World Championship 1987: Kasparov – Karpov
Trailing 12–11 with a single game to play, Kasparov had to win the twenty-fourth game to tie the match and keep his title. He did — grinding Karpov down to a resignation on move 64 — and retained the crown on a 12–12 tie.
◈The first match off Soviet soil
The fourth Kasparov–Karpov contest was the first played entirely outside the Soviet Union, in Seville. It swung back and forth for weeks; then, in the twenty-third game, Kasparov miscalculated a combination he later called the "worst hallucination of my career," handing Karpov a 12–11 lead with only one game left.
The champion now had to win to survive.
◈Everest
Needing a full point on demand, Kasparov reached for the English Opening and slowly squeezed. Cracking under time pressure and a second-session error, Karpov was ground down and resigned on move 64. The match finished 12–12 (+4−4=16), and Kasparov kept his title.
It remains, in Kasparov's own telling, the single 'Mount Everest' of his career.
◈Cross Table
| Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kasparov | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| Karpov | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 12 |
1 win · ½ draw · 0 loss — click a game number to replay it.
“I can look back at my chess career and pick out more than a few crisis points, but only one Mount Everest.”