World Chess Championship 1984–1985

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. ==1982 Interzonals==

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 1½ 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 3–3; Tal became first reserve because of his better tie break score, but no reserves were needed. : ==1983–1984 Candidates tournament==

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 Smyslov–Hübner match was tied at 5–5. 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 Korchnoi–Kasparov match was put together on short notice by Raymond Keene. Kasparov won 7–4. == 1984–1985 Championship match==

: : 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 5–3 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. 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 13–11. In 2020, Karpov said that if he had won this match 6–0, 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. ==Notes==