The great plaid master born in Russia and emigrated Gennadi “Genna” Sosonko still remembers where he was 40 years ago, when he learned that the 1984-85 World Championship match in Moscow between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov had been abandoned.
“I couldn’t go to the Soviet Union, of course. I was an enemy for them, ”he says in an interview with CNN Sport. “We were listening to Swiss radio, analyzing the opposition when we heard that the president of the international federation interrupted the match. “Well, well, well, how is this possible?”
Game lasted 5 months
A game Havia Durable five monthsmore than any other before or after. At some point, the dispute had acquired a symbolic value, an understanding that the result would reflect the Future of the Soviet Union as a whole.
If Karpov won it, it would be a sign of life for the old guard in a country that seemed to be sliding for inevitable dissolution. If Kasparov won, it would be the confirmation that the times were changing, that something new, exciting and terrifying was coming. But be abandoned without a winner after 48 strenuous games? What did that mean?
“It was more than just a type of sport,” says Sosonko. “O. It was much more than just a game with 64 houses and 32 pieces. “The names of Karpov, the names of (mikhail) such, (Tigran) Petrosian and others were known to everyone, even for people who never played chess.”
The great duel
Played under the old rules of the competition, where the champion is the first to win six games and draws are worth nothing, the 1984 began on September 10.
Nine games and 25 days later, Karpov had set a seemingly unattainable leadership of 4-0. As Kasparov began to have more control over the match, the next 17 games were tied, before Karpov winning again in game 27, being a victory for the title.
But the champion was not playing as at the beginning of the match. He had begun to make mistakes and, in the 32 game, Kasparov finally got a victory. “Karpov thought he could win the match just sitting and waiting for his opponent to make a mistake, and that may have worked at the beginning, but Kasparov recovered remarkably. He did not go into emotional collapse like many of Karpov’s opponents, ”explains Solis.
“Eventually, the tension affected Karpov and he began to make really bad movements. He was disturbed. ” The next 14 games were tied, but in games 47 and 48, Kasparov won twice, reducing the score to 5-3. Suddenly Karpov was staggering.
The intensity of the situation was apparently affecting the reigning champion, who lost 10 pounds during the match. “Karpov was obviously getting very tired. He was exhausted. He wasn’t sleeping well. ”
According to his advisers, he was going to sleep at midnight at the beginning of the match, then at 2am and then at 4am. He was clearly getting weaker and weaker, ”says Solis.
It was right now, with Kasparov apparently turning the game and both players willing to continue, which Campomanes made one of the most infamous decisions in chess history.
He flew to Moscow and, citing the health of the players, announced that he was leaving the match. The decision, he added, had the support of the Soviet Federation of Chess.
KGB
In the 40 years since then, there has never been a definitive answer about whether Campomanes had any hidden reason when it made the decision. In Sosonko’s mind, reasoning is clear. “FIDE, the international chess organization, was completely under the influence of the Soviet Union,” he says. “We knew, of course, that Campomanes was on the Soviet side.”
When contacted to comment, the current FIDE CEO, Emil Sutovsky, told CNN that Sosonko’s allegations were “quite inaccurate.” Although admitting that the Soviets had a lot of influence, he stressed that there was a lot of tension between the Fide and the Soviet Federation of Chess, particularly between 1983 and 1985.
There were even suggestions of some that Campomanes, died in 2010, was an agent of KGB, an argument that Sosonko considers excessive simplification. “” KGB agent “is a difficult definition – which he has received money or instructions. I don’t think that. But he was on the Soviet side, in every respect, ”he says.
Soltis points out that Campomanes had previously made decisions in other tournaments that hurt Soviet players and calls the notion that Campomanes was from the KGB “absurd”. However, he also believes that decisions throughout the match seemed to favor Karpov.
“The postponements, I think, were the critical point here,” he explains. “Usually players could ask for a game of a game in those days for illness, and the players had exhausted their number of days they could take. And then there were these mysterious postponements that the government or chess officers ordered. ”
“No one knows what’s going on in Campomanes’ minds, and he’s dead now, so he’ll never say.” Although the answer to this specific question is probably lost in history, what has happened since then will inevitably inform how 1984-85 is seen. Kasparov won the rematch later that year, then beat Karpov again in each of the following three world championships, and is now known as one of the greatest players of all time.
“Putin is, well, a former KGB agent,” he continues. “Nowadays, with the sports boycott of the Russians, they are in a very difficult position, and are trying to return to chess and sports in general” “(in the Soviet Union) they were wearing sports and chess that, of course, is Considered a sport in Russia and will always be, for its own benefit. And I suspect you will continue to see this for many years. ”
