The first GMA World Cup was series of six masters tournaments played in round-robin format. 25 grandmasters were selected to participate, on a basis of average Elo and performance in the World Championship cycle (details unknown). There were 16 or 17 players in each tournament (plus up to one local player, playing outside the competition) and so each participating player took part in 4 out of 6 tournaments. Top three results were counted in the overall classification. World Cup points were calculated as follows:
- game points scored (excluding points v local player);
- place points (1st-17, 2nd-16, ... 17th-1) shared if necessary (had two players shared first place both would have score 16½ place points);
- bonus points: +½ if there were less than 16 games in the tournament.

In the end of 1980s Kasparov and Karpov were way ahead of the peloton, and both edged out the rest by a huge margin; other players were only able to keep pace on some rare occasions (Timman in Rotterdam, Ljubojević in Barcelona). Kasparov won the World Cup by a margin of 2 points, although he lost to Karpov in Belfort (still he won the tournament by a point; the two drew and consecutively shared first place in Skellefteå the following year).