Game 8
Shocked with what happened the game before Hubner was not in mood to play. Korchnoi size immediately the commands of the game. After exploiting the weaknesses of his opponent he obtained a decisive advantage once he took control of the 7th rank with his rook.
Game 9 and 10
Hubner showed a lot of nervousness and started to complain about everything. Few in the press recalled his withdrawal of 1971 against Petrosian and forecasted an early ending of the event.
Both games were played according schedule, been adjourned but never resumed. In the first game the position was even and in the second Korchnoi was better. At this stage Hubner asked for a time-out but then informed the organizers that we will not continue the match and resigned both games. Korchnoi made a counter suggestion of playing those two games and counting the six remaining as draws. Hubner didn’t wait for any negotiation and left the city the next morning…
After the match Korchnoi declared: “I was more or less sure to beat Hubner when I was told he resigned. Like a gentleman he came to congratulate me for my victory. The organizers were of course very disappointed but I should add also very correct. Without any obligation because didn’t finish the match they paid SFR.62,500 to me and SFR. 48,500 to Hubner.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total | |
| Huebner R | 1 | 0 | = | 1 | = | = | 0 | 0 | * | * | 3.5 |
| Korchnoi V | 0 | 1 | = | 0 | = | = | 1 | 1 | * | * | 4.5 |
Final
As usual FIDE invited the organizers to bid for the match. The offers were received by the 16th February 1981. Reykjavik and Las Palmas both offered SFR. 1,000,000 and Merano SFR. 800,000. Karpov selected Las Palmas and Korchnoi Merano. Finally after further negotiations and the fact that nothing regarding World championship has been organized since 1948, Merano was selected by the FIDE President F. Olafsson. The match was scheduled to start on 19 September 1981.
On 12 June, a week after the agreements made in Merano, the FIDE President made an unexpected announcement, postponing the start of the match by a month, i.e. to 19 October. He justified this decision by the necessity to ensure both participants in the match “equal conditions”. In this case what was understood by “equal conditions” was nothing at all to do with anything provided for in the match regulations, but concerned the reuniting of the Challenger with his family, abandoned by Korchnoi five years earlier when he had decided not to return to the USSR.
V. Baturinsky (USSR): “Although Olafsson asserted that the decision to postpone the start of tI cn had been taken in consultation with a number of leading FIDE officials, the very first days at the FIDE General Assembly in Atlanta showed that none of the Vice—Presidents and members of the Executive Committee supported the President on this question. Finding himself isolated, Olafsson was forced to go back on his decision. But the match organizer, S. Unterberger, stated that a number of contracts for the match already been switched to the later date, and a return to 19 September involve serious difficulties.
In the end, two documents were approved: the first was a decision by President that the match should in principle start on 19 September; the second in view of the technical difficulties encountered by the organizers, and with the agreement of both participants — was that the start of the match to be fixed for 1 October. The President’s thoughtless step had cost SFR. 40,000 francs — or the 5% of the prize fund due to be assigned to FIDE funds, which has to be turned down in order partly to compensate the organizers for loses connected with the change of dates.”
The start of the long-awaited World Championship match in Merano, Italy, proved a strong disappointment both to supporters of challenger Victor Korchnoi and to chess fans who were, hoping for a long, close struggle.
Game 1
Game 1
Queen Gambit Declined
The Challenger committed an astounding tactical lapse in the first game after posi¬tional manoeuvring failed to produce any advantage for his White pieces. One move turned his position around from approxi¬mately equal to clearly losing.
Game 2
Game 2
Ruy Lopez
Korchnoi uncorked the ancient Berlin Defense to the Ruy Lopez, getting a slightly inferior but probably tenable position which he proceeded to ruin with a severe positional misconception and then a tactical error in time pressure.
GM L. Alburt for CLR: “Members of Korchnoi’s camp were at a loss to explain the over- sights. After the first game, British GM Michael Stean, one of Korchnoi’s seconds in Merano, laid the blame to their new defensive plan.
“We all have been urging Viktor to play more rapidly because time pressure has long been his Achilles heel, but I now think that we were wrong,” he was quoted as saying in The New York Times. However, after the second loss, members of Korchnoi’s entourage offered differing views. Korchnoi’s manager, Petra Leeuwerik of Switzerland, said Korchnoi was too relaxed. Stean, on the other hand, told The Times: “You should see Viktor’s scoresheets- they are a mass. And that shows the state of his nerves.”