Elastic Maneuvering IV

As I mentioned in Elastic Maneuvering III, finding examples of this technique by Karpov isn't easy. I've spent several hours on the search and have a half-dozen games. Here's one from Kasparov. In Predecessors V (p.404), he noted after Black's 39th move, 'With the exchange of Queens, the tension of the struggle diminishes sharply and a stage of unhurried maneuvering begins. Karpov is very skillful in such positions.'

Kasparov's remark refers to game 6 of the Karpov - Sokolov candidates final match, Linares 1987. Black's 39th move gives the first position shown in the following diagram. I played through the moves several times and I simply don't understand what happened. I thought that seeing the game as a sequence of positions might help.

It doesn't help. Here are the moves covered by the diagram:-

40.Bd7 Rd8 41.Bb5 Ne6 42.Bb2 a6 43.Bf1 Rc8 44.Rd2 d4 45.Bg2 Nf4 46.Bf3 d3 47.Nc4 Rh6 48.Kg3 Ne2+ 49.Bxe2 dxe2 50.Rxe2 b5 51.Ne3 Re6 52.Rd2 h5 53.Kf4 Rc7 54.Rd5 f6 55.Ba3 g6 56.Bc5 Kf7 57.b4 Ke8 58.Rd1 Rd7 59.Ra1 Rd2 60.Kf3 Kf7 61.a4 bxa4 62.Rxa4 g5 63.Ra3 Kg6 64.Kg2 gxh4 65.Nf1 Rc2 66.Nh2 Rc4 67.Nf3 Kf7 68.Kh2 Rf4 69.Kg2 Ree4 70.Nd2 Re6 71.Nf1 Rg4+ 72.Kh3 Rf4 73.Ra2 Rf3+ 74.Kg2 Rb3 75.Ne3 Kg6 76.Ra1 f5 77.Kh2 f4 78.Rg1+ Kf7 79.Ng2 Rc6 80.Nxf4 Rf3 81.Nh3 ('The remainder can now be considered a matter of technique: Black does not gain any counterplay, and his weak h-Pawns are doomed.' - Kasparov) 81...Kf6 82.Re1 Rf5 83.Re4 a5 84.Be3 axb4 85.Rxb4 Ra6 86.Rxh4 Raa5 87.Rc4 Rfb5 88.Kg3 Ra8 89.Kh4 Rg8 90.Bg5+ 1-0

And here is the game at Chessgames.com:-

Anatoli Karpov vs Andrei Sokolov; Linares cf 1987
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068573

What are the similarities between 'maneuvering' and 'technique'? What are the differences? Maybe something will click.