Chess
Tragi-comedy
Raymond Keene
Baguio The World Championship match finally got inicler way on! 8 July but not before one final hiccup. At the last minute both players decided that the pieces to be used were too light. Happily, as in 1972, the situation was saved by a deus ex machina, in the form of a human millionaire. But whereas Jim Slater had to produce £50,000 to save the Fische rSPassky match, all that was required of the new saviour, Manila magnate Manuel Zamora, was o ne heavy chess set. This was rushed 1,50 miles from Manila and arrived with fifteen minutes to spare. The stage was now set .and the audience were left wondering Which of the two tragic heroes would meet 'IS peripeteia. The first game did not supply the answer and was boringly drawn in eighteen moves. ill the second game Korchnoi surprised all excePt David Levy (see his article 'Open
secret' of 13 May) by playing the open variation of the Ruy Lopez. He produced an important innovation on move 14 and in fact his theoretical preparation extended to move 24! Karpov reached an ending with the nominal advantage of bishop for knight but could make nothing of it and the game was drawn in twenty-nine moves. After the game Korchnoi said: `Karpov heard somewhere that bishop was better than knight — in Leonid Stein's hands maybe, but not in his!'
In the third game Korchnoi rapidly built up a dominating position and looked like winning with a crushing king-side attack. But on move 24 he faltered and Karpov wriggled out with a draw by repetition.
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