After Kasparov – Short Classical World Championship and Karpov – Timman FID World Championship matches in 1993, chess world gained two separate world champions. The schism caused chaos in the Chess World, as for the rest of the 90s, there would also be two separate World Championship Cycles. This was a huge strain in the hectic schedules of the top chess players.
Thus, in 1993, both FIDE and PCA organized separate a qualifying tournament for the Candidates Matches. FIDE’s edition was held in Biel in July and PCA’s in Groningen in December. Both cycles were similar – top placed players would be joined by the losers of the previous cycle to form the pairings of the Candidate matches. FIDE decided to seed the champion Karpov directly into the semi-final of the cycle – where he beat convincingly promising Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand (the challenger in 2012!) and qualified for the final.
In the final, he had to face a new superstar – Gata Kamsky. Kamsky, who was born in 1974 in Siberia, and who fleed to the United States in 1989, was the very definition of the chess prodigy. When he was 12, he won U-20 Soviet Championship and in 1990 he became the youngest player ever to enter the world top 10.
After winning the 3rd place in the Interzonal tournament, he eliminated Paul van der Sterren, Viswanathan Anand and Valery Salov and qualified for the final against formidable Karpov. It is ironic that just a couple of months after beating Viswanathan Anand in the FIDE cycle, Kamsky faced him again in the final of PCA cycle. This time Vishy gained his revenge and qualified for the World Championship Match against Kasparov.
(On a side note, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if THE SAME player qualified for both World Championship finals – it goes without saying FIDE and PCA were not best friends at a time. Alas, this unique scenario never happened. We will never know…)
The choice of the venue for the Karpov – Kamsky match caused some controversy. In 1995, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the president of the Soviet republic of Kalmykia, with help of the Russian Federation, became the president of FIDE. He single-handedly picked Bagdad, Iraq, as the match venue. US State Department refused to let Kamsky travel there. Elista, Kalmykia was the next pick – after Kamsky’s safety has been guaranteed, the stage for the match was set.
The match was held in June and July 1996. The format was best of 20 games.
Kamsky’s seconds were Predrag Nikolic of Bosnia, Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands, and John Fedorowicz of the United States. Kamsky’s father Rustam served as the chief of his delegation. It was rumored that he also selected his son’s openings for each game.
Karpov’s seconds were Vladimir Epishin of Russia, Mikhail Podgaets of Ukraine, and Ron Henley of the United States.
Many expected Kamsky’s youth and energy to prevail. However, Karpov already played eight World Championship matches before and in the end, his experience told. After exchanging blows in the first two games, Karpov won the 4, 6, 7 and 9 and turned the rest of the match into formality. After 18 games, he won the match ahead of schedule with the convincing 10.5-7.5 score.
This defeat devastated Kamsky (or more precisely – his father) so much, he gave up chess in order to pursue a career in medicine. He returned to the game after 8 years in 2004, but never became a serious contender for the throne again.
Sources:
Chessgames: Karpov – Kamsky, 1996