DAVID R. SANDS: Woulda, coulda, shoulda — mourning chess matches that never came off

The history of chess is full of wished-for matches that never came off. Morphy never got a chance to challenge Staunton on his celebrated trip to Europe. World War I helped torpedo a match between world champion Emanuel Lasker and the star-crossed Polish great Akiba Rubinstein, his strongest rival.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of all, when Bobby Fischer, feuding with organizers over the terms of the match, resigned his world title rather than face his 24-year-old Soviet challenger, Anatoly Karpov. The first titleholder by default, Karpov went on to prove himself a worthy champion, holding on to the crown for a decade and compiling perhaps the greatest tournament record in history.

Perhaps eager to establish his bona fides, Karpov broke with the practice of many other champions — including Fischer — and embarked on an active playing schedule after winning the crown. Shortly after the 1975 forfeit, he dominated a strong tournament in Ljubljana without a loss and was the star performer at the sixth USSR Spartakiad in the Latvian capital of Riga. One of his best games at Riga was a victory over former world champion Boris Spassky, against whom Karpov compiled a stunning 14-2-23 record over the course of his career.

In a Queen’s Indian, Karpov manages to get good pressure on Black’s fixed center after 9. 0-0 Nd7 10. Nxd5 exd5 (Bxd5 11. e4 Bb7 12. Rd1 is pleasant for White) 11. Rd1 Nf6 12. Ne5 c5 13. dxc5!, when Black’s game would be under pressure after the natural 13…bxc5?! 14. Bg5, with the idea of relocating the White knight to f4.

The champ’s legendary precision and cold-blooded style are on full display in the game’s critical clash: 18. Nf4 Rac8? (a mistake so subtle few would even notice, but White finds the flaw; better was 18…Rad8) 19. Qa4! Qe7 20. Qxa7! (this looks foolhardy given Black’s building attack, but Karpov has seen further) Nxf2 21. Nxd5! (the key — 21. Kxf2?? loses to 21… Qxe3+ 22. Kf1 Rc2; White defangs the Black attack by trading queens) Bxd5 22. Qxe7 Nxd1 (White is winning the endgame after 22…Rxe7 23. Rxd5 Ng4 24. e4 Ne3 25. Rb5) 23. Rc1! — a beautiful finesse exploiting Spassky’s back-rank weakness that ensures White’s material superiority.

There followed 23…Rb8 (Rcd8 24. Qxd8! Rxd8 25. Rd1 and wins) 24. Qb4 Bxg2 25. Kxg2 Nxe3+ 26. Kg1 27. Qf4, and Black doesn’t have enough for his lost queen. White must be careful not to allow the Black rook and knight to establish a fortress, but Karpov’s technique — and his a-pawn — are up to the job. In the final position, the White king is on his way to aid the queen and advanced pawn, and Black has no counter; Spassky resigns.

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We close with a world-class poser — literally. Today’s diagram is a mate-in-two taken from the 39th World Chess Solving Championship held earlier this month in Ostroda, Poland. It’s actually one of the easier problems the contestants had to solve with the clock ticking.

Chessbase.com has a nice write-up of the event — along with all the problems from the competition — by veteran British GM John Nunn, who took the silver medal in the individual category behind gold medalist Kacper Piorun of Poland. Poland also took the team title, with Great Britain second and Serbia third.

Happy solving — we’ll have the answer in next week’s column.

Karpov-Spassky, 6th Spartakiad, Riga, Latvia, July 1975

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. Nc3 O-O 7. Qc2 d5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. O-O Nd7 10. Nxd5 exd5 11. Rd1 Nf6 12. Ne5 c5 13. dxc5 Bxc5 14. Nd3 Bd6 15. Bf4 Re8 16. e3 Ne4 17. Bxd6 Qxd6 18. Nf4 Rac8 19. Qa4 Qe7 20. Qxa7 Nxf2 21. Nxd5 Bxd5 22. Qxe7 Nxd1 23. Rc1 Rb8 24. Qb4 Bxg2 25. Kxg2 Nxe3+ 26. Kg1 Re6 27. Qf4 Rd8 28. Qd4 Rde8 29. Qd7 Ng4 30. Rc8 Nf6 31. Rxe8+ Rxe8 32. Qb7 Re6 33. Qb8+ Ne8 34. a4 g6 35. b4 Kg7 36. Qb7 h5 37. h3 Kf6 38. Kg2 Rd6 39. a5 bxa5 40. bxa5 Re6 41. a6 Nc7 42. a7 Re7 43. Qc6+ Ke5 44. Kf3 Black resigns.

• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.