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Viktor Korchnoi vs Anatoly Karpov
Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Match (1978), City of Baguio PHI, rd 29, Oct-07
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. Flohr-Mikenas-Carls Variation Nei Gambit (A19)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Given 8 times; par: 158 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Oct-01-03  PVS: MTV GENERATION CHESS

All serious players rebuffed him for his absurd suggestion. I am not sure Fischer was owed anything under Soviet intellectual property law.

Oct-01-03
Premium Chessgames Member
  Benzol: <PVS> Fischer thought he was and said so during interviews in his second match with Spassky in 92.
Oct-01-03  drukenknight: Fischer probably thinks the jews owe him for not winning the interzonal in '59.
Oct-03-03
Premium Chessgames Member
  Benzol: Sylvester was talking about Korchnoi not getting much help, but he outperformed Karpov in this and a few other endgames in this match. His first victory in their 1974 match was similar to this one too.
Oct-04-03  drukenknight: Here is a very difficult endgame but perhaps it can be explained in simpler terms. This may be another example of a B on the wrong square. In such a case, you can be down a B but still draw because his pawn has to queen on a square of color opposite the B.

Look at the situation at blacks' 57th move. He moves the N all the way back to act as a blockade I guess.

He's using the N as a blockader because his K cannot get over there (due to whites Rook). The K is the classic blockader; if you are using the N perhaps you should think again.

Okay in the B wrong color ending, the N is expendable. What if 57...Rxf4+ followed by 58...Nxf4?

Does this simplify the situation enuf? With Rooks still on the board, there is still dangers, but if the Rooks come off the RP cannot queen. WIth Rs on the board, then black uses his pased pawns for counter play.

Oct-05-03
Premium Chessgames Member
  Benzol: <drukenknight> If 57...Rf4+;58.Kg3 Nxc4;59.bxc4 Rxc4;60.Rd6+ Kh5;61.Rd2 Ra4;62.Bd8 Rg4+ but what then?

If black can either exchange rooks or else force the last white pawn off then I agree with you. The bishop and wrong rook's pawn is drawn, and so is the rook and bishop versus rook ending.

Jun-11-04  drukenknight: UPDATE: THIS JUST IN. INTERNATIONAL GM RAYMOND KEANE HAS JUST WEIGHED IN WITH THIS SERIOUS SUGGESTION...

Ray says that the real suggestion was 64...Kf5 not 65..Kf5 well sorry about messing up that move there. But it doesnt look like it will hold does it? Giving up the pawn to go down 3 pawns to 1? even if he can somehow stop the a pawn white will trade it for blacks c pawn, and how will you stop two connected pawns?

64...Kf5
65. Bxg5 Na7
66. Rd7 Re6
67. Rxa7 Kxg5
68. Rc7 Rf6+
69. Ke3 Rf5
70. Rc6 Re5+
71. Kd2 Kf4
72. Rxa6 Rg5

looks bad, but maybe I am missing something.

Nov-11-04  drukenknight: Hey if Ray Keene ever gets back to this board you might want to ask him about 67...Rh2+

try it...

Nov-12-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <drukenknight><67...Rh2+>

White can reply 68. ♔c3 , keeping all his threats, and now Black won't even get the b-pawn in exchange. Also, Black runs out of checks after 67...♖h2+ 68. ♔c3 ♖h3+ 69. ♔b2 ♖h2+ 70. ♔a3 .

Black's position looks hopeless at move 67, so could you give a more detailed description of your saving idea?

Dec-03-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Almost the whole game revolves around the fact that Karpov's bishop is bad because of the pawn on c5.
Dec-03-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: 67..rh2+ still pretty hopeless since the black n is also in danger of being cut off
Apr-10-08  Knight13: <67..rh2+ still pretty hopeless> Yeah, but loses slower than 67...8323.
Aug-10-16  Howard: The latest issue of NIC (which, naturally, had Korchnoi on the cover) analyses the endgame here, and it appears to point out a few things which other sources have missed.
Mar-01-17  Howard: Here is a short list of updates to this very interesting endgame, as given by Timman in a recent issue of NIC.

First, 64...Rf4+ is given by Timman as the first choice by engines, even though some people had branded it as a mistake.

Second, Timman claims that 65...Rh4 was (potentially) the decisive mistake on Karpov's part, adding that 65...Rf8 probably would have held the draw.

But, then Korchnoi almost botched the win by mistakenly playing 67.Kd2? rather than 67.Ke2! Karpov, in turn, could then have drawn by playing 67...Kf7. But, he missed that and the game was thus over at that point.

Readers might note that some of this differs from Kasparov's MGP. Apparently, computers have "come a way" since that volume came out.

Nov-25-17  Saniyat24: There goes the a-pawn....!!
May-21-21  tbontb: A fine technical display. White maintains a nagging edge throughout but 65....Rh4 is seemingly the first major error (better Rf8), ultimately losing an important pawn. Later 70....g4 is a further mistake under severe pressure which allows Kortschnoj to reach a clearly winning position.
Nov-12-21  Helios727: Did the championship games back then have only one adjournment, or could a really long game like this end up with more than one?
Nov-12-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Multiple adjournments were possible.
Nov-12-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <Helios727: Did the championship games back then have only one adjournment, or could a really long game like this end up with more than one?>

I believe Korchnoi felt obliged to resign two games on one day, games 13 and 14 (in Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Match (1978)). Korchnoi adjourned with good positions; when the games were resumed he lost both. Sad.

Nov-13-21  TommyChess:

Worst chess match history

Dec-09-21  Helios727: Tommy, why would you call this the worst?
Jul-01-22  cormier: depth=34 | Komodo 2901.00
+1.15 49. gxf5+ exf5 50. g4 Nb6 51. Kf3 Bf8 52. Nd3 fxg4+ 53. Kxg4 Nd7 54. Re1 Rd6 55. Ne5+ Nxe5+ 56. Rxe5 Rd3 57. Rxg5+ Kf7 58. Rf5+ Ke8 59. Rf3 Rxf3 60. Kxf3 Kd7 61. Ke4 Kd6 62. Kf5 Bh6 63. Be5+ Kc6 64. Ke6 Be3 65. Bf6 Bc1 66. Bc3 Bh6 67. Bb2 Bd2 68. Kf5 Kd6 69. Be5+ Kc6 70. Bf4 Bc3 71. Be5
Jul-01-22  SChesshevsky: Seems Korchnoi shows his substantial, yet underrated, positional understanding. He gets Karpov to accept a weakness and then just unpleasantly grinds him down for another roughly 65 moves. Though I guess Karpov fatigue was a factor, also think Korchnoi was nearly 50 years old at match time.
Jul-01-22  cormier: depth=50 | Komodo 2901.00

+0.35 48... Be7 49. Rd3 Rd6 50. Rxd6 Bxd6 51. a3 Bc7 52. b4 cxb4 53. axb4 Kf7 54. Bd2 Kf6 55. Be3 Nd7 56. Bd4+ Ke7 57. Nh3 fxg4 58. Nxg5 a5 59. bxa5 Bxa5 60. Ne4 e5 61. Be3 Ke6 62. Kd3 Bc7 63. Bf2 Nb8 64. Nc3 Kf5 65. Nd5 Ba5 66. Bg3 Nd7 67. Ne3+ Kg5 68. Ke2 Bb6 69. Nd5

+0.49 48... Bc7 49. Kf3 Rd6 50. Rh1 Rd8 51. g3 Nd7 52. Re1 Nf8 53. Kg2 Kf7 54. Re2 a5 55. Bd2 Kg6 56. Be3 Bb6 57. Nh3 Nh7 58. Bc1 fxg4 59. Rxe6+ Kf5 60. Rxb6 gxh3+ 61. Kxh3 g4+ 62. Kg2 Rd1 63. Bf4 Ra1 64. a4 Nf6 65. Ra6 Rb1 66. Rxa5 Ne4 67. Rb5 Rb2+ 68. Kf1 Rb1+ 69. Ke2 Nc3+ 70. Kd3 Nxb5 71. cxb5 Rxb3+ 72. Kc4 Rb4+ 73. Kxc5 Rxa4 74. b6 Rxf4 75. gxf4 g3 76. b7 g2

Mar-09-24  N.O.F. NAJDORF: 79...Ra1 80. a7 Rxa7 81. Bf2+

winning the rook

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