TIE-BREAK
Anand is well-known as one of the fastest players in the world. However, his strength is also his weakness, as happened in the first Tie-Break game. Games were played starting with 25-minutes on the clock and the addition of 10 seconds after each move. Anand gained the upper hand and in the complications at the halfway point had over 10 minutes’ advantage over Karpov’s two. Spectators were surprised to see Anand, instead of using his time judiciously, trying to out-blitz Karpov, with disastrous results. With his back to the war, Anand threw caution to the wind in the second tie-break game and the match ended with Karpov retaining his title.
Karpov: “After the opening Vishy had a real adaantage, but then I decided to play agressively. Maybe he had not expected that. I defended sharply when perhaps he had expected me to play without taking any risks—but I took them. He calculated very deeply at that stage of the game, but I saw my chances too. He missed the final and I won. It was by no means a one move blunder by Vishy. In fact what I did was quite dangerous. I think that most players would have gone for a draw in such a position, but I was determined to win—and I did. After that he completely collapsed. The second rapid game was a walkover. It was no longer the old Vishy.”
| Player | Title | Country | G1 | G2 | G3 | G4 | G5 | G6 | TB | Total | |
| Anatoly Karpov | GM | RUS | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | |
| Vishy Anand | GM | IND | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 0.5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
As per tradition the world champion gave a lot of interviews. NIC published one of them: “This system had some privileges but also some dif ficulties. On the one hand it’s nice to wait. Yet, in the former system you had much more time to prepare for your opponent. In this format the world champion had some inconveniences. Everybody who wanted to be world champion knew that in the end he would meet Karpov and he could start his preparation a long time ago. But I could start my preparation only when Anand beat Gelfand. Then I knew that he had the best chances.’
Q: In all probability the prospective challengers didn’t pay much attention to their preparation for you either, because…
A: But they had nothing to do! It would be stupid to prepare for the first match, because the difference is too big, and in the middle they didn’t know who to play. So if they prepared anything they prepared for Karpov. That’s quite clear. But there was another thing I had to consider. You could compare this com petition with a sprint. The group started at zero me tersand they ran forty meters. You are still fresh, but you must run sixty meters with them. They have warmed up and you must pick up their speed. This is really difficult and that’s why I decided to play active and fighting chess right from the first game.’
Q: What did you think after the first game? Every thing is going to be fine?
A: Of course, the first game was nice for me. From the opening I got nothing special. Anand played very careful. But then I discovered this queen sacrifice, be cause otherwise it would be a draw by perpetual check.’
Q: In the second game you missed a forced win. Did you fear that your form wasn’t so good after all?
A: This I didn’t care too much about. I thought that I was playing very well. This game could have been the best game of the match. The main disappointment was that I missed the chance to decide the match al ready in the first two games.
Q: If you had won the match that easily people might have said even more than they do now that this was not a fair match. Anand comes to Lausanne, he’s exhausteda and he’s blown away.
A: This is just rubbish. If you can’t play chess for twenty days, you’ll have to choose another profession. The shortest match I played for the world cham pionship, against Kamsky, was 34 days. And normally we played seventy days.’
Q: Don’t you think the peaks in these short matches are higher? One mistake may mean the end of the story.
A: Of course the price of each decision is much higher. And the tension is much higher. I agree with this. In our six game match each mistake could have a fantastic price. Still, there is quite a difference be tween twenty and sixty-five days. The tension should be more than three times as high to be exhausted in twenty days.’
Q: The sixth game must have been a nightmare for you.
A: After the sixth game many journalists and officials buried me. FIDE functionaries already congratulated Anand. Probably they did him a very bad service, be cause he lost some concentration. My problem was that I missed a chance to win the match. In this sixth game I also played very well. I defended the position, and when I made this terrible blunder I already had a slightly better position. It is difficult to adapt yourself and continue. And Anand is very strong in rapid chess. Most difficult for me was to be in form for the last day. I hardly slept that night. We had decided to stop work completely and to rest as much as possible. We spent some twenty minutes on what openings to play, but nothing deep, and then I tried to relax. Fortunately no one mentioned the chances I had missed. I had good people around me who kept believe in me.’
Q: There was a challenger who was appointed by a blitz game and the championship was ultimately decided in rapid games. Is this the trivialization of the championship?
A: Of course, I would prefer to play a match like I played against Kamsky two years ago. Eighteen games, good quality of chess. This new system is a little bit tricky. If you have a knock-out system with short matches you have to find a good tiebreaker. This is one of the solutions. It is not perfect but I know nothing better. If you criticize something you must offer an alternative.’
Q: In a first reaction Kasparov excluded the possibility of a match against you. What is your attitude in this?
A: I don’t know why people automatically start talk ing about this. I already wasted too much time talking about a match against Kasparov last year. At least two or three times he changed his mind. When we were about to sign in Las Palmas Kasparov made a declaration that this match was not so interesting, so there shouldn’t be so much prize-money. Even if this were true, the only thing he wanted to say was that Karpov was not better than Anand, so the prize shouldn’t be higher. At the same time I could say that Kasparov was not better than Kamsky. Which Kasparov com pletely overlooked. If you have a common aim you must work together. If all the time you must expect something crazy, it’s very difficult and just a waste of time, energy and nerves. With other people you have a competition just when the competition starts. With Kasparov there’s always competition, even if you work together. Why?’
Q: Do you think it is a normal situation that Ilyumzhinov spends so much of his money on chess?
A: He gets a lot in return. He is one of the leaders of a leading sports federation and he’s known in the world, which is important for him as a politician and for the republic of Kalmykia. With his activities in chess it’s much easier for him to represent the inter ests of his republic. If he had to attain the same result with commercials and advertising it would cost him much more. Another thing is that he achieved a lot in relations with the International Olympic Committee. Probably he will bring chess into the Olympic family.
And Anand continued: “I have very positive memories of Lausanne. It’s really amazing. Every time I walked into the tourna ment hail and out of there I’d get a standing ovation. All the people queueing to get in would just start clapping very spontaneously. I felt pretty special there. The difference (between this championship and the match against Kasparov in New York in 1995) is that I just don’t have the feeling I played in a world championship at all. I just had the feeling they deval ued it before they even started it. Kasparov is not playing. They actually made a chess player turn down such a good tournament. It was devalued further by seeding Karpov in the final. Kramnik walked out. And most of the others who played did so with so much misgiving. In fact, I played the tournament for money principally. And most of the others did. So, I feel very positive in fact. For someone who played 31 games in 30 days, I did extremely well. I don’t have any bad feelings at all. I wiped this slate clean.”
Q: The reports after the rapid games said that you left immediately and were devastated. Devastated because you missed a big prize?
A: I was disgusted with my play in the rapid games. Especially the first game. When I started making these incredibly bad moves, I just had the feeling: I must stop. I’m going to stop now. I’m going to stop and just think. Take a breath, go get a coffee and calm down. But I just couldn’t calm down. I was so excited that I kept whipping the moves out. How can I con vert a winning position into a drawn one and then a drawn one into a lost one without even thinking? I was disgusted about that. I didn’t care about the money anymore. The difference between obscene and absolutely disgusting is not that big.
Q: Did you feel as tired as people thought you were?
A: Yeah, but in fact it was more specific. Against Kar pov I didn’t have specific ideas to use. If I’d had a week of preparation, this would have already meant something. You can put your thoughts in order. If you have this feeling that you don’t know what you’re going to do if he plays this on move 16, this doesn’t help your chess much. I don’t blame FIDE so much, I don’t blame anyone in particular. It was just a really bad set of circumstances. I’d hate to be ungrateful to an organization, or at least a man, Mr Ilyumzhinov, who put in so much money for chess. I don’t want him to think that chess players are ungrateful people. I’m not the only beneficiary. Also someone like Krasenkow. He made ten times what he lost in the Warsaw police station. There were many many happy stories, and it was a good event. And I’m very grateful for that. Obviously I don’t blame Karpov either. Obviously if someone gives you a lot, gives you a present, you take it. I just think they should have thought about this a bit more seriously. That’s all.
Q: Do you think he is a good world champion at this point?
A: I don’t think he’s world champion at all.
Q: Do we have a world champion?
A: I don’t know. Let’s say, as Karpov correctly pointed out a few years ago, I think that Kasparov is the strongest player in the world. That’s the only thing you can say. These guys have really managed to put the world championship in some confusion. Whether you like it or not, there are two components to a world champion. One you must be the strongest player, and secondly you must lend a certain legitimacy to your title by defending it every so often. I think Kasparov has less legitimacy now than he had in 1992. He’s still the strongest player and he’s still the biggest name chess has and those who know anything about chess think that he’s world champion. For the rest, honestly, many people think that Deep Blue is world champion now. If I go round the village where I live in Spain, everyone says, so when will you challenge Deep Blue? Cuando juegas con la inachina? In that sense you can blame everyone, you can blame no one. Sometimes this happens. A whole world gets into an impasse simply because people are not willing to cooperate. In that sense the title of world champion as we knew it, doesn’t exist anymore.
Of course Kasparov and Kramnik had a clear opinion on Karpov victory and the World Championship’s new system:
Kasparov: “The final match (in Lausanne) was the best proof of the corruption of the system. We had one player who was much better than the other, but he was dead. Karpov played even worse than I expected. Three blunders in Game 1 and blunders in Games 2 and 6. For some one who was preparing for this match for two months… And in the first rapid game he was also lost. First of all it’s a scandal if any title is decided by rapid play. Secondly, FIDE has no right to call this a world champion ship. For the past 22 years every single change in the world championship regulations has been in favour of one single player. He is the FIDE Champion that okay with me. He will die FIDE Champion.”
Kramnik: “In fact, what happened was what I predicted. Anand was clear favourite, espe cially after Ivanchuk and Topalov were eliminated very early on in the tournament, and even if it wasn’t easy for him he finally managed to qualify. Now if he and Karpov had played with equal conditions it would have been different. Vishy is just stronger than Karpov. His normal diaces of winning would be 70-30. Still, I was surprised that dispite his big advan Kapov didn’t show his superiority. That means a lot. Karpov is officially the FIDE World Champion. What can I say? It was an official event. But I don’t think many chess player consider him world champion. It’s a joke what happened in Lausanne.”
For President Ilyumzhinov and many other this first K.O. champion was a real success as he told Sport Express:
Q: What is your opinion of this first knockout world championship? Did it work out like you thought?
A: Everything I included in my plans two years ago has been fulfilled. We succeeded in everything. I’m satisfied with the sporting side. There were no players who qualified by accident to the quarterfinals. It was a very distinguished final. Karpov was faced with the strongest contender—Vishy Anand. You might recall the discussion in the media that anyone can become a champion and my new system will bring forth new champions en masse … However, the reverse was the case and the tournament proved that the strongest players have more chances to win than anyone else.
Q: The Karpov-Anand match was a success. It was an all-action, uncompro mising struggle decided only by errors in the rapidplay finish. If Anand’s nerves had not let him down we could have had a new World Champion. Who did you see as the favourite in this match?
A: I wish, frankly speaking, that this new format had brought new names to the top. Anand had very great chances, but…
Q: But Karpov’s nerves turned out to be better. He was the winner because of his character. You may remember that be fore the match an easy victory for Kar pov was being unanimously forecast. But the match turned out to be no wal kover for the champion: the games at classical time limits ended all square, while at rapid chess Karpov might well have lost but he won.
A:You know, tonight at the closing cere mony the President of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch was informed of the details of the match, of the way the games went in the tie-break. Mr. Samaranch is a very good sports psychologist, very familiar with the laws of sport, and he said: “Karpov is an outstanding sportsman with a very strong character and I’m not sur prised that he managed to convert the situation to his advantage after his chances had been virtually zero”. Karpov is a great champion, a great chess player. He is the one who closed the last page of the old format of world chess championships and started the history of the World Cham pionships for the 21st century. In the next championship Karpov will start from the second round just like all the other strongest players and it will be very hard for him to win.
In Sring 1998, G. Kasparov visited England. At the Oxford University where he was giving a lecture he wanted to explain his differences with FIDE over the world championship. Kasparov is one of four players, the others being Vladimir Kramnik, Gata Kamsky and Zsuzsa Polgar, who have refused to take part under the new-style knockout formula. Kasparov believes that this is not the way to determine the holder of the world title and declared that “the only true 14th world chess champion will be the person who beats me in a match.” He also maintained that FIDE did not have a God-given right to ownership of the world title. In fact “it was only due to the unfortunate death of Alekhine, in 1946, that FIDE stepped in to organise a world championship event—be fore that, it was an agreement between the world champion that decided who played in title matches.”
He then talked at great length about some of the past and present world cham pions. Of Capablanca, the ‘chess machine’, he said: “The purity of his chess games attracted the public, who enjoyed seeing the great ‘Capa’ so effortlessly beat his hard-working opponents while paying virtually no serious attention to his own chess studies. Such a naturally gifted player, and a true ambassador of the game.”
And what about Capablanca’s great rival Alexander Alekhine? “His approach to chess made it a form of psychological aggression. Massive preliminary prepara tion, a burst of energy at the board, a ma niacal determination to crush his opponents, combined with a rich combina torial fantasy, that produced a chess style that was closely reminiscent of the devas tating military campaigns of World War I and II, which were going on around him.”
Two champions of the modern era have, in particular, made a great impression on him.
“Despite his brief reign—the shortest in the history of the world championship
—Mikhail Tal’s star was undoubtedly the brightest in the chess firmament. Combinations, sacrifices, inexhaustible optimism—these were reflections of the Khrushchev ‘thaw’. When Tal won the title in 1960, his sparkling chess captured the public’s imagination. His victory was a ‘poet’s’ revolt against the cold-blooded ‘physicalists’. But, alas, in the rematch, which was hastily arranged less than a year after his triumph, the young free- minded adventurer did not stand a chance against Botvinnik, the old wizard, who was deeply rooted in the foundation of the Communist regime.”
Then there is the the most troubled and controversial champion the game has ever known—Bobby Fischer—on whom Kas parov has based his style. “He was a fierce fighter for better playing conditions, de manding respect for chess and chess- players,” said Kasparov. “Many players, myself included, have made a comfortable living from the game, and owe Bobby much for this. He could easily be nomi nated “the founder of professional chess. But, alas, in the end his character pre vented him from permanently moving chess into the mainstream of public atten tion. Who else other than Bobby could make a big issue of chess at a time of the Beatles, hippies, students’ revolts, and the public outcry for greater individual freedom.”
Kasparov now regrets his decision to split from FIDE in 1993. In hindsight, he agreed it would have been much easier to have fought the system from within. In a way he felt directly responsible for the present ambiguity of the world title and the present state of chess. But, despite a personal appeal from the President of the Olympic movement, Juan Samaranch, Kasparov will not recognise the legitimacy of the new-style championship. Apart from the unsatisfactory knockout formula, there is the question of the money: “I just don’t trust the source of the $5 million finance.” He firmly believes that the money will not come from the Russian oil company Rosneft, as announced, but instead from FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, whose financial dealings happen to be presently under investigation by the Rus sian government. “I would never play for such a large prize fund without knowing the direct source of the money,” explained Kasparov, “I’m sure that it will be dirty money.” He compared the 1995 PCA World Championship in New York with the FIDE Candidates’ match in the Indian town of Sanghi Nagar. While Anand and himself were playing for a prize fund sponsored by computer chip manufacturers Intel, FIDE’s money came from Ravi Sanghi, a textile millionaire, whose factory workers receive poverty wages of about 35 cents per day. “Some of the players in the FIDE event walked away with the equivalent of 2000 years wages of a factory worker,” said Kasparov. “By contrast, I walked away from New York with an amount that some people in that city can spend on nail care in a year. I ask you, which do you think was the more ethical!”
An agreement was signed in October 1998 in Elista between the FIDE President and then World Champion Anatoly Karpov. Under the said agreement, Karpov agreed to play in the 1999 World Championship in Las Vegas at a date to be agreed between him and FIDE. In effect, Karpov was required to give his consent on the date for the event. FIDE decided to choose a date because it felt not just that this consent was being unreasonably withheld, but, above all, that the date represented the only free period available for the championship before the end of 1999. Subsequently GM Karpov refused to play and sued FIDE at the Court of Arbitration for Sport claiming the title of World Champion and asking for about two million dollars in compensation.
In 2001 at the Court of Arbitration for Sport the presiding judge made some preliminary remarks amongst which was that it would be difficult to turn the hands of the clock back, stating that a championship was held in Las Vegas and that a champion had been declared. He then went onto say that the first principle of the tribunal was to encourage a settlement out of court between the parties. Upon this urging by the tribunal, FIDE entered into negotiations with Karpov in the presence of the presiding judge. At the end of the negotiations, Karpov agreed, just like FIDE, to withdraw all his claims. He acknowledged FIDE’s decision to change the World Championship cycle from two years to one year and undertook not to object to the award of the World Championship titles to Alexander Khalifinan in 1999 and Viswanathan Anand in 2000. Both parties agreed to stop all forms of attacks against each other in the media. In return and as an act of goodwill FIDE offered to pay to Mr. Karpov the sum of US $ 50,000.
After the collapse of the PCA in 1997, the The WCC (World Chess Council) was founded in Linares in February 1998. The aim of this new organization was to create a new ‘mini’ cycle and find a challenger for G. Kasparov. The best players at the time, Anand and Kramnik were invited to play a match but Anand felt reluctant to accept the WCC offer as it would be contradictory to his obligations towards FIDE. Finally A. Shirov from Spain took the challenge and eventually beat Kramnik. After endless negotiations the final Kasparov- Shirov was definitively postponed and finaly cancelled due to lack of sponsoring (see annex).
In early 1999 a world championship match between Kasparov and Anand was announced. For long Anand was undecided about his participation as a challenger to Kasparov or to play the FIDE world championship in Las Vegas. In June Anand opted for Kasparov’s match but his choice was wrong. Once the deadline for the requested guarantee to be paid was passed, the match collapsed.