Hartston W.R., Keene R.D. Karpov - Korchnoi 1974

Oxford University Press, 1974. — 102 p. — ISBN: 0-19-21-7530-0.Even before the start of the new World Championship cycle in 1975, thanks to Furman, Karpov and Korchnoi became quite close friends. And they even conducted joint chess training. One day, their mutual friends threw a party. Someone suggested that everyone present wish for the names of the participants in the final candidates' match. On his piece of paper, Karpov wrote down: Spassky - Petrosyan. Karpov didn’t believe that he could win the candidates’ competition. I didn’t think about who exactly he would lose to, but he believed that at some stage there would still not be enough experience. When the finalists were decided, a friend came to Anatoly, who then took the notes for safekeeping. Only one of them contained the correct prediction: Korchnoi - Karpov. Korchnoi turned out to be a prophet!On the way to the chess summit, Karpov and Korchnoi went through the starting segment side by side - the interzonal tournament in Leningrad in 1973. We've reached the finish line - the final candidates' match. While Karpov was putting pressure on Spassky in the last game of the semi-final candidates match, Korchnoi beat all the mutual acquaintances in the press center and auditorium.Everyone was told the same phrase:
- “Now you will have to choose with whom - with me or Karpov - you will continue to maintain relations.” The Cold War did not help Korchnoi. The final candidate match in Moscow in 1974 was won by Karpov - he received the right to a match with Fischer.The whole world was looking forward to the American-Soviet chess confrontation. Through his representative, Fischer demanded that FIDE make changes to the match regulations. The FIDE Congress satisfied almost all of his demands, but by the deadline, Fischer still did not confirm his readiness to sit down at the chessboard. Karpov then did everything possible to save the match, even sending Fischer a telegram with an offer to meet in person and discuss the rules of the match. But there was no response to the telegram.On April 3, 1975, in Moscow, FIDE President Max Euwe crowned Anatoly Karpov with a laurel wreath and proclaimed him the 12th world champion in the history of chess. Karpov made his first trip as world champion to his native Zlatoust. He cut the ribbon at the entrance to the newly opened chess club. In a simultaneous game, Anatoly took revenge on everyone he had lost to in childhood.Karpov always considered his unplayed match with Fischer a loss in the history of chess:- “I don’t know anyone else in the history of chess to whom our game owes so much. Before him, the popularity of chess was very limited - Fischer made it a worldwide game. He managed to raise the popularity of chess to such incredible heights that for the second decade now we we are spending the capital he accumulated, but still, neither our generation of chess players nor the next should forget that we live on the dividends that Robert James Fischer provided us".