“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Your blogger-in-hiding hopes to make a return over the next few weeks, partly to write about the upcoming Anand – Carlsen match, but also because I’ve been playing a few games again in the US Chess League!
For now though, I refer you to the following: http://youtu.be/g_6memS77L8?t=8m1s
I heard about this video from Dennis Monokroussos’s blog (The Chess Mind) and the stretch he refers to in that entry is pretty amazing to watch. Start around 8 minutes in and you’ll see Karpov fidgeting a bit, but pretty calmly resigning and losing the Championship Match in 1987.
I’ve definitely reacted worse to some losses, but maybe given the adjournment break and some time to consider the sizable audience watching, I might have not completely embarrassed myself in his shoes. But not only does Karpov shake hands and sign the scoresheets, he calmly puts his pen in his jacket pocket and starts analyzing the endgame with Kasparov!
Gelfand’s no slouch in the upstanding-citizen department, but when he lost to Anand in the Championship tiebreaks last year, he shook hands, said a few words of congratulations, and then got up and left. No hanging around to figure out where he might have gone wrong or to look at some alternatives. Pretty normal if you ask me, but Karpov reacts like he’s just lost a casual weekend game.
There and Back Again 
Marcus Aurelius didn’t know Uri Geller.
Yeah, all that stuff with Karpov/Korchnoi is pretty bizarre. Maybe Karpov changed by the late 80s, I don’t know.
When Karpov was my age, he’d already (long ago) LOST the world title! WTF. At least he’ll never have a 100% lifetime tournament score against GMs.