Chess Documentary Recommendation
In an incredible example of real life being stranger than fiction, Korchnoi’s route to the 1978 world championship saw him pitted against Soviet players in the quarter-final, the semi-final and in the final itself against Spassky. Having won through to play Karpov, who was a personal favourite of Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, not even Korchnoi realised that the full force of the KGB was going to wage war against him. Before the match had even begun, there were political wrangles over which flag Korchnoi would play under.
The Soviet delegation under Baturinsky, who used to sign death warrants in the Soviet Union as a Colonel in the KGB, refused to allow Korchnoi to play under his adopted Swiss flag. Baturinsky offered a white flag in its place, as that symbolised cowardice. Never one to gracefully back down, Korchnoi said, in that case, he would be happy to play under the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle flag, but only if the words ‘I escaped’ were written underneath.
The Battle of Baguio was the high point of Victor’s chess career according to Kasparov, even though “The KGB used every dirty chess trick in the book.” If chess enthusiasts believe that not shaking hands began with Topalov and Kramnik, they will need to go back to the first win in the 1978 championship where Karpov refused to shake Korchnoi’s extended hand before the start of Game 8. “Korchnoi was insulted by this tactic,” says Ray Keene. “The red mist came down and he went down horribly in probably his worst game of the match.”
After Karpov won the first game of the match after seven draws, the supposedly ‘impartial’ match organiser, Florencio Campomanes threw a champagne reception to celebrate. In a rare video, Campomanes is seen raising his champagne glass to Karpov and his KGB entourage and toasting his first victory. “And here’s to five more wins,” gloats the match organiser who was soon to run for the FIDE presidency, knowing that he needed the Soviet bloc’s votes.
No article can do full justice to the twists and turns of this incredible match which saw drunken KGB chauffeurs crashing Karpov’s official car at night, orange-robed mystics levitating for a Korchnoi victory while on police bail for the attempted murder of an ambassador, Filipino policemen outwitting Keene and Stean’s adjournment analysis, and a key rook and pawn ending adjournment that Korchnoi won, but then spent the next twenty years analysing without coming to a conclusion as to whether it was won or drawn.
When Korchnoi lost four more games and fell behind in the match by five wins to two, everything appeared to be over, but then Korchnoi staged a remarkable comeback. 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.
— The inside story of the World Championship match of 1978
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