On September 10, 1984, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov appeared on the
stage of the Hall of Columns in Moscow for the first game of their match
for the World Chess Championship. The clash between the reigning
champion and his brazen young challenger was highly anticipated, but no
one could have foreseen what was in store. In the next six years they
would play five matches for the highest title and create one of the
fiercest rivalries in sports history. The matches lasted a staggering
total of 14 months, and the 'two K's' played 5540 moves in 144 games.
The first match became front page news worldwide when after five months
FIDE President Florencio Campomanes stepped in to stop the match citing
exhaustion of both participants. A new match was staged and having
learned valuable lessons, 22yearold Garry Kasparov became the youngest
World Chess Champion in history. His win was not only hailed as a
triumph of imaginative attacking chess, but also as a political victory.
The representative of 'perestroika' had beaten the old champion, a
symbol of Soviet stagnation. Kasparov defended his title in three more
matches, all of them full of drama. Karpov remained a formidable
opponent and the overall score was only 7371 in Kasparov's favour. In
The Longest Game Jan Timman returns to the KasparovKarpov matches. He
chronicles the many twists and turns of this fascinating saga, including
his behindthe scenes impressions, and takes a fresh look at the games.
