World Chess Championship 1981

The 1981 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Merano, Italy from October 1 to November 19, 1981. Karpov won.

Two Interzonals were held in 1979, one in Riga and the other in Rio de Janeiro.

The Riga interzonal was won in dominant fashion by Tal, who went through the tournament undefeated ahead of Polugaevsky. They were joined in the Candidates Tournament by Adorján, whose better tie-break score in the main tournament put him ahead of Ribli, after the two drew a playoff in Budapest 3-3.

The Interzonal in Rio saw Portisch, Petrosian and Hübner share first place between them and all three advanced to the Candidates Tournament.

Home favourite Henrique Mecking (rating 2615) had to withdraw after two rounds, having drawn both his games against Ivkov and Smejkal. His results weren't counted in the totals for the other players. The surprise of the tournament was the untitled Brazilian Jaime Sunye Neto, who was among the leaders during the mid-stage of the tournament before three consecutive losses wrecked his chances of qualifying.

Korchnoi, the loser of the last championship match, and Spassky, the loser of the last Candidates final, were seeded directly into the tournament and joined by the top three from each of the two Interzonals.

When the quarterfinal between Portisch and Spassky was tied after 14 games, Portisch was declared the winner because he had won more games with Black.

The final was best of 16. Hübner resigned after 10 games (8 concluded, 2 adjourned), leaving Korchnoi the winner. Hübner was leading by one point after six games, but made a shocking one-move blunder in Game 7 (allowing a simple knight fork), and then also lost Game 8.

The first player to win six games would be Champion.

Karpov won. This 6–2 victory, much more decisive than Karpov's win in the World Chess Championship 1978, has been dubbed "The Massacre in Merano".

Game 1
White: Korchnoi, Viktor
Black: Karpov, Anatoly
Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (Makogonov-Bondarevsky) system
Result: 0-1
1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 O-O 7.e3 b6 8.Rc1 Bb7 9.Be2 Nbd7 10.cxd5 exd5 11.O-O c5 12.dxc5 bxc5 13.Qc2 Rc8 14.Rfd1 Qb6 15.Qb1 Rfd8 16.Rc2 Qe6 17.Bg3 Nh5 18.Rcd2 Nxg3 19.hxg3 Nf6 20.Qc2 g6 21.Qa4 a6 22.Bd3 Kg7 23.Bb1 Qb6 24.a3 d4 25.Ne2 dxe3 26.fxe3 c4 27.Ned4 Qc7 28.Nh4 Qe5 29.Kh1 Kg8 30.Ndf3 Qxg3 31.Rxd8+ Bxd8 32.Qb4 Be4 33.Bxe4 Nxe4 34.Rd4 Nf2+ 35.Kg1 Nd3 36.Qb7 Rb8 37.Qd7 Bc7 38.Kh1 Rxb2 39.Rxd3 cxd3 40.Qxd3 Qd6 41.Qe4 Qd1+ 42.Ng1 Qd6 43.Nhf3 Rb5 0-1

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