Karpov in South Africa

This was really a fascinating story…. and I’ve copied part of the post here and also some comments…you can follow the link and read the entire post and more comments …also from Mark Bushwell….

I’m reading his auto-biography titled “Chess is my life”, its an awesome story. Full of character, and at times raw emotion. Its the kind of book that draws you in, Like an annotated chess game, Korchnoi still reviews and dissects his past, finding new threads and new meaning.

It was fantastic to meet a living legend in person. Twelve years ago I met Karpov in South Africa. Six years ago I was in the audience during the first game of the Kasparov versus Kramnik match. And now I’ve talked with an inspirational fighter and legend. The chess world, for me, is leaping off the printed pages into my world.

comments from here:

Karpov was in South Africa in 1993, but his schedule was not public knowledge. That was the year he lost horribly on the White side of a King’s Indian Samisch against Kasparov in Linares. Definitely before Kasparov-Short World Championship.It was during the Roosevelt Park Open in Johannesburg, around February – the tournament that used performance rating rather than score to pair players for each round – my memory fails me of the name of the Roosevelt Park player that devised the system.The rumour was that Karpov would play a simultaneous exhibition during the tournament, so I went along just for that. I wasn’t playing the tournament itself, just wanted to play the simul.The simul didn’t take place. But I was invited along to Eddie Price’s house. Eddie, at that time, was a lecturer at Wits University. I was studying for a BComm there at the time, and was part of the Wits Chess Club (I wrote the Wits Chess Club newsletter at that time).One of my friends is Mark Buswell, who knows Eddie. Mark is one of Eddie’s students. We both went over to Eddies house, and its only on the way did Mark mention that that’s where Karpov would be.Eddie had invited Karpov over, and try, amongst other things, boerewors. While Karpov was having his lunch we had a conversation on various chess topics, including how to prepare for the middle game, Short’s chances against Kasparov.Had a few photos taken, including members of the Soviet embassy. But, I don’t think I’ve ever seen those pictures. All I have of proof is Karpov’s autograph in my copy of Informator number 32 (red cover) – the one covering the 1981 World Championship, Karpov-Korchnoi, as well as the Category 16 tournament held in Johannesburg 1981.

The next edition of Wits Chess I wrote about the discussion we had, as well as annotated Karpov’s smooth Sicilian Dragon win over Korchnoi from the 1974 Candidates tournament (it was all probably home preparation).

It was said that Karpov wasn’t playing any chess in South Africa, but a few months later, one of the newspapers published a game Karpov played against Paul McAvoy, which was part of a simultaneous display against a number of top South African juniors.

Read the entire post HERE …. on ChessVault.