Thread by @Paperclip_In

Magnus Carlsen’s dramatic fist slam this week after an unexpected defeat by Gukesh Dommaraju sparked waves worldwide. But, chess has always been war. In 1978, a world title match featured hypnotism, black magic, yogurt conspiracies, and a murder trial in India.
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On the surface, it was a game of 64 squares. But in the shadows, it was war. Not metaphorical war — real, ideological, psychological, and bizarre. It’s a game of strategy and psychology, yes, but history tells us it’s also a theater of madness. 2/20

The 1978 World Chess Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio, Philippines, was unlike any chess match before or since. This wasn’t just Karpov vs. Korchnoi. It was the USSR vs. a defector. Communism vs. exile. 3/20

The Kremlin's golden boy vs. the man they called a traitor.And it played out during a time when chess was a soft-power weapon in the Cold War arsenal.

Viktor Korchnoi, a Jewish Soviet Grandmaster, had defected to the West in 1976. The Soviets wanted to punish him. 4/20

Anatoly Karpov, the reigning champion and Kremlin favorite, was their answer.

What followed was less a chess match and more a geopolitical insanity. 5/20

The paranoia began early. Let’s start with the chair.
Korchnoi rejected the chair provided by organizers and insisted on his own. The Soviets feared it was bugged or fitted with hidden devices to aid Korchnoi. 6/20

So they x-rayed the chair at the Baguio General Hospital. The chair was dismantled at Baguio General Hospital.

No bug. Just foam and metal.
But things were only getting started. 7/20

Then came the yogurt.

During Game 2, Karpov was served blueberry yogurt mid-match. Korchnoi’s team filed an official protest, believing it might be a coded message from the Soviet camp.
Could yogurt signal a secret move? A draw offer?
They demanded transparency. 8/20

The solution? Only violet-colored yogurt;
Served at a specific time, by a designated waiter.
No exceptions.

It sounds ridiculous.But in a match where psychology mattered as much as strategy, every bite counted. 9/20

More strange things followed.

Enter Dr. Vladimir Zukhar, a Soviet parapsychologist who sat in the front row — staring silently at Korchnoi for hours. 10/20

Korchnoi claimed Zukhar was disrupting his brainwaves, he was being hypnotized.

Zukhar was moved to the 7th row.
Korchnoi protested again, citing a Cambridge academic who warned hypnosis could work from a distance. 11/20

But the weirdest—and darkest—twist was yet to come.

To neutralize Zukhar’s alleged “mind-bending,” Korchnoi brought in his own defense, something very strange.

Steven Michael Dwyer and Victoria Shepperd — two yoga teachers. 12/20

But, who really were Dwyer and Shepperd? They were the members of the Ananda Marga, a controversial Indian tantric sect. But Dwyer & Shepperd had their own baggage. They were out on bail in the Philippines — accused of attempting to murder an Indian diplomat. Yes, really. 13/20

Ānanda Mārga was founded in 1955 in Munger, Bihar by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, a former Indian railway accountant turned spiritual teacher. Its members practiced a blend of rigorous yogic disciplines and engaged in social work. 14/20

By the 1970s, Ānanda Mārga had grown rapidly, establishing hundreds of local centers worldwide, including in the US. Ānanda Mārga had grown into a global movement soon, drawing both fervent followers and intense scrutiny from governments. 15/20

Sarkar himself was imprisoned by the Indian government on charges of murder—accused of orchestrating the killing of five former members. After seven years, he was acquitted in 1978, the same year as the Baguio championship. 16/20

The murder trial deeply polarized opinions — devotees viewed Sarkar as a victim of political persecution, while critics painted Ānanda Mārga as a dangerous cult. This backdrop intensified the sect’s urgency and militancy in fighting for its founder’s release. 17/20

Dwyer and Shepperd, American disciples of Sarkar, convicted by a Philippine court for the attempted stabbing of Jyoto Sarup Vaid, an Indian diplomat in front of Indian Embassy in Manila—a violent act linked to the sect’s campaign to pressure India to free Sarkar. 18/20

Out on bail, they arrived in Baguio draped in bright robes, a surreal sight among the chessboards and grandmasters. Once their criminal past surfaced, tournament organizers evicted them from the convention center, adding another bizarre twist to this high-stakes showdown. 19/20

While all this unfolded, the games themselves were brutal and erratic.

Korchnoi mounted a historic comeback after being down 5–2. But ultimately, Karpov retained his title 6–5, thanks to the draw odds. 20/20

Source and References

Wildeman, Bernard. “Korchnoi, After Revival, Faces a ‘Hopeless’ Task.” The Washington Post, December 21, 2023. washingtonpost.com/archive/politi….

Time. “SOVIET UNION: Checkmate in Baguio City.” TIME, October 30, 1978. time.com/archive/684595….

Chess.com. “Korchnoi’s Revenge Flops. 20-yo Ulf Gives Him Another Painful Lesson!,” July 19, 2020. chess.com/blog/RoaringPa….

Ocampo, Ambeth R. “Hypnotism and Black Magic in Baguio, 1978 | Inquirer Opinion.” INQUIRER.net, December 12, 2020. opinion.inquirer.net/136059/hypnoti….

“KARPOV | KORCHNOI,” n.d. jamestroxel.github.io/karpovkorchnoi….

Daytona Beach Morning Journal Mar 30, 1978

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