The Soviets were supposedly furious at the young champion for losing to the “despised and obnoxious” defector. “That’s when I lost sleep,” Karpov recalled. But against all odds, after the yogi had left, Korchnoi went on a winning streak, and Zoukhar was nowhere to be seen. As suspected criminals, the duo were removed from the auditorium and shortly after expelled from the Philippines for good. Later, the Filipino authorities revealed that Sheppard and Dwyer had been out on bail since 1978 for the attempted murder of an Indian diplomat. The Soviets argued that the yogi should only be allowed to watch if they wore normal clothes, not their orange robes. Two yogi managed to expel an entire delegation!” He covered his face with a handkerchief and exited the hall for good! The other Soviets followed him. “As soon as they appeared in the hall and sat in the lotus position, something happened to Zoukhar. Steven Dwyer and Victoria Sheppard were members of the “Ananda Marga” meditative sect, and they agreed “to aid me free of charge,” Korchnoi wrote. But Zoukhar just moved to the seventh row, where he was surrounded by Soviet officials and agents.Īfter the next game, Korchnoi dropped his psychologist and invited a pair of Harvard-educated yogi to help him. In the 17th game, Korchnoi became so frustrated that he demanded the first six rows of the conference hall be totally cleared of spectators, and the administration agreed. The first person to hold a six-game advantage would be declared the winner. But it didn’t work well – by the 17th game, Karpov had cruised into a four-game lead. When the 11th game came around, Korchnoi invited his own psychologist Vladimir Berginer from Israel – he sat in the fifth row unbeknownst to anybody. Korchnoi argued that either the yogurt’s color was communicating what his opponent’s next move should be, or that it was doping: “I noticed that after eating the yogurt, Karpov started playing at the speed of a machine gun!” Korchnoi claimed the yogurt was infused with cortisone steroids.ĭuring later games, Karpov continued rocking in his chair, so Korchnoi retreated backstage where each player had a room where they could analyze the position of their pieces in peace for a period of time. In return, Korchnoi complained about Karpov’s team passing him yogurt during games. While I was wearing glasses, he could only see his own reflection.” He complained to the referee and demanded that Karpov stop distracting him, to which the champion replied: “I’m distracted by his mirrored sunglasses!” Korchnoi wrote in his book that he wore shades “to deprive Karpov of his favorite activity: to stand at the table looking his opponent straight in the eye. Korchnoi became paranoid about the situation. The Soviet leadership was willing to pull out all the stops the ensure Karpov triumphed over Korchnoi “the defector.” In 1978 in Baguio City, the Philippines, where the crunch match played out, the Soviet delegation numbered several dozen and included an alleged parapsychologist called Zoukhar.ĭr. Eventually, the Soviet grandmaster, ranked second in the USSR, was granted asylum in Switzerland – but by then he’d only spent a year in Europe, which wasn’t enough to be granted Swiss citizenship. To make things worse, his son was being threatened with prison at the time for refusing to serve in the Soviet army. This is why he fled the Soviet Union in 1976, leaving behind his family, who were denied a way out. 1974.Īs a Jew who refused to stand up for the Soviet national anthem and someone who wasn’t afraid to publicly denounce the KGB’s surveillance of Soviet chess players traveling abroad, Korchnoi was oppressed in the USSR and slammed in the press. Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov playing a game of chess.
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