In 1984, the idea of a tournament between the Soviet team and the World team came to life once again. The time was different: fourteen years had passed since the first tournament took place in Belgrade. The place was different too: this time it was going to be in London, and the ratings of the strongest players were different: new heroes had come into play.

Many of the chess players that participated in the previous tournament had already retired from active chess, but the Soviet team was still strong enough, and it’s chances against it’s foreign opponents were still very high. Besides, four members of the Belgrade team were going to play in London: Lev Polugaevsky, Tigran Petrosian, Vassily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal. There were two newcomers on the Soviet team: the world champion Anatoly Karpov and then-candidate Garry Kasparov. From the very beginning the tournament promised to be very interesting.