suenteus po

In September of 1982, the third of three interzonal tournaments was held in the Soviet capital of Moscow to determine the final two qualifiers for the FIDE world championship candidates matches to be held the following year. Fourteen grandmasters had qualified for the interzonal through various zonal tournaments held previously in 1982-1984 world championship cycle. The participants of the Moscow interzonal included (in order of ELO): Garry Kasparov (2675), Alexander Beliavsky (2620), Ulf Andersson (2610), Mikhail Tal (2610), Efim Geller (2565), Gyula Sax (2560), Florin Gheorghiu (2535), Miguel Quinteros (2520), John Van der Wiel (2520), Larry Christiansen (2505), Yacov Murey (2500), Guillermo Garcia Gonzales (2500), Dragoljub Velimirovic (2495), and Ruben Rodriguez (2415). The average of the combined ratings of players qualified the interzonal as a category XII event. Kasparov, who was on fire at this point in his career, finished clear first, undefeated. He blazed a trail across the field, scoring wins against half the participants, and finishing one and half points against second place and fellow candidates qualifier Beliavsky. For this edition of the cycle, third place was kept as a reserve candidate in case one of the top qualifiers dropped out, so Tal and Andersson had to play the Malmo Candidates Reserve Playoff (1983) the following year to break the tie. That match would end up being tied 3 to 3. Of course now looking back Kasparov's destiny was clear, but at the time it must have been amazing to watch this young man stop the show with each phase of the world championship cycle that he participated in. The final standings and crosstable are as follows:

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Tabanus

In order to select a challenger for the World Champion Anatoly Karpov, FIDE needed 8 players for the Candidates matches that would take place in 1983. Two players, Viktor Korchnoi and Robert Huebner, were already qualified, by having reached the Korchnoi - Huebner Candidates Final (1980/81). The other six would qualify from three tournaments: the Las Palmas Interzonal (1982), the Moscow Interzonal, and the Toluca Interzonal (1982). This was the first time the interzonal stage was split into three parts, instead of two as in 1973, 1976 and 1979. (1) Qualifying from the zonal tournaments were van der Wiel from Marbella Final (1982) and the Leiden Zonal Playoff (1982), Christiansen from the US Championship (1981), Murey from Randers B (1982) and the Randers Final (1982), Geller from Yerevan (1982) and the Jacksonville Zonal Playoff (1981), Gheorghiu from the Budapest Zonal Playoff (1982) and Sax from Baile Herculane (1982), Rodriguez from Hong Kong (1982), Garcia from Bayamo (1981), Quinteros from Morón (1982), and Velimirovic from Budva (1981). (2) Tal qualified by having reached the Candidates matches in the previous candidates cycle. Kasparov, Beliavsky and Andersson were selected on the basis of their rating at the FIDE congress in Atlanta, USA in 1981. (3) The players --

It was in September 1982 that Keene travelled to Moscow to act as a second for Larry Christiansen (http://streathambrixtonchess.blogsp...)

After 8 rounds Garcia was leading by 1 point, and a sensation? But behind was a quintet of Andersson, Beliavsky, Geller, Kasparov and Tal, and one of these 6 was favorite. In Round 9 was 2 games important for the outcome: Beliavsky defeated Garcia with Black, and Kasparov was almost losing vs Anderrson when the latter offered a draw. K had a difficult start but after this game, K played brilliantly. Before last round, Andersson, Beliavsky, Geller, Garcia and Tal were in 2nd place. Garcia and Geller had the "easiest" opponents (Rodriguez & Sax) but they both lost! Andersson-Tal was a draw, but Beliavsky won vs Gheorghiu and took 2nd place. And the Soviets got revenge for their defeat in Toluca (Tidskrift för Schack vol. 88 (October 1982) p. 233)

Kasparov watching A Beliavsky vs Tal, 1982 in Round 5: http://visualrian.ru/en/images/zoom...

Interzonal Moscow 1982 by Robert Wade (1982), 20 pp.

Hotel Sport, Moscow, USSR 7-24 September 1982

                    Elo   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4  Pts SonBe*
  1 GM Kasparov     2675  * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ½  10
  2 GM Beliavsky    2620  ½ * 1 ½ 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 ½ 1  8½
 =3 GM Tal          2610  ½ 0 * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½  8   48.00
 =3 GM Andersson    2610  ½ ½ ½ * 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1  8   47.50
 =5 GM Geller       2565  ½ 0 ½ 1 * ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½  7½  46.50
 =5 GM Garcia       2500  ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1 1 0 1 1 ½ 0 1  7½  45.25
  7 IM Murey        2500  0 1 0 0 ½ 0 * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1  6½
 =8 GM Sax          2560  0 1 ½ ½ 1 0 0 * ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1  6   37.50
 =8 GM Christiansen 2505  0 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ * 0 ½ ½ 1 1  6   34.25
 10 GM Velimirovic  2495  0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 1 * ½ 1 1 ½  5½
=11 IM van der Wiel 2520  0 1 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ * ½ 0 ½  5   31.25
=11 GM Gheorghiu    2535  0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ * 1 ½  5   29.25
 13 IM Rodriguez    2415  0 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 0 ½ 0 0 1 0 * 1  4½
 14 GM Quinteros    2520  ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 *  3

New Research

From CHESS … (verbatim):

Moscow started with a demonstration by Boris Gulko, who has for years agitated to leave the USSR. He and his wife were arrested. Tal and Guillermo Garcia set the pace, closely followed by Kasparov and Andersson. Kasparov's extra class against the weaker players soon took him into a clear lead, and Beliavsky beat Tal in a crucial round 7 game. Kasparov had already qualified when the last round startedbut Beliavsky, after salvaging an apprently lost game against Andersson, had drawn level with the Swede as well as Tal, Garcia and Geller. Last round nerves saw Garcia lose to Rodriguez and Geller to Sax. Beliavsky had tired after saving a game with Andersson, quite lost on adjournment, after 14 hours' play. He nearly lost a won game against Rodriguez. He was again lucky when Gheorghiu, in a position full of life, sealed a losing move on adjournment. Meanwhile, Andersson and Tal had played a "short, colourless draw" reports Keene. Why??

NB. Sonneborn-Berger scores given as tie-splitters in the table agree with those already in the draft.

- CHESS, Oct. 1982, p.141

From BCM … (paraphrased except in quotation marks):

Dates given as 7-25 September, Category 12, GM norm =8, IM norm =5.5

"The third and final Interzonal of the 1981-84 World Championship qualifying cycle was the most exciting and the most productive of dynamic chess."

In his early games, Kasparov, the nineteen year old from Baku, played in a risky style and this might have backfired, but for the time shortages faced by his opponents.

The tournament conditions favoured the youngsters – there was only one rest day.

Kasparov predicted that himself and Beliavsky would qualify, but he had been totally wrong with his forecasts of the other Interzonals.

Garcia, at one point on 6/7, looked like creating a sensation until he was halted by Beliavsky and Christiansen with successive defeats.

"Murey enhanced his reputation while playing in difficult circumstances."

"Tal was steady, but rarely his dynamic self."

Kasparov's impressive win against Murey was shunned by the Soviet press, due to Murey's name being largely censored (along with those of Ivanov and Alburt). Murey used to live in Moscow.

Ray Keene (from his Spectator column) reported that he and Christiansen "had been subjected to intensive luggage searches at Moscow airport on the way home. Christiansen had been carrying a long article in Russian from Gulko which was to be published in a US chess magazine. This was confiscated." Keene had also been carrying a letter from Gulko to FIDE, but anticipating that the border guards would intercept it, he had memorised and destroyed it.

- BCM, Sept. 1982, pp.466-469

Moscow izt 1982. Part 2/2.
"I believe that the Las Palmas Interzonal boasted the highest average ELO rating, but I also believe that Moscow was the most difficult tournament from which to qualify. I base my assertion on the strength at the top, where there were four players (Kasparov, Beliavsky, Andersson and Tal) who clearly deserved to qualify."

"Only by defeating Gheorghiu in the last round did Beliavsky squeeze through, and if one or more of Tal, Andersson, Garcia or Geller could have won, he would still have faced a play-off for the coveted place in the Candidates."

"I attended Moscow as Christiansen's second. Larry has not been in great form since he won the US Championship last year, but at Moscow he performed to his rating, won some attractive games and played a part in the decision making process at the top, by demolishing Garcia in a late round."

Note at the end of the crazy game Beliavsky-Van der Wiel: " … 41. Rc2 d5 (sealed) 0-1 … The boot is now on the other foot – the king that was on d8 is now safely tucked up in the corner, while White's monarch is hopelessly exposed."

- Keene in BCM, Dec. 1982, pp. 519-521

NB. More about the Murey and Gulko sagas in Soltis' Soviet Chess 1917-1991 (p. 371). Soltis also names the original venue as the 13 storey ‘Central House of Tourism'. It seems the venue was hurriedly changed to the Hotel Sport after the Gulko demonstration had blighted the start of the event.

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Kasparov and Beliavsky advanced to the Candidates matches: Ribli - Torre Candidates Quarterfinal (1983)
Korchnoi - Portisch Candidates Quarterfinal (1983) Smyslov - Hübner Candidates Quarterfinal (1983) Kasparov - Beliavsky Candidates Quarterfinal (1983)

Kasparov interview after event: Goal was to be no 1 or 2. Before the event he had considered Beliavsky and Andersson as other favorites, but Andersson was more concerned about not to lose than to win. The compromiseless play by Beliavsky deserved a place. Before the Candidates matches, the young grandmasters will now take over, "it's about time for a generation shift even in the chess world". Even he had to confess he'd never played any official match before (Tidskrift för Schack vol. 88 (October 1982) pp. 251-252)

Kasparov next played in the Luzern olympiad in November (incl. an 1-0 vs Korchnoi)

Candidates matches drawing of lots 10 November (TfS vol. 88 (December 1982) p. 317)

*Sonneborn-Berger scores (from Mark Weeks at http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/828...) applied in the event of a tied playoff. A tied playoff for third place took place in Sweden in January between Tal and Andersson, see the Malmö Candidates Reserve Playoff (1983).

NOTES
1) Wikipedia article: Interzonal

2) Mainly based on Mark Weeks at http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/zon...

3) Tidskrift för Schack, vol. 87 (November 1981), p. 287.

My Story; Garry Kasparov, moderated by James Plaskett; a 5-tape video series (VHS); GMVideo 2000

Original collections: Game Collection: Moscow Interzonal 1982 by User: suenteus po 147 and Game Collection: 0 by User: Tabanus.