Karpov vs. Kasparov | World Chess Championship 1985
The chess world only had to wait seven months after their aborted 1984 match for Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov to resume their titanic clash. Was it a rematch if the first match never ended? That's for historians to decide, but the ascendency of Garry Kasparov to become the 13th world champion could not be ignored by Chess.com's content team.
This match finished as the fifth-most exciting world championship of all time.
Kasparov winning the championship in 1985. Photo via Wikipedia.
Like our eighth-place match (Botvinnik vs. Bronstein) this one was back in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.
The second clash with Anatoly Karpov technically came in tied for fourth place in the most exciting world championships of all time, but using the tiebreaker of highest overall placements, it just barely landed in fifth position. (This writer was the only one not to rank it in the top 10; throw your tomatoes at me in the comments.)
Karpov via Wikipedia.
As was the case with pretty much all of their matches, which were now exclusively "best of 24 games," everything came down to the last game.
Before that, Kasparov came even in game 11 after a disastrous blunder by Karpov.
After a series of four draws, Kasparov then played an exquisite game, where his relentlessness could be felt with every move:
Karpov had draw odds, so despite being down 12-11 going into the final day's play, he could still retain the title with a win.
As Kasparov explained in his "MasterClass," Karpov blinked for just one moment, and the opportunity to strike had passed:
Kasparov's win made the final score 13-11. He was also born on April 13, and he became the 13th world champion, which his mother predicted would happen.
Coming up next: Number 4 on our list!
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
