World Chess Championship 1987
The Seville draw — Kasparov needs to win the final game to retain the title and does it, ending the match 12–12 with the champion keeping the crown.
- Year
- 1987
- Format
- Best of 24 classical games
- Venue
- Lope de Vega Theatre
- Cycle
- classical
The 1987 match in Seville was the third Karpov–Kasparov championship in three years and their fourth consecutive championship encounter overall. The format was again best of 24, the same as 1985 and 1986. Played at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Seville from 12 October to 19 December 1987 — the first time the championship had moved out of the Soviet bloc during the Karpov–Kasparov rivalry.
The Final Game
Going into Game 24, Kasparov trailed by a point — he needed to win the final game to retain the title (a 12–12 tie kept the champion’s crown). He played the Reti as White, achieved a small advantage out of the opening, and converted it across the long middlegame and endgame into a 64-move win. The win is considered one of the greatest must-win games in championship history.
The Rivalry Continues
Final score 12–12. Kasparov retained the title under the champion-keeps-title-on-tie rule. The two played one more classical match — the 1990 New York / Lyon match — before Karpov’s path to the championship ended. Their combined five matches produced 144 classical games at the world-title level, the most between any two players in chess history.