The World Chess Championship 1984âÂÂ1985 was a match between challenger Garry Kasparov and defending champion Anatoly Karpov at the Pillar Hall of House of the Unions, Moscow, from 10 September 1984 to 15 February 1985 for the World Chess Championship title. After 5 months and 48 games, the match was called off, with Karpov leading 5 to 3, and 40 draws. The match was replayed in the World Chess Championship 1985.
There were three different paths to the Interzonals. First, players qualified from twelve different Zonals. Second, some players (including Kasparov) qualified on rating. Third, the six quarter-final and semi-final losers from the previous Candidates in 1980 qualified.
Three Interzonal tournaments were held. The top two finishers in each qualified. Zoltán Ribli won the Las Palmas Interzonal ahead of 61-year-old former World Champion Vasily Smyslov. Kasparov, 19 years old, won the Moscow Interzonal by a 1ý point margin ahead of Alexander Beliavsky. The Toluca Interzonal was won jointly by Lajos Portisch and Eugenio Torre.
Tal and Andersson contested a playoff in Malmö for a reserve spot for the Candidates Tournament. The match ended 3âÂÂ3; Tal became first reserve because of his better tie break score, but no reserves were needed.
The six Interzonal qualifiers were joined by Viktor Korchnoi and Robert Hübner, the Candidates finalists from the previous cycle (World Chess Championship 1981). The eight players participated in a series of knockout matches. The winner was Garry Kasparov.
The SmyslovâÂÂHübner match was tied at 5âÂÂ5. After playing four extra games without breaking the tie, the match was resolved by a spin of the roulette wheel. The ball went into the zero on the first spin, before deciding in favor of Smyslov.
Politics threatened Kasparov's semi-final match against Viktor Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California. Various political manoeuvres prevented Kasparov from playing Korchnoi in the United States, and Kasparov forfeited the match. This was resolved when Korchnoi agreed for the match to be replayed in London, along with the Vasily Smyslov vs. Zoltán Ribli match. The KorchnoiâÂÂKasparov match was put together on short notice by Raymond Keene. Kasparov won 7âÂÂ4.
The previous record length for a world title match had been 34 games, the 1927 match between José Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, which also followed the "first to 6 wins" format.
Out of the first nine games, Karpov won four, and he then won the next decisive game, leading the match 5-0 by game 27. But then he could not win another game (and thus win the match) for twenty games, by which time Kasparov started gaining ground. Kasparov won two consecutive games, and Karpov, who hadn't won a game in three months, appeared to be exhausted.
The match was ended without result by Florencio Campomanes, the President of the World Chess Federation, when the standings were 5âÂÂ3 in favor of Karpov, and a new match was announced to start a few months later. The termination was controversial, as there was no precedent for this type of decision. Both players also stated that they preferred for the match to continue, though Karpov quietly accepted the decision after his initial complaint, while Kasparov was livid. There was speculation that Campomanes had made the decision due to political pressure from the KGB and the USSR Chess Federation that was widely considered to favor Karpov. Announcing his decision at a press conference, Campomanes cited the health of the players, which had been strained by the length of the match (5 months: 10 September 1984 to 8 February 1985). This match remains the first and only world championship match to be called off without a result.
The restarted match (the World Chess Championship 1985) was best of 24. Kasparov won 13âÂÂ11.
In 2020, Karpov said that if he had won this match 6âÂÂ0, Kasparov would never have become world champion, because he was too emotional.
Campomanes decision to abort the match contributed to Kasparov's decision to break with FIDE and start the Professional Chess Association.