World Chess Championship 1987


The 1987 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in Seville from October 12 to December 19, 1987. Before the 24th game, Kasparov was down 12–11, but in the 24th game, Kasparov made a comeback by using the English Opening to win the final game to retain his title.

1985 Interzonal tournaments

Three Interzonal tournaments were held in 1985 in Tunis, Taxco, and Biel, with four players qualifying from each.

1985–87 Candidates Tournament

The 12 qualifiers from the Interzonals were joined in the Candidates Tournament by three seeded players: Smyslov, Korchnoi, and Ribli. The final spot went to Spassky, who was given a wild card by the organizers.
These 16 players first played a round-robin in Montpellier in October and November 1985, from which the top 4 would qualify for the knock-out phase.

1987 Championship match

The best-of-24 match was tied after 22 games. On his 50th move of game 23 Kasparov played a sacrifice that he thought would win the game and the match, but Karpov found a refutation on move 53 and won the game a few moves later, leaving Kasparov needing to win the final game to retain his title. In a tense and dramatic 24th game, Karpov ran low on time and Kasparov seized a chance to sacrifice a pawn for an attack. In desperate time pressure Karpov missed the best defence and by the time the game was adjourned on move 42 Kasparov was a pawn up. Exploiting another mistake by Karpov in the second session of play, Kasparov slowly built his advantage until Karpov resigned on move 64. The match thus ended in a 12–12 tie, with Kasparov remaining World Champion.