MARK RUBERY CHESS

In chess history there exist some glaring gaps where two great chess players never met in a match due to some twist of fate. One mouth-watering contest that never came to pass was the proposed match between Fischer and Karpov in 1975, when the American World Champion chose to forfeit his title when his pre-match demands (not completely unreasonable) were not met. One can only speculate on the result, but Fischer had to be the favourite as he was at the height of his powers while Karpov was just beginning to approach his. However, no less an authority than Kasparov is of the opinion that Karpov, who was in the ascendancy, would have the better chances. During a recent interview the 12th world champion recalls his dealings with the 11th world champion: “I twice met with Fischer secretly in 1976, first in Cordoba and then in Madrid. Earlier we had seen each other in Tokyo. I was uncomfortable because I had won the world title the year before without playing the final match -- he had decided to abdicate -- and I wanted to convince him we should play a match, without the title in play. We were just about to agree to it, but then he demanded the match should be called “the Professional World Championship.” I assured him that the Soviet authorities would never accept that, but he wouldn’t give in.” (Anatoly Karpov).

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