Kasparov's Must-Win Game 24 — Seville 1987

One Game for the Crown

The 1987 World Championship in Seville was the fourth match in the long war between Kasparov and Karpov, a rivalry that had already consumed the aborted marathon of 1984-85, Kasparov's title victory in 1985, and the 1986 rematch. The Seville contest swung back and forth for two months, and with two games remaining the score stood level. Then disaster struck the champion. Karpov won Game 23, taking a 12-11 lead with one game left.

The arithmetic was brutal. Under the rules of World Chess Championships of that era, the champion retained his title in the event of a 12-12 tie. Karpov needed only a draw. Kasparov had to win on demand, with the white pieces, against the man widely regarded as the finest defensive player who had ever lived. Only once before in chess history had a champion faced this exact situation: Emanuel Lasker, who beat Carl Schlechter in the final game of their 1910 match to save his title.

The Quiet Weapon

Everyone expected fire. Kasparov was the most feared attacking player of his generation, and the natural assumption was that he would hurl his preparation at Karpov from move one. Instead he played 1.c4 and steered into a restrained Reti setup with g3 and b3, fianchettoing both bishops and avoiding every sharp theoretical line.

The logic was profound chess strategy. In a forcing variation, Karpov could trade pieces and dig in for the draw he needed. In a slow manoeuvring game, the tension would last for hours, the pieces would stay on the board, and the pressure of the occasion would press on both men move after move. Kasparov later admitted he was not seeking an objective advantage out of the opening at all. He wanted a long game, a tired opponent, and a position where one slip would be enough. It was a champion's bet that nerve, not novelty, would decide the title.

Crisis in Time Trouble

For thirty moves the game simmered rather than burned. Kasparov probed on the queenside, Karpov defended with his customary precision, and the position stayed within the bounds of equality. Critically, Kasparov did not play it cleanly: around move 33 he allowed Karpov a path to comfortable equality, and for a few moves the challenger had the match within reach.

Then the clocks took over. Both players fell into severe time pressure approaching the move 40 control, the phase of the game where even world champions play on instinct. In the mutual scramble it was Karpov, uncharacteristically, who cracked. A miscalculation in the complications cost him a pawn just before the time control, and when the dust settled Kasparov had a clean extra pawn in a queen and knight ending. The advantage was small, but against the backdrop of the match situation it was everything. These are the margins on which famous chess games turn.

The Longest Night in Chess

The game was adjourned after the first session, as championship chess then required, with the position sealed and play set to resume the following day. What followed was perhaps the most analysed overnight position in history. Kasparov and his team worked through the ending into the small hours, mapping every defensive resource Karpov might find. Across town, Karpov's camp did the same, searching for a fortress.

There was none. When play resumed on 19 December, Kasparov converted with cold, patient technique, the kind of grinding precision more often associated with Karpov himself. He combined threats against Karpov's king with the steady advance of his extra material, never allowing counterplay. Facing further unavoidable material loss, Karpov resigned after White's 64th move. The hall erupted. Kasparov had levelled the match at 12-12 and, by the rules, retained his World Championship. Students of chess endgames still study the conversion as a model of winning on demand.

What Made It Extraordinary

Game 24 contains no queen sacrifice and no mating combination. Its greatness lies elsewhere. Chess is a game where the scoreboard usually permits recovery; a bad day can be repaired tomorrow. Seville stripped that away. Kasparov had to produce a win, in a single classical game, against an opponent who needed only to avoid defeat, with the world title as the stake. Sporting history offers few equivalents.

The psychological construction of the win is what masters admire most. The modest opening, the willingness to accept a slightly worse position rather than release the tension, the nervelessness in the time scramble, the flawless overnight analysis: each element was a different discipline, and Kasparov needed all of them in sequence. The chess tactics that won the pawn mattered, but they were only one link in a chain forged over two days of unbearable pressure.

Legacy

Seville closed an era. Adjournments were abolished in the 1990s once computers made overnight analysis trivial, so no championship game will ever again hang sealed in an envelope while two teams work through the night. Game 24 was the last great drama of that tradition, and the rivalry it preserved ran to 144 championship games before Kasparov and Karpov met for the final time in 1990.

Kasparov himself called the final games in Seville the most stressful of his life, and he held the title until 2000, building the longest reign of the modern era among famous chess players. The pieces on that stage followed the same pattern used at every championship since the 19th century: the Staunton chess set, named for Howard Staunton and created by Jaques of London in 1849. The board in Seville was the same one every club player knows. Only the stakes were different.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why did Kasparov have to win Game 24 in Seville?

Under the match rules of the 1987 World Championship, the reigning champion retained the title if the 24-game match finished level at 12-12. Anatoly Karpov won Game 23 to take a 12-11 lead, which meant a draw or a loss in the final game would make him World Champion again. Kasparov therefore faced the starkest possible equation: win the last game or surrender the crown. He had White, which was his one piece of good fortune, but the scoreboard allowed him no half measures. No champion since Emanuel Lasker against Carl Schlechter in 1910 had needed to win the final game of a title match to keep the championship, and Kasparov is the only player in the modern era to have done it.

Q: What opening did Kasparov play in Game 24?

Kasparov opened with 1.c4 and steered the game into a quiet Reti setup with g3, b3 and a kingside fianchetto, rather than one of the sharp theoretical systems that had defined the earlier games of his matches with Karpov. The choice was deliberate and psychologically astute. A forcing opening would have allowed Karpov to exchange pieces and steer toward the draw he needed, and Karpov was one of history's greatest defenders in simplified positions. The Reti instead promised a long, slow manoeuvring struggle with most of the pieces on the board, the kind of game in which a single inaccuracy late in the session could prove fatal. Kasparov was not playing for an opening advantage. He was playing for a six-hour fight.

Q: How long did Game 24 of Seville 1987 last?

The game lasted 64 moves and was played across two days. The first session took place on 18 December 1987 and ran through severe mutual time pressure around move 40, by which point Kasparov had won a pawn. The game was then adjourned, with the position sealed overnight in the era's standard practice, and Kasparov's team analysed the ending through the night. Play resumed on 19 December, and Kasparov gradually converted his extra pawn in a queen and knight ending. Karpov, defending grimly but facing inevitable further material loss, resigned after White's 64th move. The two-day span only added to the agony: an entire night passed with the World Championship hanging on an adjourned position.

Q: What happened to the Kasparov vs Karpov rivalry after Seville?

Seville was the fourth of five World Championship matches between Kasparov and Karpov, a rivalry that produced 144 championship games between 1984 and 1990. After retaining his title in Seville, Kasparov defended it once more against Karpov in the 1990 match held in New York and Lyon, winning by a single point. The two men remained the world's top two players into the early 1990s, but no later contest carried the raw finality of Game 24. Karpov never again came so close to reclaiming the crown in a unified title match, and Kasparov held the World Championship until his loss to Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. Their Seville finale stands as the dramatic peak of the greatest rivalry in chess history.