Karpov, Anatoly vs Kasparov, Garry, World Championship 31th-KK1

Game 7 of the 1984 Moscow World Championship match was Karpov’s second win, taking the score to 2-0 after just seven games. The match format — “first to six wins” — meant Karpov was already one-third of the way to retaining his title. Kasparov was the challenger; he was 21 years old; he had not yet found Black openings that consistently held against Karpov’s positional technique.

The opening was a Queen’s Gambit Declined, a Karpov specialty. The specific line favoured slow positional play in which Kasparov’s attacking instincts would be muted. By move 35 Karpov had accumulated the small structural advantages he played for; by move 50 the endgame was technically won. Kasparov resigned in roughly 55 moves.

The 2-0 result triggered no immediate alarm in Kasparov’s camp. He had been expected to lose some games against the world champion. The plan was to learn the patterns of the match and find counterplay through the medium-term.

What followed was unprecedented in chess history. Karpov went to 4-0, then 5-0. Kasparov then drew 17 straight games. Karpov failed to win the necessary sixth game; the marathon stretched to 48 games over five months. FIDE eventually terminated the match without a result. The 1984 match has been read as the first chapter of the Kasparov-Karpov rivalry that would dominate world chess for the next fifteen years.