Viktor Korchnoi
Encyclopedia
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (also Korchnoy, Kortchnoy, Kortschnoj); pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess
player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster
on the tournament circuit. He was born in Leningrad
, USSR, and later defected to the Netherlands, residing in Switzerland for many years,
Korchnoi played three matches against Anatoly Karpov
, the latter two for the World Chess Championship
. In 1974, he lost the Candidates
final to Karpov, who was declared world champion in 1975 when Bobby Fischer
failed to defend his title. Then, after defecting from the Soviet Union in 1976, he won consecutive Candidates cycles to qualify for World Championship matches with Karpov in 1978 and 1981, losing both.
In all, Korchnoi was a candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions (1962, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1991). Korchnoi was also a four-time USSR chess champion
, a five-time member of Soviet teams that won the European championship, and a six-time member of Soviet teams that won the Chess Olympiad
. In September 2006, he won the World Senior Chess Championship
.
He learned to play chess from his father at the age of five. In 1943, he joined the chess club of the Leningrad Pioneer Palace, and was trained by Abram Model
, Andrei Batuyev, and Vladimir Zak. In 1947, he won the Junior Championship of the USSR, with 11.5/15 at Leningrad, and shared the title in 1948 with 5/7 at Tallinn
, Estonia
. In 1951, he earned the Soviet Master
title, following his second place in the 1950 Leningrad Championship, with 9/13.
for the first time. In the semi-final at Minsk
, 1952, he scored 10.5/17 for a shared 2nd–4th place, to advance. In his debut, in URS-ch20 at Moscow, he scored 11/19 for sixth place, as Mikhail Botvinnik
and Mark Taimanov
came joint first. The next year, he again had to qualify from a semi-final, and succeeded in an event held at Vilnius
1953, with 9/14 for a shared 3rd–4th place. Korchnoi improved on the previous year's showing with his shared 2nd–3rd place in URS-ch21 at Kiev
1954, on 13/19, as Yuri Averbakh
won. This high championship placing was rewarded with his first international opportunity, and he did not disappoint, taking clear first at Bucharest
1954 with 13/17. The FIDE
awarded him the title of International Master in 1954. He won the 1955 Leningrad Championship
with a massive score of 17/19, and shared 1st-2nd places at Hastings
1955–56 on 7/9. He was awarded the Grandmaster title at the FIDE Congress in 1956.
, Tigran Petrosian
, and Boris Spassky
, following in the path laid out by Mikhail Botvinnik
.
Korchnoi's playing style initially was an aggressive counter-attack. He excelled in difficult defensive positions. His results during the 1950s were often inconsistent, as dominance alternated with disaster. One horrific result was his 19th place (only one from bottom) at the URSch-22, Moscow 1955, with just 6/19. During the 1960s he became more versatile, mastering all the required techniques to become a world championship contender. He won at Kraków
1959 with 8.5/11, shared 1st–2nd places with Samuel Reshevsky
at Buenos Aires
1960 with 13/19, won at Córdoba, Argentina
1960 with 6/7. After his victory at Budapest
1961 (Géza Maróczy
Memorial) with 11.5/15 ahead of Bronstein and Miroslav Filip
each with 9.5, Korchnoi was recognized as one of the world's best players.
Korchnoi won the USSR Chess Championship
four times during his career. At Leningrad
1960 for URS-ch27, he scored 14/19. He won at Yerevan
1962, URS-ch30, with 13/19. He won at Kiev
1964–65 with 15/19. His final title was at Riga
1970, for URS-ch38, with 16/21.
He never succeeded in becoming World Champion, but many people consider him the strongest player never to have done so, a distinction also often attributed to Paul Keres
. When Spassky beat Petrosian to claim the World Title in 1969, the Soviet Chess Federation started pursuing a youth policy which largely classed Korchnoi and Vasily Smyslov
as the old vanguard; as a consequence, they were sometimes overlooked when it came to distribution of opportunities to play in international chess tournaments.
He first qualified as a candidate from the 1962 Stockholm
Interzonal
, scoring 14/22 for a shared 4–5th place finish, as Fischer won. The 1962 Candidates tournament
, the last held in a round-robin
format for some years, was held at Curaçao
a few months later, and Korchnoi placed fifth out of eight with an even score, 13.5/27, with Tigran Petrosian
earning the right to challenge Botvinnik.
Korchnoi won at Havana
1963 with 16.5/21, but fared less well in the next Soviet Championship, URS-ch31 at Leningrad, with just 10/19 for 10th place. He missed qualifying for the next world championship cycle, 1964–66, because of a relatively poor showing at the 1964 Zonal tournament in Moscow, where he made 5.5/12 for a shared 5–6th place, so did not advance to the Interzonal. Korchnoi regained his form with an overwhelming triumph at Gyula, Hungary
, in 1965 with 14.5/15. He won at Bucharest
1966 with 12.5/14, and at the Chigorin Memorial
in Sochi
1966 with 11.5/15.
He tied for 3rd-5th places at the URS-ch34, held in Tbilisi
in 1966–67, with 12/20, and emerged from a three-way playoff, along with Aivars Gipslis
, at Tallinn, 1967 to the Interzonal, staged at Sousse
, Tunisia
, later that year. A strong performance at the interzonal, with 14/22, for a shared 2nd–4th place, took him through to the Candidates' matches. In his first match, he defeated American Samuel Reshevsky
at Amsterdam
in 1968 by (+3 =5). His next opponent was Tal, against whom Korchnoi had had a large plus score in previous meetings. The match, held in Moscow 1968, was close, but Korchnoi won by (+2 -1 =7), and moved on to face Boris Spassky
in the Candidates final. Spassky prevailed at Kiev
1968, winning (+4 -1 =5).
Korchnoi, as the losing finalist, was exempt from qualifying for the next cycle (1970–72), and was seeded directly to the following Candidates' event. To prepare, he first played a secret training match with his friend David Bronstein
in Leningrad 1970, losing 3.5-2.5. The games from this match were kept secret until 2007, when they were eventually published in Bronstein's last book, Secret Notes. Then, he played a training match against Anatoly Karpov
, with whom he was close at the time, at Leningrad 1971; this wound up drawn in six games. Korchnoi won his first round 1971 match against Efim Geller
at Moscow by (+4 -1 =3), after which he went down to defeat in the semifinal versus Tigran Petrosian
by (-1 =9), also at Moscow, with the ninth game the only decisive result. Karpov, in his book Karpov on Karpov (Atheneum 1993), writes that, because of Fischer's overwhelming form at that time, Korchnoi and Petrosian were asked by Soviet chess authorities to choose between themselves, before the match, who they thought would have the better chance of stopping Fischer in the finals. Petrosian apparently believed strongly in himself, and so Korchnoi was asked to throw the match, receiving as compensation invitations to the three most prestigious tournaments in western Europe. Petrosian, however, lost to Fischer by the score of (+1 -5 =3) late in 1971.
Korchnoi's mood largely dictated his plan for the game. He was comfortable playing with or without the initiative. He could attack, counterattack, play positionally, and was a master of the endgame. He became known as the master of counter-attack, and he was Mikhail Tal
's (an out-and-out attacker) most difficult opponent. He had a large lifetime plus score against Tal, and also has plus scores against world champions Petrosian and Spassky. He had equal records against Botvinnik (+1 -1 =2) and Fischer (+2 -2 =4). He has defeated the eight undisputed world champions from Botvinnik to Garry Kasparov
, as well as FIDE world champions Ruslan Ponomariov
and Veselin Topalov
.
Korchnoi and Karpov, the newest star of Soviet chess, tied for first in the 1973 Leningrad
Interzonal
. In the 1974 Candidates' matches, Korchnoi first defeated the young Brazilian star Henrique Costa Mecking, (who had won the other Interzonal, in Petrópolis
) by (+3 -1 =9) at Augusta
, Georgia
– in what he later described as a tough match in his autobiography. Korchnoi next played Petrosian at Odessa
. The two were not on friendly terms, and it was even rumored that the two resorted to kicking each other under the table during this match; however, Korchnoi denies this. According to him, Petrosian just kicked his legs nervously and shook the table. Although the match was supposed to go to the first player to win four games, Petrosian resigned the match after just five games, with Korchnoi enjoying a lead of 3-1, with one draw.
With his victory over Petrosian, Korchnoi advanced to the Candidates' Final, the match to determine who would challenge reigning World Champion Bobby Fischer in 1975, to face Karpov. In the run-up to the match, Korchnoi was constantly subjected to threats and harassment, and was virtually unable to find any Grandmasters to assist him. Bronstein apparently assisted Korchnoi, for which he was punished. Bronstein, in his last book, Secret Notes, published in 2007, wrote that he advised Korchnoi before the match began, but then had to leave to play an event himself; when he returned, Korchnoi was down by three games. Bronstein then assisted Korchnoi for the final stages. Korchnoi also received some assistance later in the match from two British masters, Raymond Keene
and William Hartston
. Korchnoi trailed 3-0 late in the match, but won games 17 and 21 to make it very close right to the end. Karpov eventually won this epic battle, played in late 1974 in Moscow, by a 12.5–11.5 score. By default, Karpov became the twelfth world champion in April 1975, when Fischer refused to defend his title because of disputed match conditions.
During the match between Karpov and Korchnoi, an amusing incident occurred. In the 21st game, Korchnoi played a strong opening novelty and, after a blunder by Karpov, achieved an overwhelming position. During this game, Korchnoi rose from the board, approached the arbiter and asked whether he could legally castle
king-side in the current position, in which a bishop was attacking his rook on h1. The arbiter, Alberic O'Kelly de Galway
, informed him that his intended move was legal; shortly after Korchnoi executed it, Karpov resigned.
made a public statement in the press against Korchnoi. At the closing ceremony of the Candidates' Final, Korchnoi had made his mind up that he had to leave the Soviet Union. The central authorities prevented Korchnoi from playing any international tournaments, and even when invited by Paul Keres
and Iivo Nei
to participate in an International Tournament in Estonia
, Korchnoi was not allowed to play, and both Keres and Nei were reprimanded.
Korchnoi, in a 2006 lecture in London, mentioned that the breakthrough that allowed him to resume international appearances came when Anatoly Karpov
inherited the World Championship title (resigned by Bobby Fischer). Questions arose about how Karpov qualified to be a World Champion, when he had never played Fischer. Since Korchnoi was not publicly visible, it was largely believed that he (and Karpov) could not be very strong. Korchnoi was then allowed to play the 1976 Amsterdam
tournament, as a means to prove Karpov was a worthy World Champion.
Korchnoi was joint winner of the tournament along with Tony Miles
. At the end of the tournament, Korchnoi asked Miles to spell "political asylum" for him. As a result, after the chess tournament in Amsterdam, Korchnoi was the first strong Soviet grandmaster to defect from the Soviet Union. Korchnoi's defection resulted in a turbulent period of excellent tournament results, losses in the two matches for the World Title – all overshadowed by the oppressive political climate of the Cold War
.
Korchnoi resided in the Netherlands for some time, giving simultaneous exhibition
s. He played a short match against Jan Timman
– the strongest active non-Soviet player at that time – and comprehensively defeated him. He moved to West Germany
and then eventually settled in Switzerland by 1978.
, Korchnoi won against Lev Polugaevsky
, with the final score being (+5 -1 =7). The final, in which he faced Spassky, began with five wins and five draws for Korchnoi, after which he lost four consecutive games, though he steeled himself and finally secured victory in the match by (+7 -4 =7) to emerge as the challenger to Karpov.
The World Championship match of 1978 was held in Baguio, Philippines
. There was controversy off the board, ranging from X-raying of chairs, protests about the flags used on the board, hypnotism complaints and the mirror glasses used by Korchnoi. When Karpov's team sent him a blueberry
yogurt during a game without any request for one by Karpov, the Korchnoi team protested, claiming it could be some kind of code. They later said this was intended as a parody of earlier protests, but it was taken seriously at the time.
In quality of play, the match itself never measured up to the press headlines that it generated, although as a sporting contest it had its share of excitement. The match would go to the first player to win six games, draws not counting. After 17 games, Karpov had an imposing 4–1 lead. Korchnoi won game 21, but Karpov won game 27, putting him on the brink of victory with a 5–2 lead. Korchnoi bravely fought back, scoring three wins and one draw in the next four games, to equalise the match at 5–5 after 31 games. However, Karpov won the very next game, and the match, by 6–5 with 21 draws.
Korchnoi took the opportunity of the match to publicize the situation of his wife and son, drafting an open letter to the Soviet government to release them both.
In what was dubbed the "Massacre in Merano", Karpov defeated Korchnoi convincingly by 6 wins to 2, with ten draws.
who at the time was battling against a Soviet Chess Federation that was clearly in favour of Anatoly Karpov. Korchnoi seemed to have great fondness for Garry Kasparov – possibly because he recognized the situation Kasparov was in – a prominent talent blocked by the Soviet bureaucracy.
The match was to be held in Pasadena, California
, but the Soviet Chess Federation protested (possibly because Korchnoi was a defector and the match was in the cold-war enemy's back yard, and because of the soon-to-be-announced Soviet decision to boycott the 1984 Olympic Games
in Los Angeles), and Kasparov was not allowed to fly there to play the match. This defaulted the match to Korchnoi.
However, after a remarkable series of events, spearheaded by the British Grandmaster Raymond Keene
, Korchnoi agreed to play the match in London. This was a gracious gesture by Korchnoi, since technically he had already won by default. After a good start, Korchnoi was blown away by Kasparov's attacking play and remarkable maturity.
After the 1983 Kasparov match, Korchnoi continued playing at a top level but without seriously threatening the world championship again. In the 1985–87 World Championship cycle he finished equal thirteenth out of 16 in the Candidates' Tournament. In the 1988–90 cycle he made the final 16 again, but was eliminated in the first round of Candidates' matches. In the 1991–93 cycle he reached the final 8 of the Candidates' before being eliminated.
He continues to play in Europe to this day, living in his adopted country of Switzerland and frequently representing their Olympiad
team on top board, even though his Elo rating is considerably below that of compatriot Vadim Milov
who appears not to make himself available for selection. Korchnoi first played for Switzerland at the 1978 Olympiad, held in Buenos Aires
, where he took the individual gold medal for best performance on board one.
Korchnoi is noted for his unusual longevity at the chessboard. He has been at or near the top of the game for nearly half a century. He continues to play many tournaments every year, playing more than 15 tournaments in 2006. He won the 2005 Quebec Open in Montreal
. In August 2006 at age 75 he won the Banyoles Open in Spain ahead of Sergei Tiviakov
.
On the January 2007 FIDE rating list Korchnoi was ranked number 85 in the world at age 75, by far the oldest player ever to be ranked in the FIDE top 100. The second-oldest player on the January 2007 list was Alexander Beliavsky
, age 53, who is 22 years younger than Korchnoi. As of 2011, Korchnoi is still active in the chess world with a notable win (in Gibraltar
) against an 18 year old Fabiano Caruana who is rated above 2700 and nearly 60 years Korchnoi's junior.
, held in Arvier
(Valle d'Aosta, Italy), with a 9–2 score. Korchnoi scored 7.5–0.5 in his first eight games, then drew his last three games. This is the first world title Korchnoi has won (and his only participation in a World Senior Chess Championship).
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....
on the tournament circuit. He was born in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, USSR, and later defected to the Netherlands, residing in Switzerland for many years,
Korchnoi played three matches against Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
, the latter two for the World Chess Championship
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
. In 1974, he lost the Candidates
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
final to Karpov, who was declared world champion in 1975 when Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
failed to defend his title. Then, after defecting from the Soviet Union in 1976, he won consecutive Candidates cycles to qualify for World Championship matches with Karpov in 1978 and 1981, losing both.
In all, Korchnoi was a candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions (1962, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1991). Korchnoi was also a four-time USSR chess champion
USSR Chess Championship
This is a list of all the winners of the USSR Chess Championship. It was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners...
, a five-time member of Soviet teams that won the European championship, and a six-time member of Soviet teams that won the Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
. In September 2006, he won the World Senior Chess Championship
World Senior Chess Championship
The World Senior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament established in 1991 by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.Participants must have reached 60 years old on 1 January of the year of the event...
.
Early life and career
Korchnoi graduated from Leningrad State University with a major in history.He learned to play chess from his father at the age of five. In 1943, he joined the chess club of the Leningrad Pioneer Palace, and was trained by Abram Model
Abram Model
Abram Model was a Russian chess master, although he had his master title taken away by the Soviet chess authorities due to lack of results.Abram Yakovlevich Model was born in Daugavpils, Latvia. Then he lived in St. Petersburg ....
, Andrei Batuyev, and Vladimir Zak. In 1947, he won the Junior Championship of the USSR, with 11.5/15 at Leningrad, and shared the title in 1948 with 5/7 at Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
. In 1951, he earned the Soviet Master
Chess master
A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....
title, following his second place in the 1950 Leningrad Championship, with 9/13.
Young Master
One year later, he qualified for the finals of the USSR Chess ChampionshipUSSR Chess Championship
This is a list of all the winners of the USSR Chess Championship. It was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners...
for the first time. In the semi-final at Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, 1952, he scored 10.5/17 for a shared 2nd–4th place, to advance. In his debut, in URS-ch20 at Moscow, he scored 11/19 for sixth place, as Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
and Mark Taimanov
Mark Taimanov
Mark Evgenievich Taimanov is a leading Soviet and Russian chess player and concert pianist.-Chess:He was awarded the International Grandmaster title in 1952 and played in the Candidates Tournament in Zurich in 1953, where he tied for eighth place. From 1946 to 1956, he was among the world's top...
came joint first. The next year, he again had to qualify from a semi-final, and succeeded in an event held at Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
1953, with 9/14 for a shared 3rd–4th place. Korchnoi improved on the previous year's showing with his shared 2nd–3rd place in URS-ch21 at Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
1954, on 13/19, as Yuri Averbakh
Yuri Averbakh
Yuri Lvovich Averbakh is a Soviet and Russian chess player and author. He is currently the oldest living chess grandmaster.-Life and career:...
won. This high championship placing was rewarded with his first international opportunity, and he did not disappoint, taking clear first at Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
1954 with 13/17. The FIDE
Fédération Internationale des Échecs
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE , its French acronym.FIDE...
awarded him the title of International Master in 1954. He won the 1955 Leningrad Championship
Leningrad City Chess Championship
The Leningrad City Chess Championship is a chess tournament held officially in the city of Leningrad, Russia starting from 1920. The city was called Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, then Leningrad until 1991, and Saint Petersburg afterwards...
with a massive score of 17/19, and shared 1st-2nd places at Hastings
Hastings International Chess Congress
The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...
1955–56 on 7/9. He was awarded the Grandmaster title at the FIDE Congress in 1956.
International Soviet teams standout
Korchnoi earned his first international team selection for the Soviet student team in 1954, joined the full national team for the European Team Championship three years later, and would represent the USSR through 1974. He won 21 medals for the USSR. His complete Soviet international team play results follow:- OsloOsloOslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
1954, Student Olympiad, board 1, 4.5/7 (+3 =3 -1), team silver; - UppsalaUppsala- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
1956, Student Olympiad, board 1, 6/7 (+5 =2 -0), team gold; - ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
1957, European Team Championship, board 8, 5.5/6 (+5 =1 -0), team gold, board gold; - Leipzig 1960 Olympiad14th Chess OlympiadThe 14th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 26 and November 9, 1960, in Leipzig, East Germany.-References:...
, board 4, 10.5/13 (+8 =5 -0), team gold; board bronze; - OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
1961, European Team Championship, board 6, 8.5/9 (+8 =1 -0), team gold, board gold; - HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
1965, European Team Championship, board 3, 5.5/9 (+4 =3 -2), team gold, board gold; - Havana 1966 Olympiad17th Chess OlympiadThe 17th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 23 and November 20, 1966, in Havana, Cuba.-References:* OlimpBase...
, 1st reserve, 10.5/13 (+9 =3 -1), team gold, board gold; - Lugano 1968 Olympiad18th Chess OlympiadThe 18th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 17 and November 7, 1968, in Lugano, Switzerland.-References:* OlimpBase...
, board 3, 11/13 (+9 =4 -0), team gold; - KapfenbergKapfenbergKapfenberg is a city in Styria, Austria, near Bruck an der Mur. The town's landmark is Burg Oberkapfenberg. Main employer in the city of Kapfenberg was and still is the steel manufacturer Böhler....
1970, European Team Championship, board 2, 4/6 (+2 =4 -0), team gold; - Siegen 1970 Olympiad19th Chess OlympiadThe 19th Chess Olympiad, comprising an open team tournament and the Annual Congress of the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, took place between September 5 and September 27, 1970, in the small town of Siegen, West Germany.-Tournament report:...
, board 3, 11/15 (+8 =6 -1), team gold, board bronze; - Skopje 1972 Olympiad20th Chess OlympiadThe 20th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 18 and October 13, 1972, in Skopje, Yugoslavia ....
, board 2, 11/15 (+8 =6 -1), team gold, board gold; - Bath 1973, European Team Championship, board 3, 4/6 (+3 =2 -1), team gold;
- Nice 1974 Olympiad21st Chess OlympiadThe 21st Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between June 6 and June 30, 1974, in Nice, France.-References:* OlimpBase...
, board 2, 11.5/15 (+8 =7 -0), team gold, board bronze.
Strong Grandmaster
Korchnoi rose to prominence within the Soviet chess school system, where he competed against stars such as Mikhail TalMikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
, Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
, and Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
, following in the path laid out by Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
.
Korchnoi's playing style initially was an aggressive counter-attack. He excelled in difficult defensive positions. His results during the 1950s were often inconsistent, as dominance alternated with disaster. One horrific result was his 19th place (only one from bottom) at the URSch-22, Moscow 1955, with just 6/19. During the 1960s he became more versatile, mastering all the required techniques to become a world championship contender. He won at Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
1959 with 8.5/11, shared 1st–2nd places with Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
at Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
1960 with 13/19, won at Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
1960 with 6/7. After his victory at Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
1961 (Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy was a leading Hungarian chess Grandmaster, one of the best players in the world in his time. He was also a practicing engineer.-Early career:...
Memorial) with 11.5/15 ahead of Bronstein and Miroslav Filip
Miroslav Filip
Miroslav Filip was a Grandmaster of chess from the Czech Republic. Filip was awarded the title of International Master in 1953, and the Grandmaster title in 1955...
each with 9.5, Korchnoi was recognized as one of the world's best players.
Korchnoi won the USSR Chess Championship
USSR Chess Championship
This is a list of all the winners of the USSR Chess Championship. It was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners...
four times during his career. At Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
1960 for URS-ch27, he scored 14/19. He won at Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
1962, URS-ch30, with 13/19. He won at Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
1964–65 with 15/19. His final title was at Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
1970, for URS-ch38, with 16/21.
He never succeeded in becoming World Champion, but many people consider him the strongest player never to have done so, a distinction also often attributed to Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
. When Spassky beat Petrosian to claim the World Title in 1969, the Soviet Chess Federation started pursuing a youth policy which largely classed Korchnoi and Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions . Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship , and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won...
as the old vanguard; as a consequence, they were sometimes overlooked when it came to distribution of opportunities to play in international chess tournaments.
World Title Candidate
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
, scoring 14/22 for a shared 4–5th place finish, as Fischer won. The 1962 Candidates tournament
World Chess Championship 1963
At the World Chess Championship 1963 Tigran Petrosian narrowly qualified to challenge Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Chess Championship, and then won the match to become the ninth World Chess Champion...
, the last held in a round-robin
Round-robin
The term round-robin was originally used to describe a document signed by multiple parties in a circle to make it more difficult to determine the order in which it was signed, thus preventing a ringleader from being identified...
format for some years, was held at Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
a few months later, and Korchnoi placed fifth out of eight with an even score, 13.5/27, with Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
earning the right to challenge Botvinnik.
Korchnoi won at Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
1963 with 16.5/21, but fared less well in the next Soviet Championship, URS-ch31 at Leningrad, with just 10/19 for 10th place. He missed qualifying for the next world championship cycle, 1964–66, because of a relatively poor showing at the 1964 Zonal tournament in Moscow, where he made 5.5/12 for a shared 5–6th place, so did not advance to the Interzonal. Korchnoi regained his form with an overwhelming triumph at Gyula, Hungary
Gyula, Hungary
Gyula is a city in Békés county in south-eastern Hungary. It lies close to the border with Romania, on the river Fehér-Körös.-History:The first recorded reference to Gyula was in a document dated 1313 which mentions a monastery called Gyulamonostor . By 1332 the settlement around the monastery was...
, in 1965 with 14.5/15. He won at Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
1966 with 12.5/14, and at the Chigorin Memorial
Chigorin Memorial
The Chigorin Memorial is a chess tournament played in honour of the chess legend Mikhail Chigorin , founder of the Soviet School. The first and most important edition was the one played in 1909 in St. Petersburg. Later on, the tournament was mainly played in the Black Sea resort Sochi. From 1993...
in Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...
1966 with 11.5/15.
He tied for 3rd-5th places at the URS-ch34, held in Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
in 1966–67, with 12/20, and emerged from a three-way playoff, along with Aivars Gipslis
Aivars Gipslis
Aivars Gipslis was a Latvian chess FIDE Grandmaster and also an ICCF Grandmaster, and a chess writer.-History:...
, at Tallinn, 1967 to the Interzonal, staged at Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, later that year. A strong performance at the interzonal, with 14/22, for a shared 2nd–4th place, took him through to the Candidates' matches. In his first match, he defeated American Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
at Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in 1968 by (+3 =5). His next opponent was Tal, against whom Korchnoi had had a large plus score in previous meetings. The match, held in Moscow 1968, was close, but Korchnoi won by (+2 -1 =7), and moved on to face Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
in the Candidates final. Spassky prevailed at Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
1968, winning (+4 -1 =5).
Korchnoi, as the losing finalist, was exempt from qualifying for the next cycle (1970–72), and was seeded directly to the following Candidates' event. To prepare, he first played a secret training match with his friend David Bronstein
David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...
in Leningrad 1970, losing 3.5-2.5. The games from this match were kept secret until 2007, when they were eventually published in Bronstein's last book, Secret Notes. Then, he played a training match against Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
, with whom he was close at the time, at Leningrad 1971; this wound up drawn in six games. Korchnoi won his first round 1971 match against Efim Geller
Efim Geller
Efim Petrovich Geller was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions...
at Moscow by (+4 -1 =3), after which he went down to defeat in the semifinal versus Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
by (-1 =9), also at Moscow, with the ninth game the only decisive result. Karpov, in his book Karpov on Karpov (Atheneum 1993), writes that, because of Fischer's overwhelming form at that time, Korchnoi and Petrosian were asked by Soviet chess authorities to choose between themselves, before the match, who they thought would have the better chance of stopping Fischer in the finals. Petrosian apparently believed strongly in himself, and so Korchnoi was asked to throw the match, receiving as compensation invitations to the three most prestigious tournaments in western Europe. Petrosian, however, lost to Fischer by the score of (+1 -5 =3) late in 1971.
Korchnoi's mood largely dictated his plan for the game. He was comfortable playing with or without the initiative. He could attack, counterattack, play positionally, and was a master of the endgame. He became known as the master of counter-attack, and he was Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
's (an out-and-out attacker) most difficult opponent. He had a large lifetime plus score against Tal, and also has plus scores against world champions Petrosian and Spassky. He had equal records against Botvinnik (+1 -1 =2) and Fischer (+2 -2 =4). He has defeated the eight undisputed world champions from Botvinnik to Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, as well as FIDE world champions Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
and Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
.
Korchnoi and Karpov, the newest star of Soviet chess, tied for first in the 1973 Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
. In the 1974 Candidates' matches, Korchnoi first defeated the young Brazilian star Henrique Costa Mecking, (who had won the other Interzonal, in Petrópolis
Petrópolis
Petrópolis , also known as The Imperial City of Brazil, is a town in the state of Rio de Janeiro, about 65 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro....
) by (+3 -1 =9) at Augusta
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
– in what he later described as a tough match in his autobiography. Korchnoi next played Petrosian at Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. The two were not on friendly terms, and it was even rumored that the two resorted to kicking each other under the table during this match; however, Korchnoi denies this. According to him, Petrosian just kicked his legs nervously and shook the table. Although the match was supposed to go to the first player to win four games, Petrosian resigned the match after just five games, with Korchnoi enjoying a lead of 3-1, with one draw.
With his victory over Petrosian, Korchnoi advanced to the Candidates' Final, the match to determine who would challenge reigning World Champion Bobby Fischer in 1975, to face Karpov. In the run-up to the match, Korchnoi was constantly subjected to threats and harassment, and was virtually unable to find any Grandmasters to assist him. Bronstein apparently assisted Korchnoi, for which he was punished. Bronstein, in his last book, Secret Notes, published in 2007, wrote that he advised Korchnoi before the match began, but then had to leave to play an event himself; when he returned, Korchnoi was down by three games. Bronstein then assisted Korchnoi for the final stages. Korchnoi also received some assistance later in the match from two British masters, Raymond Keene
Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene OBE is an English chess Grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author.p196 He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England to earn a Grandmaster norm, in 1974. In 1976 he became the second...
and William Hartston
William Hartston
William Roland Hartston is an English chess player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 with a highest Elo rating of 2515...
. Korchnoi trailed 3-0 late in the match, but won games 17 and 21 to make it very close right to the end. Karpov eventually won this epic battle, played in late 1974 in Moscow, by a 12.5–11.5 score. By default, Karpov became the twelfth world champion in April 1975, when Fischer refused to defend his title because of disputed match conditions.
During the match between Karpov and Korchnoi, an amusing incident occurred. In the 21st game, Korchnoi played a strong opening novelty and, after a blunder by Karpov, achieved an overwhelming position. During this game, Korchnoi rose from the board, approached the arbiter and asked whether he could legally castle
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
king-side in the current position, in which a bishop was attacking his rook on h1. The arbiter, Alberic O'Kelly de Galway
Albéric O'Kelly de Galway
Albéric O'Kelly de Galway was a Belgian chess Grandmaster , and an International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster , most famous for being the third ICCF World Champion in correspondence chess between 1959 and 1962. He was also a chess writer...
, informed him that his intended move was legal; shortly after Korchnoi executed it, Karpov resigned.
Defection
In the lead-up to the Candidates' Final in 1974, as part of a campaign to promote Karpov over Korchnoi, Tigran PetrosianTigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
made a public statement in the press against Korchnoi. At the closing ceremony of the Candidates' Final, Korchnoi had made his mind up that he had to leave the Soviet Union. The central authorities prevented Korchnoi from playing any international tournaments, and even when invited by Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
and Iivo Nei
Iivo Nei
Iivo Nei is an Estonian chess master.In 1947, at the beginning of his career, Nei took 3rd in Leningrad at the sixth USSR championships. The event was won by Viktor Korchnoi. In 1948, he tied for first with Korchnoi in Tallinn...
to participate in an International Tournament in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Korchnoi was not allowed to play, and both Keres and Nei were reprimanded.
Korchnoi, in a 2006 lecture in London, mentioned that the breakthrough that allowed him to resume international appearances came when Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
inherited the World Championship title (resigned by Bobby Fischer). Questions arose about how Karpov qualified to be a World Champion, when he had never played Fischer. Since Korchnoi was not publicly visible, it was largely believed that he (and Karpov) could not be very strong. Korchnoi was then allowed to play the 1976 Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
tournament, as a means to prove Karpov was a worthy World Champion.
Korchnoi was joint winner of the tournament along with Tony Miles
Tony Miles
Anthony John Miles was an English chess Grandmaster.- Early achievements in chess :Miles was born in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham...
. At the end of the tournament, Korchnoi asked Miles to spell "political asylum" for him. As a result, after the chess tournament in Amsterdam, Korchnoi was the first strong Soviet grandmaster to defect from the Soviet Union. Korchnoi's defection resulted in a turbulent period of excellent tournament results, losses in the two matches for the World Title – all overshadowed by the oppressive political climate of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
Korchnoi resided in the Netherlands for some time, giving simultaneous exhibition
Simultaneous exhibition
A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition in which one player plays multiple games at a time with a number of other players. Such an exhibition is often referred to simply as a "simul".In a regular simul, no chess clocks are used...
s. He played a short match against Jan Timman
Jan Timman
Jan Timman is a Dutch chess Grandmaster who was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West"...
– the strongest active non-Soviet player at that time – and comprehensively defeated him. He moved to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and then eventually settled in Switzerland by 1978.
First World Championship match against Karpov
In the next world championship cycle (1976–78), Korchnoi opened by again vanquishing Petrosian, by (+2 -1 =9) in the quarter-final round, taking a draw in a clearly favourable position in the final game. In the semi-final, held at EvianEvian
Evian is a French brand of mineral water coming from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva.Today, Evian is owned by Danone Group, a French multinational company...
, Korchnoi won against Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was an International Grandmaster of chess and frequent contender for the world chess championship, although he never achieved that title...
, with the final score being (+5 -1 =7). The final, in which he faced Spassky, began with five wins and five draws for Korchnoi, after which he lost four consecutive games, though he steeled himself and finally secured victory in the match by (+7 -4 =7) to emerge as the challenger to Karpov.
The World Championship match of 1978 was held in Baguio, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. There was controversy off the board, ranging from X-raying of chairs, protests about the flags used on the board, hypnotism complaints and the mirror glasses used by Korchnoi. When Karpov's team sent him a blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
yogurt during a game without any request for one by Karpov, the Korchnoi team protested, claiming it could be some kind of code. They later said this was intended as a parody of earlier protests, but it was taken seriously at the time.
In quality of play, the match itself never measured up to the press headlines that it generated, although as a sporting contest it had its share of excitement. The match would go to the first player to win six games, draws not counting. After 17 games, Karpov had an imposing 4–1 lead. Korchnoi won game 21, but Karpov won game 27, putting him on the brink of victory with a 5–2 lead. Korchnoi bravely fought back, scoring three wins and one draw in the next four games, to equalise the match at 5–5 after 31 games. However, Karpov won the very next game, and the match, by 6–5 with 21 draws.
Second World Championship match against Karpov
Korchnoi won the next Candidates' cycle to again earn the right to challenge Karpov in 1981. The match was held in Meran, Italy. The headline of the tournament again largely centered on the political issues. Korchnoi's wife and son were still in the Soviet Union. His son had been promised to be released to join his father in exile if he gave up his passport. When he did so, he was promptly drafted into the Soviet army. In spite of protests, Korchnoi's son was arrested for evading army service, sentenced to two and a half years in labour camp, and served the full sentence. After the release, he was again refused permission to leave the USSR. (In 1982, six years after Korchnoi's defection, his son finally succeeded in leaving the country.)Korchnoi took the opportunity of the match to publicize the situation of his wife and son, drafting an open letter to the Soviet government to release them both.
In what was dubbed the "Massacre in Merano", Karpov defeated Korchnoi convincingly by 6 wins to 2, with ten draws.
Later career
Korchnoi, however, still had a vital part to play in the next (1984) Candidates' cycle, although he never reached the highest pinnacle again. He was matched to play the young Soviet Garry KasparovGarry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
who at the time was battling against a Soviet Chess Federation that was clearly in favour of Anatoly Karpov. Korchnoi seemed to have great fondness for Garry Kasparov – possibly because he recognized the situation Kasparov was in – a prominent talent blocked by the Soviet bureaucracy.
The match was to be held in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, but the Soviet Chess Federation protested (possibly because Korchnoi was a defector and the match was in the cold-war enemy's back yard, and because of the soon-to-be-announced Soviet decision to boycott the 1984 Olympic Games
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
in Los Angeles), and Kasparov was not allowed to fly there to play the match. This defaulted the match to Korchnoi.
However, after a remarkable series of events, spearheaded by the British Grandmaster Raymond Keene
Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene OBE is an English chess Grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author.p196 He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England to earn a Grandmaster norm, in 1974. In 1976 he became the second...
, Korchnoi agreed to play the match in London. This was a gracious gesture by Korchnoi, since technically he had already won by default. After a good start, Korchnoi was blown away by Kasparov's attacking play and remarkable maturity.
After the 1983 Kasparov match, Korchnoi continued playing at a top level but without seriously threatening the world championship again. In the 1985–87 World Championship cycle he finished equal thirteenth out of 16 in the Candidates' Tournament. In the 1988–90 cycle he made the final 16 again, but was eliminated in the first round of Candidates' matches. In the 1991–93 cycle he reached the final 8 of the Candidates' before being eliminated.
He continues to play in Europe to this day, living in his adopted country of Switzerland and frequently representing their Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
team on top board, even though his Elo rating is considerably below that of compatriot Vadim Milov
Vadim Milov
Vadim Milov is a Russian–born Israeli–Swiss Grandmaster of chess.Following the collapse of the USSR he moved to Israel, before finally settling in Switzerland in 1996....
who appears not to make himself available for selection. Korchnoi first played for Switzerland at the 1978 Olympiad, held in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, where he took the individual gold medal for best performance on board one.
Korchnoi is noted for his unusual longevity at the chessboard. He has been at or near the top of the game for nearly half a century. He continues to play many tournaments every year, playing more than 15 tournaments in 2006. He won the 2005 Quebec Open in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. In August 2006 at age 75 he won the Banyoles Open in Spain ahead of Sergei Tiviakov
Sergei Tiviakov
Sergei Tiviakov is a naturalised Dutch chess Grandmaster.Tiviakov won the Dutch Chess Championship in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, in Plovdiv, he won the European Individual Chess Championship with 8.5/11....
.
On the January 2007 FIDE rating list Korchnoi was ranked number 85 in the world at age 75, by far the oldest player ever to be ranked in the FIDE top 100. The second-oldest player on the January 2007 list was Alexander Beliavsky
Alexander Beliavsky
-External links:...
, age 53, who is 22 years younger than Korchnoi. As of 2011, Korchnoi is still active in the chess world with a notable win (in Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
) against an 18 year old Fabiano Caruana who is rated above 2700 and nearly 60 years Korchnoi's junior.
World Senior Chess Champion
In September 2006 Korchnoi won the 16th World Senior Chess ChampionshipWorld Senior Chess Championship
The World Senior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament established in 1991 by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.Participants must have reached 60 years old on 1 January of the year of the event...
, held in Arvier
Arvier
Arvier is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy.- Geography :-Wine:The local wine, Enfer d'Arvier, had its own DOC designation before being subsumed into the Valle d'Aosta DOC...
(Valle d'Aosta, Italy), with a 9–2 score. Korchnoi scored 7.5–0.5 in his first eight games, then drew his last three games. This is the first world title Korchnoi has won (and his only participation in a World Senior Chess Championship).
Swiss National Champion
Viktor Korchnoi achieved another mark by winning the 2009 Swiss championship in Grächen. He scored 7/9 at the open tournament. This was followed by securing the title of the top-scoring Swiss player at the Swiss Championship in 2011.Books
- Boris Gulko, Yuri Felshtinsky, Vladimir Popov, Viktor Kortschnoi, 2011, The KGB Plays Chess: The Soviet Secret Police and the Fight for the World Chess Crown. Russell Enterprises, ISBN: 1888690755.
Quotations attributed to Korchnoi
- "The human element, the human flaw and the human nobility – those are the reasons that chess matches are won or lost."
- "If a player believes in miracles he can sometimes perform them."
- "It extremely rarely occurs to him to create something new on the chessboard." (About Anatoly Karpov.)
External links
- World Chess Championship FIDE Events 1948–1990 – contains detailed information on two matches Karpov–Korchnoi.
- Korchnoi's Career Highlights
- Edward WinterEdward Winter (chess historian)Edward Winter is an English journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author about the game of chess. He writes a regular column on that subject, Chess Notes, and is also a regular columnist for ChessBase.-Chess Notes:...
, List of Books About Karpov and Korchnoi - Korchnoi's interview: "Genii and wunderkinds"