24 HOURS WITH GARRY KASPAROV // Episode 12: The Timeless Masterpiece

In the previous episode of the epic Levitov Chess series, the ex-World Champion talked about how he left chess and what he did at the end of his career. Do you think that's all? There's just no way! A new series of conversations between Garry Kasparov and Ilya Levitov begins with the most interesting thing - winning the world title, defeating Karpov in the autumn of 1985.

"Everything suggested I was already ripe for victory over Karpov! I was ready psychologically and in chess terms. I was full of ideas at the time. Me and my whole team were literally eager to fight. We were counting the days until the start of the new match," Kasparov excitedly tells about the atmosphere of August 1985. "Had I been able to control my nerves, if it weren't for Karpov's vast experience, it would hardly have taken all 24 games..."

Garry won the first game! He was surprisingly accurate in getting into Karpov's blind spot in his favorite Nimzo-Indian defense. "It was not necessary to engage in stupid things and probe the entire perimeter, I should have immediately hit the weak point," Kasparov admits. "I began to do this only in the second half of the match, which had already gone under my dictation."

The fact that Karpov could not withstand the tension of the struggle became clear after his "blunder of the century" in the game eleven. After the incredible game sixteen, it became obvious: the chess world was about to get a new champion. No one had ever beaten Karpov in this style... At some point, he just didn't know what to do. "Here it became obvious, including for himself, that Karpov was lagging behind me in terms of chess," Kasparov explains. "I made a qualitative leap forward, and he still remained at the same level."

But the titan did not give up until the last moment, holding out until the last 24th game of the match, in which he could turn everything upside down. Garry Kasparov and Ilya Levitov will talk about that in the thirteenth episode!

0:00 - March-May 1985
6:41 - Match Kasparov-Hübner (Hamburg, May 27th-June 4th)
16:11 - Kasparov's interview to "Der Spiegel"
17:57 - Match Kasparov-Andersson(Belgrade, June 12th-20th 1985)
21:48 - Andras Adorjan, Kasparov's second
25:02 - Meeting of the presidium of the Soviet Chess federation
30:35 - World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov 1985
54:57 - "The Timeless Masterpiece", game sixteen, Moscow 1985

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