World Chess Championship 1981
In the World Chess Championship 1981 World Champion Anatoly Karpov defended his title successfully against Viktor Korchnoi. The duel took place from October 1 to November 19, 1981 in Meran instead.
Prehistory
Already in the previous World Chess Cup 1978 Korchnoi had been the challenger to Karpov. After a long, emotionally charged battle over 32 games Karpov had finally keep just 6-5 victories in 21 sheds the upper hand. That Korchnoi the Soviet Union had turned his back and was considered a " traitor ", this World Cup had given additional poignancy. The Soviet authorities were not interested in that Korchnoi should now be challenger or even world champion again.
Qualification
As usual since 1965, the challenger of the World Champion was determined by Match battles in the knock-out system. The finalists of the candidate matches in the World Cup cycle in 1978, Viktor Korchnoi and Boris Spassky were set as candidates; the other six places went to the top three finishers of the Interzonal tournaments in Riga and Rio de Janeiro.
Organization and rules
The competition was held in Meran. Winner should be the one who had won the first 6 games.