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    Entries in Viktor Korchnoi (19)

    Friday
    Jul022021

    "Closing Gambit" - A Quick Comment or Two

    In the preceding post I mentioned the 2018 chess documentary, "Closing Gambit: 1978 Korchnoi vs. Karpov and the Kremlin". It's short, so I took a short vacation from normal life to watch. As a comment to the aforementioned post suspects, the narrative is, unsurprisingly, slanted in Korchnoi's favor - and why wouldn't it be? But it's not portrayed as saint vs. devil. Viktor Korchnoi's prickliness is acknowledged by all, and it does not ignore the fact that he abandoned his family. And while Anatoly Karpov is portrayed as opportunistically accepting every advantage that his Soviet supporters could bestow on him, he is presented with humanity, and he is one of the major participants in the documentary, as an interviewee. Near the end of the film, he is painted in a somewhat sympathetic life - at least after he lost his title.

    It's difficult for me to know exactly how someone who doesn't already know the story and have long-standing opinions about the dramatis personae would see it. I don't think they'd come away from it hating Karpov or believing that Korchnoi is the embodiment of goodness and light, though they probably would see Korchnoi as a man with an admirably strong fighting spirit, and this helped him not only as a competitor but as a survivor in life.

    Should those of you who know the story well already watch it? There's a good chance you won't learn anything new, but many of you are probably young enough to learn quite a bit. And it's always fun to see all the old footage of these players, not to mention contemporary interviews with Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Boris Gelfand and other greats reflecting on the match and its participants. So, crack open your wallets and spend 99 cents over on Amazon to watch a tale of one of the two most important matches of the previous century.

    Thursday
    Jul012021

    "Closing Gambit"

    Perhaps in the context of my recent post about grandmasters on TV, reader Pedro E. wrote in to mention a 2018 documentary about the circus that was the 1978 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi. Somehow I had missed this, but it seems to widely and inexpensively available at various sites. More about the film, here.

    Saturday
    Jul142018

    Book Notice: Sosonko's *Evil-Doer: Half a Century with Viktor Korchnoi*

    Genna Sosonko, Evil-Doer: Half a Century with Viktor Korchnoi. (Elk and Ruby 2018) 314 pp.

    Dutch grandmaster Genna Sosonko lived the first part of his life in what was the Soviet Union, and over the past two decades or so has written remembrances of many of the greats and near-greats from the USSR. Many were published as articles for New in Chess Magazine and subsequently compiled into books; those typically featured only a chapter or two on any given player. Lately he has published entire books on single players. We recently reviewed his book on David Bronstein, and now he has written on Viktor Korchnoi.

    In general, I've been a fan of Sosonko's reminiscences. The Bronstein book was an exception, as its subject came across so poorly that the book seemed mostly an opportunity for Sosonko to unload his own frustrations with Bronstein. Maybe Bronstein deserved it in some sense, but it didn't do the chess community any favors to see a beloved figure portrayed as a tiny-souled man.

    Korchnoi fares much better under Sosonko's pen. It would be hard for him not to, as with Korchnoi what we saw was what we got. The immediate impression anyone would have of him was as a fighter in love with the game of chess, and that's what we see in the book. Sosonko has plenty to say about Korchnoi's chess career, at least up to his last world championship match with Anatoly Karpov in 1981, but this is not a typical chess biography. (For those unfamiliar with Sosonko's biographical books, he doesn't present any games or even positions. The best sources for Korchnoi's chess are his own books, along with Garry Kasparov's "My Great Predecessor" volume on Korchnoi and Karpov.) What we see are Korchnoi's battles: as a youngster, against the Soviet state from within and without, against Boris Spassky, Karpov, old age and so on.

    If Korchnoi were needlessly antagonistic this might make for an unpleasant read, but he had real foes to battle, and he was courageous. Interesting too: for all his focus on and love for chess, he wasn't a caricature or a nerd; he was a human being. Flawed, but alive.

    Who is the book for? Any chess player whose interest in chess literature extends beyond the purely pragmatic (but not little kids, not yet). It's a history lesson, it's a biography, and simply an interesting story that can be appreciated by readers of almost all ages and backgrounds. Highly recommended.

    A P.S. about the title: Sosonko isn't called Korchnoi an "evil-doer"; that epithet was applied to Korchnoi by the Soviet state after his defection.

    Sunday
    Dec032017

    A Question

    I was reading through Tibor Karolyi's Alexander Beliavsky - Legendary Chess Careers - Part 1 (recommended!), and learned (on p. 111) that Beliavsky is tied with Paul Keres and Viktor Korchnoi for having defeated nine different world champions during their careers. (If Fabiano Caruana becomes world champion someday, then Korchnoi and Beliavsky will still be tied, but at 10, but if Nakamura earns the title Beliavsky will be in clear first.)

    But what I'd like to know is this: what player has defeated the most world champions during their championship reigns? Let's make it a two-parter: which world champion has the most such scalps, and which non-world champ does? In addition to the world champions, Keres, and Korchnoi, I'd also start by checking on Bronstein and Geller.

    Wednesday
    Jun152016

    Hal Bogner on Korchnoi in Pasadena

    From Hal Bogner, by email (originally posted here):

    As the youthful chief organizer of that unplayed match in Pasadena (Los Angeles), 1983, it was a great privilege and pleasure to host Viktor in the preceding weeks, and throughout the US Open Championship which he won (along with GM Larry Christiansen) ahead of 840 players. Our story, too, has remained untold for decades, but our organizing committee intended only to hold this most important event, and not to affect the future of chess through political acts. Therefore, when FIDE president Florencio Campomanes informed us that he had arranged for Hungarian GM Zoltan Ribli to be waiting in western Europe, ready to fly to California 
    and seal the forfeits he had declared of Kasparov and of former world champion Vasily Smyslov, we absolutely refused to host such a match.


    Besides yourself, Garry, few could have been happier than our group in California when the Candidates cycle was reset and your match with Viktor took place in London.

    Hal Bogner, California, USA

    Tuesday
    Jun142016

    More Korchnoi Tributes

    Here.

    Tuesday
    Jun142016

    Korchnoi at the 1983 U.S. Open

    Viktor Korchnoi was in Pasadena in 1983 to play his semi-final Candidates match against Garry Kasparov, but when the latter wasn't allowed into the United States Korchnoi stuck around and played in the U.S. Open instead. I was there myself, and in my World Chess column this week I take a look back at the event and analyze some of his games from the tournament.

    Tuesday
    Jun072016

    Korchnoi Around the Web (Updated, Updated Again, Update #3)

    Viktor Korchnoi died yesterday - Monday - at the age of 85, and he is being memorialized as he ought to be. The best material will probably be in Russian, and those who speak that language are invited - even encouraged - to supply any Russian language Korchnoi-related links they deem appropriate. (Likewise others with English-language links.)

    Two good English-language tributes are on the Chess24 and ChessBase websites, and the Telegraph gives an excellent obituary in the mainstream press, though it could have said more about his later life and career. The same can be said for the otherwise good obit in the New York Times and the similar, slightly better version by the same author on the World Chess website. That omission is rectified by The Guardian, which even notes the two events he contested in 2015.

    UPDATE: Edward Winter's Chess History site has a new (or at least newly updated) page compiling its past Korchnoi material.

    UPDATE 2: Chess.com has a couple of pieces. Peter Doggers offers a good overview of Korchnoi's career, with some games, videos, and tweets. The other remembrance is by none other than Garry Kasparov. It's a pity he doesn't say even more, but to be fair he gets 200 large pages in volume 5 of Kasparov's My Great Predecessors series. (Has Karpov written or said anything about Korchnoi's passing that's on the web?)

    UPDATE 3: Peter Svidler on Korchnoi.

    Monday
    Jun062016

    Viktor Korchnoi, 1931-2016

    Sad news, but unfortunately not unexpected. Viktor Korchnoi, one of the greatest players of the 20th century, most certainly the greatest senior player ever, and one of the strongest players never to become World Champion, died earlier today at the age of 85.

    Much more on this later.

    Sunday
    Dec132015

    This Week's World Chess Column: Across the Generations

    My column this week reflects on players whose careers have spanned multiple generations, and I focus on the great Viktor Korchnoi in particular. He became a grandmaster in the 1950s, a Candidate for the first time in the early 1960s, and as recently as 2011, shortly before turning 80, he managed to defeat - nay, crush! - no less a player than Fabiano Caruana. Have a look.