Related Resources   Korchnoi - Kasparov, 1982 • Walk Through • In Game Viewer • In PGN   Famous Chess Players • Garry Kasparov • Viktor Korchnoi   Other • Classics : 64 Great Games • Chess Olympiads

With this article we introduce the About Chess game walk throughs, featuring in-depth analysis of famous games. Follow the 'Walk Through' link (found in the link box to the right) to see our game notes and diagrams from key positions. Our games in this series are taken from 'Classic Chess : 64 Great Games' (see the link box again).

Our first walk through is a tense struggle between Viktor Korchnoi and Garry Kasparov, played at the Chess Olympiad in Lucerne, Switzerland, 1982. The game was played in round 10 of the 25th Olympiad, which took place from 30 October to 16 November 1982. Korchnoi, playing first board for Switzerland, met Kasparov, playing second board for the Soviet Union, when the Soviet team gave their first board, World Champion Anatoly Karpov, a rest day.

The game had significant political overtones. Korchnoi, 51 years old at the time of the Olympiad, had defected from the Soviet Union in 1976, and was granted permission to live in Switzerland in 1977. As a defector, he was persona non grata to the Soviet authorities. He had twice challenged Karpov for the World Championship, losing a hotly contested marathon match +6-5=21 at Baguio City, Philippines, in 1978, and a second shorter match +6-2=10 at Merano, Italy, in 1981.

Kasparov, 19 years old, was the rising star of the Soviet chess machine. A month before the Olympiad, he had won the Moscow Interzonal, entitling him to participate in the series of Candidate Matches which would determine Karpov's next challenger in 1984. It was his first game against Korchnoi, who was seeded into the Candidate Matches because of his unsuccessful challenge in 1981, and who would likely be one of Kasparov's main rivals in the forthcoming series of matches.

Our notes to the walk through incorporate three sources.

• 'Game of Two Years' by GM Leonid Shamkovich; Chess Life, Sept. 1983; extensive notes based on a translation of Kasparov's comments in the Soviet Chess Observer.
  
  
• Fighting Chess : My Games and Career by GM Gary Kasparov; good notes and a photo from a critical moment in the game.
  
  
• Garry Kasparov's Best Games by GM Raymond Keene; light notes.
  
  

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