Classical World Chess Championship 1995

The Classical World Chess Championship 1995, known at the time as the PCA World Chess Championship 1995, was held from September 10, 1995, to October 16, 1995, on the 107th floor of the former World Trade Center in New York City. Garry Kasparov, the defending champion, played Viswanathan Anand, the challenger, in a twenty-game match. Kasparov won the match with four wins, one loss, and thirteen draws.

Background

In 1993, the reigning FIDE World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov decided to split from FIDE because he felt the organisation was corrupt, and formed a rival organisation, the PCA (Professional Chess Association). In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his status and organised an event to determine a new champion — this event was won by Anatoly Karpov.

Kasparov claimed that, as he had not been defeated by a challenger to his title in a match, and in fact had defeated the rightful challenger (Nigel Short in 1993), that he was still the reigning world champion.

Thus, for the first time since the inaugural World Championship in 1886, there were two rival World Chess Championships.

The PCA ran a world championship cycle similar in format to that in use by FIDE at the time. It was to be the only full championship cycle run under the auspices of the PCA.

Qualification

The PCA held Interzonal tournament and Candidates matches in 1993–1995. A number of leading players did not participate, most notably FIDE World Champion Karpov.

The events were held at a similar time as the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996, with many of the same players playing in both.

The Interzonal had 54 players in an 11 round Swiss tournament, with the top seven qualifying the Candidates. These seven were joined in the Candidates by Nigel Short, the loser of the 1993 PCA World Championship match against Kasparov.

The first round Candidates matches were best of eight games. The second round was best of 10. The final was best of 12. If the scores were tied, rapid chess games were played as tie breakers, played in pairs of games until one player had a lead.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

Kamsky

4½

Kramnik

1½

Kamsky

5½

Short

1½

Short

6½

Gulko

5½

Kamsky

4½

Anand

6½

Adams

7½

Tiviakov

6½

Adams

1½

Anand

5½

Anand

5

Romanishin

2

The games

The final was played at the World Trade Center, on the 107th floor of the South Tower.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Total
Anand 2725 +13	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	0	0	½	0	0	½	½	½	½	7½
Kasparov 2795 -32	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	0	1	1	½	1	1	½	½	½	½	10½

The match began with eight consecutive draws. In game 9 Anand, with white, broke through Kasparov's Sicilian Scheveningen defence to win. Kasparov hit back immediately in game 10, with a novelty in the Ruy Lopez Open Defence.

Game 11 was arguably the turning point in the match. Kasparov sprung a major surprise by playing the Sicilian Dragon with black - a once-popular defence which is now only played at the top level by a few specialists. Anand missed a comparatively simple combination and lost. After a draw in game 12, Anand again played weakly against the Dragon in game 13, losing again with white to go two points down.

When Anand lost game 14, Kasparov had a commanding 8½-5½ lead and the match was effectively over. The players drew their remaining games.

External links

• For a match report, see Special Report to ICC--Kasparov Wins Match by Leigh Walker and Brian Karen.