|
Every since the first great USSR versus the World chess
match in 1970, there had been great interest and
anticipation of a re-match. Following the 1984
Candidates semi-final in London, Garry Kasparov began
suggesting to various entities that they should make
this happen. As a result, the FIDE and the Soviet
Chess Federation started a collaboration with other
various organizations and the re-match became a reality,
taking place from June 24th to June 29th, 1984.
The financial contributors to the
match were the London Docklands Development
Corporation, the British Chess Federation,
Mr. H.M. Hasan of Indonesia, and Mr.
Tan Dato Chin. The site chosen for the
location of the match was the London Docklands in the old industrial part
of London, England at the Northern and Shell Building. The match arbiter was Bob
Wade (IM) and the team captains were R. Krogius (USSR
Team) and contributor H.M. Hasan (World Team). The
players for each team were as follows:
USSR Team: Anatoly
Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Lev Polugaevsky, Vasily Smyslov,
Rafael Vaganian, Alexander Beliavsky, Mikhail Tal, Yuri
Razuvaev, Artur Yusupov, Andrei Sokolov.
Reserves: Vladimir Tukmakov, Oleg Romanishin.
World Team: Ulf
Andersson, Jan Timman, Victor Korchnoi, Ljubomir
Ljubojevic, Zoltan Ribli, Yassir Seirawan, John Nunn,
Robert Hubner, Anthony Miles, Eugenio Torre.
Reserves: Bent Larsen, Murray Chandler.
There were notable absences from
both teams. Lajos Portisch was extended an
invitation, but upon finding out that they inexplicably
wanted him to play the seventh board, he understandably
declined the offer. Boris Spassky felt it too
delicate of a situation for him to sit at the World
table after defecting from the USSR to France.
Vlastimil Hort was already committed to his country's
Czechoslovakian Championship tournament. Tigran
Petrosian was ill at the time and could not participate.
Round 1 saw the World team get off to a great start,
gaining an early
3½-2½
advantage. The remaining adjourned games
looked to possibly give them another 2 points. One
notable surprise was the veteran Torre defeating the
Soviet Championship winner Sokolov in the first round.
Unhappy with the first day of results, the Soviet team
made some changes for the Round 2 matches. Tal was
replaced by Romanishin, who proceeded to play Nunn to a
draw. Smyslov was pulled in favor of Tukmakov, who
managed an important win over Ljubojevic. The
first adjournment session still had two important games
to be finished with the match all tied at 9-9.
Seirawan could not hold onto his game against Beliavsky
and Karpov overcame a resilient Andersson in a classic
85-move victory.
Round 3 started with the Soviet team now leading 11-9.
For the World team, Seirawan was replaced by Larsen and
Chandler stepped in for Torre. The Soviets had Tal
return to the table, bumping Romanishi, who in turn
replaced Sokolov. The Soviet team won the round
5½-4½
with Tal producing the winning margin with the only
victory (over Nunn). The Soviets now led the match
16½-13½
going into the final round, making a World team victory
nearly impossible.
Miles, Torre, and Ribli
all
scored dramatic wins on the last day to keep the World
team's hopes alive, but losses by Timman (to Kasparov)
and Larsen (to Beliavsky) quickly put those thoughts to
rest. The final score of the great re-match was
USSR 21 - World 19.
|
