It would have been a stalemate if black had pushed his king back into the a8 corner. Easiest rule to remember is that if the pawn is on the h column or the a column then the game is a stalemate. If it had been a light squared bishop I think white could have pulled it off though.

Please do - I am interested in some of the why as well...

this puzzled me too, but play it out.  if blacks king tucks himself into the a8 corner, like the description said, its impossible to win... i think.  i'll look at this tommorow some more

So completely, utterly do not understand this. Please, some decent rater, anyone, help. Why did'nt White just eat the a-pawn, advance his a-pawn and win the game??? Surely a king couldn't force a draw against a pawn and bishop and K???

in the last 20 moves the white king couldve killed the black a4 pawn and promoted his a pawn

Why didn't Korchnoi take the pawn on 107?  I know that the answer "he wanted to draw it out in order to spite Karpov" has already been given, but doesn't KxP, KxB lead to a win by escorting the remaining pawn up the a-file to promote?

edit: Ahh, I see...  the bishop can't attack the queening square.  Wow, that's harsh.

Never saw a game that long that ended as Stalemate. Never saw a game that was that long at all!

Yes, sorry I didn't see it either - good stuff either way. Wish I had that kind of mental prowess.

this was pretty cool i love long games i have gotten over the 400th move. (this was semi-intentional)

it's more like agreeing to a draw... is it possilbe that they played that far only to make it the longest game to end in stalemate... at first you might argue that Korchnoi might have thought he saw something or got confused all teh sudden, but there were some moved that were clearly whasted.

Thanks, q.  Enjoyable.  I hadn't run across that game. 

(Sorry, Saccadic, I didn't see yours so it's certainly a valid post for those of us who missed out.)