Champion Reported Wilting Under Strain : Worry Over Karpov Halts Chess Tourney

--Play in the world chess championship match was suspended today amid reports that titleholder Anatoly Karpov is wilting under the psychological strain of the marathon struggle.

Match officials announced that the game scheduled for today, the 49th in the five-month-long duel between Karpov and challenger Garri Kasparov, had been canceled. No date was set for play to resume.

Soviet chess sources said the cancellation was unprecedented and was linked to Karpov’s psychological condition.

The 33-year-old champion, a favorite of the Kremlin, built an early 5-0 lead in the match but has not won a game since November. Chess experts say the quality of his play has declined noticeably.

The 21-year-old challenger, an apolitical sportsman who is considered a maverick by the Soviet chess establishment, has won the last two games in a row. He now trails by only two games at 5-3.

The match is by far the longest in championship history. By playing 48 games, Karpov and Kasparov have surpassed the previous record of 34, set in 1927 when Russian Alexander Alekhine upset champion Jose Raul Capablanca of Cuba.

One Soviet chess source said there were reports that Karpov, the titleholder since 1975, wants a long recess in the match, perhaps until September, in order to recover his health.

The pressure on the two players, whose duel began on Sept. 10, heightened after Kasparov’s victory in Game 47, when organizers ordered the match moved from Moscow’s ornate 18th-Century Hall of Columns to a suburban hotel.

Both players objected, but the officials said the match was lasting so long that it was interfering with the regular program of concerts and meetings at the historic hall.