World Chess Championship 1985 36 and move 40. Kasparov won the World Championship after Karpov resigned on move 42. The match was played as the best of 24 games. If it had ended 12-12, Karpov would have retained his title. World Chess Championship 1985 The 1985 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in Moscow from September 3 to November 9, 1985. Kasparov won, to become the thirteenth and youngest world champion at the age of 22. It is difficult to view the 1985 World Chess Championship in isolation, following as it did only 7 months after the highly controversial
World Chess Championship in later life, dated his reign from this 1866 match. In 1878, Johannes Zukertort won the Paris 1878 chess tournament (though Steinitz did not play), and later won the London 1883 chess tournament by a convincing 3 point margin, ahead of nearly every leading player in the world, including Steinitz. This tournament established Steinitz and Zukertort as the best two players in the world, and led to the inaugural World Championship match between these two, the World Chess Championship 1886. This match, won by Steinitz, though not held under the aegis of any official body, is generally recognized as the