Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

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Roger de Coverly
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Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sat Oct 20, 2018 8:07 pm

chessbase has a "reprint" of an article which first appeared in "Chess".

https://en.chessbase.com/post/closing-g ... ocumentary

It's about the film by Alan Byron "Closing Gambit".

One piece of new history might be this.
Chess wrote:Just before what turned out be the crucial last game of the World Championship, Game 32, Ray Keene reveals for the first time what actually happened behind the scenes as the KGB broke all the protocols they had previously agreed and put pressure on Campomanes to make life as difficult as possible for Korchnoi and his team.

Out of respect for a former FIDE president, Keene has previously not revealed the private conversation he had whilst Karpov was taking a time-out at the world championship basketball match in Manila (which the mighty Soviets embarrassingly lost in the last seconds to Yugoslavia). A behind-closed-doors conversation and offer made to Keene as the head of Korchnoi’s delegation was, he believes, a misguided attempt at diplomacy. Ray Keene is the only living person that bears witness to what happened that night, but events in a subsequent FIDE world championship match look to bear him out.

“I remember Nigel Short being amazed and asking why Ray hadn’t mentioned this before when I related it to him in Gibraltar,” reveals Closing Gambit director Alan Byron. “But whilst Max Euwe was alive, Ray didn’t think it correct to discuss it, and then it just became a less important footnote in history as time went on.” The subterfuge that emerged on that fateful night led Keene to believe that that the KGB’s activities off-the-board meant that Korchnoi was going to win on the chess board. However, in a concise summary of Game 32 and the end of the match, Keene simply states, “And then it all turned to rat s**t!”
Korchnoi later alleged that the opening of game 32 had been leaked to the Karpov camp, but Korchnoi's treatment of the Pirc with c5 and Na6 wasn't an unknown idea, having been featured in passing in the early 1970s Keene & Botterill book on the Pirc. Neither was Karpov's response of playing the position for white as a semi-Benoni.

Also
https://en.chessbase.com/post/karpov-ko ... ears-after

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JustinHorton
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Re: Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Oct 21, 2018 8:51 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Sat Oct 20, 2018 8:07 pm
chessbase has a "reprint" of an article which first appeared in "Chess".

https://en.chessbase.com/post/closing-g ... ocumentary

It's about the film by Alan Byron "Closing Gambit".

One piece of new history might be this.
Chess wrote:
Out of respect for a former FIDE president, Keene has previously not revealed the private conversation he had
Except in 1985 in Chess Life when he did
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:07 pm

Yes, I was also sure I had heard something like that before.

Raymondo just getting forgetful in old age?
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

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JustinHorton
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Re: Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:26 pm

Ray has always had an extremely reliable memory, except when he hasn't.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

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JustinHorton
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Re: Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

Post by JustinHorton » Mon Oct 22, 2018 3:35 pm

Here's the Chess Life piece

Image
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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John Clarke
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Re: Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

Post by John Clarke » Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:35 am

Isn't that proposal of Euwe's identical in principle (though not detail) to what Fischer was insisting on as a condition for his never-held world title defence? FIDE voted the idea down in 1974; one wonders if they'd have really pulled a one-eighty and gone along with Euwe only four short years later.
"The chess-board is the world ..... the player on the other side is hidden from us ..... he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance."
(He doesn't let you resign and start again, either.)

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JustinHorton
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Re: Karpov v Korchnoi 1978

Post by JustinHorton » Tue Oct 23, 2018 1:43 pm

Assuming such a proposal ever existed.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com