health should always take priority. I don't buy into any sort of government interference.