Chess matches of Russia and the Soviet Union against the rest of the World

As the 20th century entered its final third, it was already apparent that the Soviet Union (USSR) had raised chess standards to a level to which other nations could only aspire.

So pronounced was the gulf between the Soviet national side and their closest competitors, a sterner challenge was required to gauge the full extent of their supremacy.

Such a challenge presented itself in 1970, when Max Euwe (the president of FIDE at the time) announced a match to pit the USSR's strength against the collective might of the rest of the world.

[citation needed] Although the Cold War dictated the political mood of the era, players from the Eastern Bloc, which was politically dominated by the Soviet Union, participated on the Rest of the World side in both matches, notably from Hungary and in the first match also from Czechoslovakia and East Germany, together with players from the Western Bloc and from non-aligned and neutral nations like Yugoslavia and Switzerland.

For the first time, Arpad Elo's rating system was used to determine seeding and board order, except in the case of Larsen and Fischer.

These suspicions were printed in Belgrade newspapers and the Russians replied with their reason for their team's selection: Current World Champion Boris Spassky must be first and his predecessor Tigran Petrosian must be second.

Next came four players (Lev Polugaevsky, Geller, Vasily Smyslov, and Taimanov) who earned the right to play in the next Interzonal because of their place in the USSR Championship.

However, a terrific display of defiance from the World's top four boards almost tipped the balance and in the end, it was only the Soviets' strength in depth that won the day, by the narrowest of margins.

Lajos Portisch contributed a plus score for his side, but he incurred the wrath of Fischer when, in the last round, he inadvertently conceded a draw to Korchnoi by threefold repetition in a won position (Brady 1973:163).

The Rest of the World team were also hindered by Samuel Reshevsky being unable to play his final round game against Smyslov because it fell on the Jewish Sabbath.

[2] Two additional reserves, David Bronstein (USSR) and the West German Klaus Darga (Rest of the World), were not required.

Played at the Isle of Dogs, the match only took place thanks to a last minute rescue package, when sponsors withdrew from the previously vaunted venues of Belgrade and then Rome.

Mr Hasan wisely handed over executive captaincy duties to Lubomir Kavalek whilst the Soviets employed grandmaster and psychologist Nikolai Krogius in the same role.

Furthermore, in order to make chess a viable spectator sport, it was widely believed short time limits and spectacular, rapid finishes were necessary elements.

The inclusion of ex-Soviets, Ilya Smirin, Vasily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Alexei Shirov and Ruslan Ponomariov however, appeared to compensate well for any losses.

The outcome was finely balanced for most of the match, the Rest of the World side just pulling away for a comfortable win in the last three rounds.

In seeking to identify poor performances on the Russian side, it is noticeable that by the end of round 3, none of the four "K"s had scored a single win.

Here is his comprehensive rout of Karpov's Queen's Indian Defence: Teams in full: Final match score: Russia: 48 versus World: 52