Chess Marathon

Chess enthusiasts will never forget it: the titanic battle between two Russian chess players for the world championship in 1984. The twelve-year-younger Garry Kimovich Kasparov, born on April 13, 1963, had unearthed the hatchet against Anatoly Karpov, born on May 23, 1951, the reigning world champion. Their match began in 1984 and involved six victories. Draws were not counted. Kasparov stood 4-0 down after 9 games, but managed to prolong the battle through an almost endless series of draws until it was 5-1 up after 46 games. Karpov stood. Then Kasparov won two games. Then the battle was stopped by the chairman of FIDE, Florencio CampomanesNo winner was declared, and the battle continued in 1985. Karpov was then defeated 13-11, making Kasparov the youngest world champion of all time. The two rivals clashed several more times after that, such as in 1986, 1987, and 1990, but Kasparov remained undefeated. The two chess players were honored by the postal administration of Suriname with a stamp issue in 1984. A series of six stamps and a block. Naturally, the two gentlemen: Karpov on the 75-cent stamp with white and Kasparov on the 30-cent stamp with black. Also a few stamps depicting a setup. The 15-cent stamp shows the white king with a black knight and a white pawn. The king protects the pawn from the knight's attack. On the 50-cent stamp, an opening move by White: the pawn has gone to e4, the most common opening among most chess players. On the 90-cent stamp, White is to move, checkmate in three moves. Because the World Championship was interrupted in 1984, the Surinamese Post reissued the 30-cent stamp upon Kasparov's victory, but this time with an extra print run in red bearing the text: KASPAROV World Champion November 9, 1985. Or was it an overprint? In any case, Kasparov remained undefeated for a long time. On March 11, 2005, he ended his career as a chess player and entered politics. Will we see him return in a completely different role? Time will tell.