Library / Games / Karpov, Anatoly vs Kortschnoj, Viktor
World Championship 29th · Baguio City · 30 September 1978

Anatoly Karpov vs Viktor Kortschnoj, World Championship 29th, R28

Karpov, Anatoly 0–1 Kortschnoj, Viktor
Karpov, Anatoly vs Kortschnoj, Viktor
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World Championship 29th, 30 September 1978

Round 28 of the 1978 Baguio City match was Korchnoi’s win that restored hope to the challenger. Karpov had been leading 5-2 in won games. With the match format being “first to six wins,” Karpov needed one more victory and Korchnoi needed three. Korchnoi won Game 28 in 71 moves, reducing the lead to 5-3.

The opening was solid (Karpov-Korchnoi games of this period rarely strayed into theoretical novelty), but the middlegame turned on Korchnoi’s superior position assessment in a long manoeuvring phase. Karpov’s technique, while ordinarily reliable, did not find the defensive resources required. The endgame conversion was straightforward by Korchnoi’s standards.

The win triggered a remarkable late-match comeback by Korchnoi. He won Games 29 and 31 as well, drawing the match score to 5-5 in won games. The Soviet camp panicked. Reports emerged of additional parapsychological consultations, of meetings between Karpov’s team and the Soviet sports authority, of an investigation into why the 50-year-old defector was suddenly outplaying the 27-year-old champion.

Karpov won Game 32 to clinch the match 6-5. The final result kept the title in Soviet hands and ended Korchnoi’s bid. But the Baguio match remained for decades the closest a Western challenger came to taking the championship from the Soviet system during the long Soviet era.

Korchnoi’s three-game streak in Games 28-31 is one of the great fighting performances in world-championship history. It was the performance, more than any single game, that established his reputation as the strongest non-champion of his era.

Game record

This game between Karpov, Anatoly and Kortschnoj, Viktor was played at the World Championship 29th in Baguio City in 1978. Played in round 28. At the time of the game, the players were rated 2725 (White) and 2665 (Black). The game lasted 61 moves, ending with Black winning. It is part of the post-war Soviet era.