Kasparov-Karpov Chess Title Match Opens With Draw

The first game of the world championship chess match between champion Gary Kasparov and challenger Anatoly Karpov in Seville, Spain, was drawn Monday. The two grandmasters from the Soviet Union will play a best-of-24-game series for the world championship.

The winner also will receive five-eighths of the record prize pool of $1.85 million.

This is the fourth match between the two rivals. The first, which began in September, 1984, dragged on for more than five months and was halted without a winner. Kasparov won the other two matches. He needs 12 points in Seville to retain his title. A player scores one point for a win and one-half point for a draw.

Monday’s game was quiet. Kasparov, as black, used the Grunfeld defense, and the players followed the path of one of their previous games until move 10. At move 15, Karpov established an advantage in space, but Kasparov’s control of the only open file was sufficient to produce a draw.

The second game will be played Wednesday. Here are the moves of Monday’s game.

Karpov-Kasparov 1, Seville 1987: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 g3 c6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Bg2 d5 6 cxd5 cxd5 7 Nc3 0-0 8 Ne5 e6 9 0-0 Nfd7 10 f4 Nc6 11 Be3 Nb6 12 Bf2 Bd7 13 e4 Ne7 14 Nxd7 Qxd7 15 e5 Rfc8 16 Rc1 Bf8 17 Bf3 Rc7 18 b3 Rac8 19 Qd2 Nc6 20 Qb2 a6 21 Be2 Qe7 22 Nb1 Nb4 23 Nc3 Nc6 24 Nb1 Nb4 25 Rc5 Nd7 26 Rxc7 Rxc7 27 Nc3 Nc6 28 Nb1 Nb4 29 Nc3 Nc6 30 Nb1, Drawn.