ditzel@ssc-bee.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) (02/17/85)
Regarding the recently terminated world championship. Kasparov was getting too close to dethroning Karpov. The Saturday New York Times had a very complete series of articles on the termination. It seems that Karpov was believed to be emotionally and physically exhausted and his play was reflecting this. At the same time Kasparov who had drawn about 30+ games against him was gaining strength and winning. I believe Kasparov was badly 'intimidated' at the beginning of the match (5-0) and finally steadied himself. Drew and a long series and then started winning. The Soviet Chess Federation could probably see that their champion was in real danger of losing the match and had it stopped. The last thing they want is Kasparov (who is half Jewish - Soviet Chess is extremely anti-semitic (Korchnoi, Bronstein, and numerous other could attest to that)) as world champion over their 'role model'. It's interesting that Korchnoi also believes that Karpov was 'protected' by this action (though this is not surprising). Spassky also felt that the decision to terminate the match was in showing favoritism to Karpov. Bent Larsen now is claiming Kasparov as the World Champion.