Grandmaster games · World Championship match 1985
The Octopus Knight
Kasparov gives a pawn at move 8 and steers a knight to d3. No white pawn can ever touch it, and for eighteen moves Karpov's whole army stands frozen around it.
The setting
Moscow, autumn 1985: the second Karpov v Kasparov match in a year, after the first was stopped with no result after 48 games. This one is best of 24 games, and a 12-12 tie keeps the title with Karpov. After 15 games the score is level, 7.5 each. In game 12 Kasparov, with Black, offered a pawn with 8...d5 in this Taimanov Sicilian, and Karpov's 11.Bc4 led to a quick draw. Here the first ten moves are the same, and Karpov varies with 11.Be2. The win puts Kasparov ahead 8.5 to 7.5, and Kasparov goes on to take the title 13 to 11. Readers of Chess Informant later chose it as the best game of the first 64 issues.
Why study it
It shows what one square can be worth. Kasparov gives a pawn, spends six moves shutting a white knight out of play, and then plants a knight on d3, where no white pawn can ever attack it. Karpov, the world champion, cannot get rid of it for eighteen moves. You will see the route planned ahead, the bind tightened move by move, the two moments where Karpov could have broken free, and the queen lost to the knight at the very end.
Live it from inside a mind
Each player speaks in the first person, in a voice of their own: what they see, what they fear, the lines they calculate, why they choose. Switch minds at any move.
Anatoly Karpov
White · Soviet Union · 2720 at the time · peak 2780
World champion since 1975 and the world number one, 34 years old. A 12-12 tie in this match was enough to keep the title.
Garry Kasparov
Black · Soviet Union · 2700 at the time · peak 2851
The 22-year-old challenger and the world number two. This win put Kasparov ahead with eight games left, and the match ended 13 to 11: the youngest world champion up to that time.
Game 16, and the score is level at 7.5. A 12-12 tie keeps my title, so with White I want a safe edge and no adventures. In game 12 Kasparov offered a pawn with ...d5 in this Taimanov, and my 11.Bc4 led to a quick draw. If the pawn is offered again, I take it, and at move 11 I go another way.
Fifteen games played, 7.5 each, and a 12-12 tie leaves the title with Karpov. I have to win games with Black too. In game 12 I gave a pawn with 8...d5 in this Taimanov and drew without trouble. Since then I have looked deeper at home. If Karpov takes the pawn again, my pieces pour into the centre, and one knight has a square waiting for it on d3.
The game in 7 chapters
- 1
A Taimanov with a bind moves 1–8
Kasparov chooses the Taimanov Sicilian, as in game 12. Karpov grips d5 with c4 and e4, and the knight chased by ...a6 goes to a3, on the edge of the board.
- 2
The pawn offer moves 8–13
8...d5 offers a pawn. Karpov takes it and varies from game 12 with 11.Be2. Kasparov does not take the pawn back: the knight goes to b4, the bishop to c5, both sides castle and the bishop on f3 guards d5.
- 3
Shutting the knight out moves 13–16
...Bf5 covers c2 and d3, ...Re8 takes the e-file and ...b5 takes c4. The white knight on a3 has no square left, and d3 is ready.
- 4
The octopus lands moves 16–23
16...Nd3. Karpov meets the threat of ...b4 with the passive 17.Nab1 instead of giving the pawn back with 17.d6. Kasparov squeezes with ...h6, ...b4, ...Rc8 and ...g5, and reaches the position Kasparov had aimed for at home.
- 5
White in a bind moves 23–29
Karpov misses the last good moment for 24.Nb2 and plays 24.Bg2. Kasparov brings the queen to f6, the a-file opens, and Karpov gives up the d-pawn with 28.d6 to open the long diagonal.
- 6
The break that fails moves 30–34
30.f3 opens the white king. Kasparov takes on d6, checks from d4, and 33...Ne4 blocks the rook and attacks the queen in one move. Karpov finally takes the knight on d3, with the queen.
- 7
The queen falls moves 34–40
34...Nf2+ forks king, queen and rook, and ...Bxd3 takes the queen. Kasparov's queen and rooks invade the first rank, the rook on d1 is pinned, and Karpov resigns facing mate.