THERE were two battles on Anatoly Karpov's mind as he passed through Hong Kong last weekend: his own fight for the world chess title and the bloody chaos in Moscow two weeks before.
It was his first trip to the territory, en route to the second leg of his match with Jan Timman in Jakarta. He wouldn't have been allowed here when was world champion in 1975 to 1985; Soviet citizens were not allowed entry to Hong Kong.
Karpov is leading his current match series by 71/2 points to 51/2 with another 11 games to play in a match rivalled by the contest in London between breakaway grandmasters Gary Kasparov and Nigel Short.
In the break between games Karpov, who was a People's Deputy for two years in the old Soviet parliament before quitting when he got tired of the political quarrelling, returned to his Russian homeland to find Moscow in a state of turmoil.
''I came back to Moscow from Holland on a night between two battles, and was absolutely shocked at what happened: on Sunday when these young people attacked the TV station, but even more when the tanks started to shoot at Parliament. People I know well who live opposite the White House told me that at night [under cover of darkness] many bodies were brought out.
''It was announced that 137 people had died. I know that the number of fatalities was much more than 1,000 and quite well possibly more than 1,500.
