Ah good a nibble.....and another succesful thread hijack. 🙂
Name one these 'chess historians' who agree with me.
I have formed this opinion on my own. It's not something I have read
out of book or a forum post. It's mine. I have copyright on it.
My humble opinion is based soley on chess ability and what happened in
1978 in the Korchnoi match.
Kaprov was not quite Karpov in '75 and the off board antics of Korchnoi
in '78 pulled a 5-2 lead to 5-5 within 4 games.
I think the pressure of facing Fischer in '75, who was the Chess Champion
of the World, please do not forget how great a chess player he was,
plus Fischer's 'gamemanship' would have wore Karpov down.
In '78 Karpov would have come through the qualifers again but this time wiser
and stronger. Fischer though still capable of producing a couple of brilliant
games in the 1992 match. I think would havbe lost in '78.
(One of Fischer's 1992 games , bar some political voting by one of the judges who
awarded it nil points whilst four others judges gave it top marks, should have
been voted best game of the year. Not bad for someone 20 years out of the game.)
Fischer was certainly preparing to face Karpov, he sent a message to
Craig Pritchett a day after his game v Kaprov in the 74 Olympiad
showing him a missed win.
(Fischer was following every Karpov game, hardly the actions of someone not intending to play.)
We shall never know.
But iunbiased specualtion (I'm a huge Karpov fan) is all we are left with.
No mention of FIDE demans or analysis by amatuer armchair psychiatrists
as to why the match never took place.
What may have happend if it did take place, simply based on Chess.
Here is the Karpov - Pritchett game, see if you can spot what Fischer saw.
(And don't plug it into a box - there were no boxes in 1974.) 😉
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 e6 6.g3 Qb6 7.Nb3 Bb4 8.Bg2 d5 9.Nd2 d4 10.Na4 Qc7 11.0-0 Be7 12.a3 0-0 13.b4 e5 14.Qc2 Be6 15.Nb3 Rad8 16.Nac5 Bc8 17.e4 Bxc5 18.Nxc5 d3 19.Nxd3 Nd4 20.Qb2 Bg4 21.Re1 Rfe8 22.f4 exf4 23.Bxf4 Qxc4 24.Ne5 Qc2 25.Ra2 Qxb2 26.Rxb2 Be6 27.a4 Nd7 28.Nd3 Nb6 29.Nc5 Nc4 30.Rf2 Bc8 31.Bc7 b6 32.Bxd8 bxc5 33.Rc1 Ne5 34.Rxc5 Bg4 35.Rd5 Ndf3+ 36.Kh1 f6 37.Bc7 Rc8 38.Rd8+ Rxd8 39.Bxd8 Kf7 40.h3