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World Championship 29th · Baguio City · 02 September 1978

Karpov, Anatoly vs Kortschnoj, Viktor, World Championship 29th

Karpov, Anatoly ½–½ Kortschnoj, Viktor
Karpov, Anatoly vs Kortschnoj, Viktor
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World Championship 29th, 02 September 1978

Round 18 of the 1978 Baguio City World Championship match was played on September 2, with Karpov leading 4-1 in won games. The draw maintained the score and brought the match into its long middle phase, where most games would be drawn while Korchnoi searched for the win that would restart the contest.

The match used a “first to six wins” format with unlimited length and no draw count toward the score. By Round 18 the players had already been at the board for over five weeks. The Soviet team’s psychological infrastructure — including the parapsychologist Vladimir Zukhar, who sat in the second row staring at Korchnoi — had become a public scandal. FIDE arbitration meetings had been held over flag colour, yoghurt deliveries, and seating arrangements. The chess itself had become a backdrop.

This particular game was a quiet positional draw, characteristic of the match’s middle phase. Korchnoi played solidly with the Black pieces; Karpov was content with the small structural advantages that did not translate to a winning position. Both sides reached an endgame by move 40 with material balance and neutral pawn structure. The draw was agreed in roughly 50 moves.

Karpov would extend his lead to 5-2 in won games by Round 27, then Korchnoi began his famous comeback (Games 28, 29, 31) that brought the match to 5-5. Karpov eventually won Round 32 to clinch the title 6-5. The Baguio match remained the closest a non-Soviet challenger came to the world title during the entire Soviet era. Korchnoi never had another opportunity at the same level.