mARK RUBERY CHESS
The 12th World Champion, Anatoly Karpov, conducted an interview with the Russian newspaper Sport Express. In this extract he discusses honour and loyalty … Once in an interview you commented Q: that in 1962 Korchnoi had deliberately lost a game to Petrosian. “Their wives were friends and the wife of Petrosian persuaded Kortchnoi’s wife Bella to lobby her husband to lose on purpose. Since it made no difference by that point, he agreed.” Have you ever been asked to deliberately lose a game? Yes, it happened in the Candidates Final AK: in 1990 against Jan Timman. The winner of the candidates would earn the right to play against Kasparov. One of the sponsors of the Dutch grandmaster asked me straight out: If you’re tired of facing Kasparov, I am prepared to compensate you to lose the match to Jan. How much do you want? What was your answer? Q: Nothing! If I agree, I will lose my self-respect. AK: I believe Jan knows nothing of this episode. The most painful betrayal in your life? Q: Beliavsky. We were friends and worked AK: together in 1986. A year later he went to Kasparov. Had you quarrelled? Or was it a question Q: of money? There was no conflict between us. Even AK: if there had been a disagreement, it is morally wrong to immediately go work for the opponent. Finally it comes down to chess secrets and nuances of preparation. But Beliavsky found this perfectly normal. Once the world champion loses his title, many around him will switch and try to be part of the winner’s camp. When I became FIDE world champion again many tried to come back, but that train had already left. Your parapsychologist Vladimir Suchar Q: also switched to Kasparov’s camp. Was that also betrayal? Originally, I had invited Suchar to the AK: match with Korchnoi in Moscow in 1974 as a counter action. In Kortchnoi’s team a parapsychologist showed up and I was tense for this reason. I knew the character of Viktor Lvovich: If he has something that his rivals do not he gains confidence and his forces grow …