On April 3, 1975, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced the deprivation of the American grandmaster Bobby Fisher the title of world champion and the assignment of a title without a game to the applicant from the USSR Anatoly Karpov. In the following years, Fisher stopped appearing in public and conducting parties, and the Soviet grandmaster remained the champion for ten years, until he lost to compatriot Garry Kasparov.
FIDE did not want to comply with all Fisher’s requirements
Many consider Fisher the best chess player of the 20th century. In 1972, in Reykjavik, he defeated Boris Spassky, scoring seven victories with three defeats and 11 draws, and became the 11th world champion. Along the way, the American interrupted the hegemony of the Soviet grandmasters, which lasted more than 20 years, which over and over again determined the owner of the chess crown among themselves, without leaving Moscow. Fisher and his second, Dane Bent Larsen, at that time were the only representatives of the West, able to resist them on equal terms.
The leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union demanded to restore the prestige of the domestic chess school. Fisher was supposed to defend his title in 1975. However, the prospects for revenge aroused great doubt among Soviet sports officials. The fact is that the matches of the applicants held a year earlier brought an unexpected result.
The fight for the right to play with Fisher was sensationally won by the not-so-well-known native of the Chelyabinsk region Anatoly Karpov. Within a few months, he alternately defeated the two-time USSR champion Lev Polugaevsky, the 10th Spassky world champion and the four-time winner of the Soviet Union championship Viktor Korchnoi. The final match consisted of 24 games and Karpov celebrated his success with a total score of 12.5: 11.5. Then he did not seem at all equal in class to Fisher.
“Karpov, a pale-looking, short and skinny 23-year-old student of economics at Leningrad University, who always looked badly cut, didn’t seem at all a worthy opponent to Fischer - 32-year-old ex-wunderkind from Brooklyn, a world champion with the physical condition of a real athlete and royal confidence in your own strength. But Karpov was selected for the title match, winning successively in three challenging matches, in which he played 46 hard games, having suffered only three defeats, ”noted FIDE international referee Frank Brady in his book“ The End of the Game ”.
According to him, by his 23 years, Karpov has already achieved what Fisher was able to achieve only closer to 30. Many chess players, and not only Soviet ones, predicted that over time Anatoly would go further than Bobby.
The competition for the right to organize a world championship match was won by Manila. The Filipinos offered a prize fund of $ 5 million. Such an impressive amount promised to make the meeting between Fisher and Karpov one of the most expensive sports events at that time. However, the relationship between the American grandmaster and FIDE became a big problem. The champion demanded privileges for himself.
In total, he put forward 64 requirements to the International Chess Federation. Among them were both frankly absurd, like the need to remove hats in the party hall, and related to the regulations.
In the part of the regulation, Fisher insisted on three points. Previously, the title match included 24 games. If the points were equal, the champion retained his status. In the opinion of the American, the match with Karpov was to last up to 10 victories without taking into account the draws. In this case, the total number of parties would not matter. With a score of 9: 9, according to Fisher, the current champion would retain the title. It was this requirement that eventually became a stumbling block. It seemed unfair to the applicant. He needed to win at least two games more.
The chess world supported the decision of the federation
FIDE approved the formula for a game of up to 10 wins, but rejected the “9: 9 rule” and the idea of an unlimited format. According to the then president of the Federation, Max Euwe, the most optimal option would be to hold a maximum of 36 parties. All reservations of officials caused Fisher extreme indignation. Despite the opportunity to earn a record fee in his life, the grandmaster did not at all seek a compromise. The federation, already tired of the vagaries of the scandalous star, did not want to make concessions either. The already difficult situation finally came to a standstill after Fisher sent a telegram to the FIDE emergency committee. It stated that its terms were “non-negotiable.” The World Champion was supported by the US Chess Federation. In private conversations, Fisher threatened to refuse to participate in the match and thereby “teach a lesson” to FIDE.
Euwe continually extended the deadline for a final verdict. On March 17, an extraordinary FIDE congress met. For the sake of saving the match, officials agreed to the game without limiting the number of games. Thus, 63 of 64 Fisher requirements were met. But he was still unhappy.
In the end, Euwe sent a telegram to the American chess player with the following content: “Your professionalism, competitive spirit and outstanding skill impressed everyone during the year when you fought for the right to become a world champion. The FIDE General Assembly asks you once again to consider the possibility of defending your title. ”
The President of the International Chess Federation remarked to the numerous questions of journalists about the course of the negotiations that the parties were in a stalemate. A few days later, Fisher received an official response. He stated that with his position on the “rule 9: 9” FIDE opposed his participation in the title match. Therefore, Fisher announced the refusal of the world title.
In fact, FIDE had no choice but to announce the deprivation of Fisher's title. April 3, 1975 Karpov was proclaimed the new owner of the world chess crown. Most representatives of the chess world supported the decision of Euwe and his team. Fisher’s compatriot, the famous grandmaster Robert Byrne, in particular, said: "There are no violations, everything is completely fair."
“Fisher is not confident, as he has not played for a long time. Although he retained his great chess strength, he is still very afraid of defeat. In his view, losing to Karpov can only be random, but he is afraid of this case. And there is a temptation to remain undefeated and be considered in the eyes of the public the strongest chess player in the world, without even having an official title, ”summed up, in turn, the Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligorich.
“Fisher set the highest standards.”
Karpov traditionally refrained from detailed statements about the breakdown of the match. In an interview with Sport Express in 2017, he succinctly noted that, in his opinion, Fisher “was not internally tuned and was ready to play.” At the same time, the American, according to Karpov, although he fought with officials, but behaved quite correctly with rivals.
“He could argue with the organizers, he could argue with them, defend his rights, and in many ways he was right, say, under the terms of the competition. It is clear that when you sit for 5-6 hours and literally look at the chessboard, the lighting of the board should be appropriate, it is clear that there must be standard pieces. And before Fisher, they didn’t really understand this, they played with different figures. It is clear that there should be no shadows on the board because the eyes are tired. And much more that Fisher objectively defended. He defended for himself, but in fact set the standards for the competitions of the highest level, ”the grandmaster explained to the Voice of Russia in 2013.
In 1976-1977, representatives of Fisher and Karpov made a number of attempts to organize the match outside the jurisdiction of FIDE. The chess players themselves met and talked in Tokyo, Cordoba and Washington. And again nothing came of it. The Soviet grandmaster flatly refused the formula of the game to 10 wins, since such a match risked dragging on and overlapping other tournaments in time. Fisher persistently insisted on a format with an unlimited number of parties. When everyone understood the futility of further discussions, the negotiation process was terminated.
According to Karpov, he did not feel like a real champion until he defended this title in full-time confrontation. In 1978 and 1981, the grandmaster defeated Korchnoi twice in a row. In 1985, the legendary match between Karpov and Garry Kasparov was interrupted with a score of 25:23 in favor of the champion due to too many games played. The next match, already with a limit of 24 games, took place in the autumn of the same year in Moscow and presented the planet with a new champion. After ten years of Karpov’s hegemony, the era of Kasparov began. In the next five years, the defeated chess king three times unsuccessfully challenged the crown.
- II match for the title of world chess champion between Garry Kasparov (left) and Anatoly Karpov, 1985.
- © Boris Kaufman / RIA News
As for Fisher, all these years he considered himself a real chess king.
“I am the last great champion. The fact that I was stripped of my world title in 1975 is outrageous and illegal. Since then, for more than thirty years, old chess has been dying. Not only have all the parties been prepared in advance, all the moves have been memorized a long time ago, so almost all matches and tournaments are negotiable, ”the American told the All Sport agency in 2005.
Fisher preferred to speak extremely negatively about his “heirs”. So, he called Karpov and Kasparov “liars and traders” and assured that their first, unfinished match “was staged, prepared by the CPSU and the KGB.”
After the breakdown of negotiations with Karpov, Fisher led a reclusive lifestyle for many years. Only in 1992 did he violate international sanctions against Yugoslavia and had a rematch with Boris Spassky in Belgrade. He tore the US Treasury warning in front of journalists. Thus, 20 years later, the old rivals played the match until ten victories, and the American convincingly prevailed.