Introduction:

This match took place in Linares, Spain from Tuesday, February 24th to Thursday, March 26th, 1987. It was a FIDE Candidates Final Match to decide the world championship challenger for 1987 who would face Garry Kasparov.

The experienced Spanish master Antonio Medina Garcia, was the arbeiter. Lots were drawn on Monday, 23rd February.

The purse was 5,250,000 pesetas for the winner and 3,150,000 pesetas for the loser. 1

This was to become a match of a comet versus a star.

The players:

Aged 23, Sokolov was 12 years younger than Karpov. He had risen exceptionally quickly winning the 1982 World Junior Championship in Copenhagen, and the 51st Soviet Championship (+8,-0, =9; 2nd–28th April 1984) so becoming the third-ranked player in the world. Perhaps, only Mikhail Tal and Kasparov can compare with the speed and accomplishments of his emergence into the elite.

In 1985 he tied for first in the Montpellier Candidates (1985) , France. Then Sokolov fought his past leading representatives of both his own and the predeeding generation of strong posts-war Soviet players. Both of these opponents were then enjoying their peak years of performance.

In these Candidates matches Sokolov had first dispatched the 34 year old Rafael Vaganian (+4, =4, -0). Then he defeated his contemporary the 26 year old Artur Yusupov , Game Collection: WCC Index (Sokolov-Yusupov 1986) (+4, =7, -3).

Despite Sokolov's rapid and impressive achievements, the ex-world champion Karpov, aged 35, was generally shaded to be the favourite due to his playing strength, technical ability and and vast experience. It was felt, however, that it would be a tough match.

Kasparov stated: "A year ago I would have bet on Karpov without hesitation, but now it is not so clear, Sokolov usually plays the opening aggressively, which may cause problems for Karpov". 2

"A recent poll among grandmasters for the French chess magazine gave Karpov a 60 per cent chance to beat Sokolov and face Kasparov for a fourth time.But Sokolov said in an interview in the magazine: <'I've won all the matches where I was not the favourite. If these prognostications are the same, then the result will be the same.>'' 3

Karpov was supported by long-term trainer Igor Zaitsev, as well as having new seconds in his team: Elizbar Ubilava and Mikhail Podgaets. Sokolov's coach was the experienced Soviet Grandmaster unknown player, who had come third equal in the USSR Championship 1972 and second equal in the in 1973.

The players examined the playing hall but were not particularly pleased initially.

"Both raised identical problems: the narrowness of the playing table and the colour of the carpet, a green judged to be too shrill and therefore unsuitable for calm concentration....During yesterday morning, the two main contenders visited town's furniture store in search of seating more to their liking and both were satisfied with what they found".

They also rejected the clocks demanding the German "Garde" brand clocks and threatened to not play if the organisers did not provide this equipment 4

Score:

Round                 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11  
Karpov,  Anatoly ...  ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1  1 ...  7½
Sokolov, Andrei  ...  ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0  0 ...  3½

Round                 1 2  3 4  5 6  7  8  9  10  11 
Karpov,  Anatoly ...  ½ 1½ 2 2½ 3 4  4½ 5  5½ 6½  7½
Sokolov, Andrei  ...  ½ ½  1 1½ 2 2  2½ 3  3½ 3½  3½

Raymond Keene - "Before the Candidates' super-final match started in Linares, Spain, I had expected Andrei Sokolov to put up a stern fight against Anatoly Karpov, perhaps even win. After all, Sokolov, just a few weeks older than Kasparov, has had a meteoric rise to the top and he has the distinction of never having failed in his major aims. He won the USSR championship when he had to, at the age of 20, then came out at the head of his Interzonal and the Montpelier Candidates' toumament. Finally, he disposed of Vaganian and Yusupov in Candidates' matches. But Karpov's subtlety is proving too much for him. With White, Sokolov has been making no impression, conceding draw after draw, while, as Black, his Queen's Indian Defence is almost imperceptibly failing to equalise. In fact, Sokolov is hardly putting up any kind of fight...It is all highly reminiscent of the way Kasparov failed to adjust to Karpov's methods in the opening nine games of their first match. 5

unknown player - "The 35-year-old Karpov won three of the five games in which he played White by capitalizing on a vastly superior grasp of the endgame. He carefully stopped the 24-year-old Sokolov every time he had Black, and in the 11th game of the 14-game series refuted a wild, desperate attack to take the final point with Black". 6

Summary:

Sokolov never came to terms with Karpov's style in this match.

It became apparent that Sokolov suffered from a narrow opening repetoire whose positions were unfortunately to the taste of his opponent. Furthermore according to Zaitsev (Karpov's trainer) they purposefully avoided sharp positions and relied on Karpov's mastery of positional technique and endgame viruosity.7

...

Notes:

Original collection: Game Collection: 0, compiled by User: TheFocus

This text by User: Chessical

1 http://elpais.com/diario/1987/03/27...

2 http://elpais.com/diario/1987/02/24...

3 http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1987/K...

4 http://elpais.com/diario/1987/02/24...

5 http://archive.spectator.co.uk/arti...

6 http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/31/n...

7 Kasparov, My Great Predecessors, vol 5. page 411.