Chessmasters who would be Balkan kings: the rivalry between Russians Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov has turned political

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 19, 1996 | by Jeanne Oliver

The rivalry between Russians Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov has turned political.

The war on the Balkan battlefields was halted by the Dayton peace accord, but a new front has developed -- on chessboards. The two world chess champions, Garry Kasparov, 33, and Anatoly Karpov, 45 have carried their professional and political feud from Russia into the former Yugoslavia. As always, it has gotten personal.

The trouble between them started in 1985 when the World Chess Federation, or FIDE, called off a championship match just as challenger Kasparov was gaining on champion Karpov. Kasparov denounced the organization for bowing to pressure from authorities who favored Karpov the darling of the Soviet establishment.

Nevertheless, Kasparov snatched the world championship from Karpov later that year and went on to become an outspoken advocate of democracy, and capitalism as the Soviet empire crumbled. Karpov continued to support the Communist regime. Their chess rivalry soured into personal animosity. Kasparov has referred to Karpov as a "creature of darkness," while Karpov dismisses Kasparov as a "child."

The schism widened when Kasparov broke from FIDE in 1993 to form the rival Professional Chess Association. FIDE insists that Karpov is the legitimate champion -- despite acknowledging the superiority of Kasparov on the chessboard.

The battling chess kings have found ideal terrain on which to nurture their grudge in the smoldering remains of Yugoslavia, particularly since chess is as popular in the Balkans as irrational feuds. Karpov has sided with Russia's traditional ally, the Serbs, frequently visiting the rump Yugoslavia to support Serbian policy. He became the first foreigner to join President Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party.

The iconoclastic Kasparov, usually at odds with his government's policies anyway, has aligned himself with the Croats and often vacations on the Croatian coast. He bought property near the Brioni Islands where he often is a guest of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.

The trim, dark-haired Kasparov was in Croatia recently to play a charitable match to raise funds for refugee housing. The cavernous dining room of the Kolovare Hotel in Zadar had been cleared and a hundred or so people clustered around a circle of tables. "He's a great friend of Croatia," the hotel director whispered to spectators watching the usurper-king hurl himself from chessboard to chessboard in simultaneous matches with 20 of Zadar's finest players. In the three hours it took him to dispatch his opponents, the histrionic Kasparov seemed in perpetual motion. He leaned over the table, he leaned back on his heels. He muttered, he frowned. He folded his arms, he shook his head.

The day after the Zadar match, Kasparov turned his attention from chess to politics. Casually dressed in jeans and a blazer, he set out to visit the infamous Krajina region, the site of much bloodletting. "Why does Russia support the Serbs anyway?" he asked. "There's nothing there for us. Nobody even cares but a few intellectuals."

Only a few miles east of Zadar, Kasparov and his entourage toured the area that the Serbs occupied from 1991 to 1993 before being driven out by the Croatian army. The charred, empty houses along the roadside prompted Kasparov to lecture on Balkan history, explaining why the Serbs and the Croats are irreconcilably different.

"Croatia was the last frontier of Europe," he said. "Still is. The Serbs have an Eastern mentality!' He recalled playing a charitable match in Sarajevo in 1994. "The Serbs totally destroyed the Olympic Center, the libraries, hospitals. Yeah, they're against all that -- culture, Olympics, beautiful buildings. They don't understand it."

That a chess player should bring a black-and-white mind-set to the grey areas of Balkan politics may not be surprising. What is surprising, according to Al Lawrence, executive director of the US. Chess Federation, is that Kasparov criticizes Russian policy loudly and often.

"Most chess players on the championship level are more like Karpov," he says about the quieter, more reserved player. "Since they typically spend 18 hours a day in front of a chessboard, they tend to be in harmony with whatever government they're playing for and not criticize it."

Ironically, Kasparov and Karpov found themselves in harmony when they joined forces in a committee to reelect Russian President Boris Yeltsin, although they came to the effort by different paths. Karpov naturally gravitates to the status quo while Kasparov recoiled from the Communist candidate, Gennady Zyuganov.

Chess fans are hoping to see a rematch between Karpov and Kasparov. Negotiations would be delicate. However, if warring Serbs and Croats can come to the peace table, maybe there's hope for feuding chess players -- if, of course, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke is free to mediate between them.