Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (, ; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet and later Swiss chess grandmaster and chess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion.
Born in Leningrad, Korchnoi defected to the Netherlands in 1976, and resided in Switzerland from 1978, becoming a Swiss citizen in 1980.
Korchnoi effectively played Anatoly Karpov three times for the World Championship. In 1974, he lost to Karpov in the Candidates Tournament final, and Karpov became World Champion after Bobby Fischer declined to defend the title. Then in the next two world championship cycles, 1978 and 1981, Korchnoi won the Candidates but lost the World Championship match to Karpov.
Korchnoi was a candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions (1962, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988, and 1991). He was also four times a USSR Chess Champion, five times a member of Soviet teams that won the European championship, and six times a member of Soviet teams that won the Chess Olympiad. He played competitive chess until old age. At age 75, he won the 2006 World Senior Chess Championship and became the oldest person ever to be ranked among the world's top 100 players.
Early life, family, and education Korchnoi was born on 23 March 1931 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, to a Jewish mother and a Polish-Catholic father.Виктор Корчной «Шахматы без пощады» (memoires of Victor Kotchnoi) His mother, Zelda Gershevna Azbel (1910—?), a daughter of the Yiddish writer Hersh Azbel, was a pianist and alumna of Leningrad Conservatory of Music; his father, Lev Merkuryevich Korchnoi (1910–1941), was an engineer, who worked at a candy factory.Виктор Корчной «Шахматы без пощады» (full text of Korchoi's autobiographical book): Here Korchnoi also mentions that his maternal grandmother Tsilya Azbel was killed during a Jewish pogrom in Kiev in 1919.
Both parents came to Leningrad with their families from Ukraine in 1928: mother from Borispol and father from Melitopol. After their divorce, Victor lived with his mother until 1935, then with his father and paternal grandmother. They suffered under the siege of Leningrad during which Victor's father was killed in 1941. Victor's stepmother and adoptive mother Roza Abramovna Fridman then took responsibility for his upbringing. (She would later live with him in Switzerland.)
He graduated from Leningrad State University with a major in history.Great Chess Upsets, by Samuel Reshevsky, New York 1976, Arco Publishing, p. 244.
Early chess development 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. Model had earlier played a major role in the development of future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, while Zak, who later co-authored a book with Korchnoi, had also helped train future World Champion Boris Spassky.
Soviet Junior Champion In 1947, Korchnoi won the Junior Championship of the USSR, with 11½/15 at Leningrad, and shared the title in 1948 with 5/7 at Tallinn, Estonia.Karpov–Korchnoi 1978: The Inside Story of the Match, by Raymond Keene, Batsford 1978, p. 10.
Young master In 1951, he earned the Soviet Master title, following his second-place finish in the 1950 Leningrad Championship, with 9/13.
First Soviet final One year later, Korchnoi qualified for the finals of the USSR Chess Championship for the first time. In the semifinal at Minsk, 1952, he scored 10½/17 for a shared 2nd–4th place, to advance. In the 20th Soviet final, held at Moscow, he scored 11/19 for sixth place, as GM Mikhail Botvinnik and GM Mark Taimanov came joint first. The next year, he again had to qualify through the semifinal 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 GM Yuri Averbakh won.
International titles This high championship placing was rewarded with his first international opportunity, a participation in Bucharest 1954, where he finished in clear first place with 13/17.chessmetrics.com the Viktor Korchnoi player file 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.
Soviet team record 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: Oslo 1954, Student Olympiad, board 1, 4½/7 (+3−1=3), team silver Uppsala 1956, Student Olympiad, board 1, 6/7 (+5−0=2), team gold Vienna 1957, European Team Championship, board 8, 5½/6 (+5−0=1), team gold, board gold Leipzig 1960 Olympiad, board 4, 10½/13 (+8−0=5), team gold; board bronze Oberhausen 1961, European Team Championship, board 6, 8½/9 (+8−0=1), team gold, board gold Hamburg 1965, European Team Championship, board 3, 5½/9 (+4−2=3), team gold, board gold Havana 1966 Olympiad, 1st reserve, 10½/13 (+9−1=3), team gold, board gold Lugano 1968 Olympiad, board 3, 11/13 (+9−0=4), team gold Kapfenberg 1970, European Team Championship, board 2, 4/6 (+2−0=4), team gold Siegen 1970 Olympiad, board 3, 11/15 (+8−1=6), team gold, board bronze Skopje 1972 Olympiad, board 2, 11/15 (+8−1=6), team gold, board gold Bath 1973, European Team Championship, board 3, 4/6 (+3−1=2), team gold Nice 1974 Olympiad, board 2, 11½/15 (+8−0=7), team gold, board bronze
Strong Grandmaster Korchnoi rose to prominence within the Soviet chess school system, where he competed against his contemporaries and future GM stars such as Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, and Boris Spassky, following in the path laid out by Mikhail Botvinnik. Korchnoi's playing style initially was an aggressive counterattack. He excelled in difficult defensive positions.
His results during the 1950s were often inconsistent. One particularly bad result was his 19th place (only one from bottom) at the URSch-22, Moscow 1955, with 6/19. During the 1960s he became more versatile, as he gained experience at the top level. He won at Kraków 1959 with 8½/11, shared 1st–2nd places with GM Samuel Reshevsky at Buenos Aires 1960 with 13/19, and won at Córdoba, Argentina 1960 with 6/7.Karpov–Korchnoi 1978, the Inside Story of the Match, by Raymond Keene, pp. 10–11 After his victory at Budapest 1961 (Géza Maróczy Memorial) with 11½/15 ahead of GMs David Bronstein and Miroslav Filip, each with 9½, Korchnoi was recognized as one of the world's best players.The field also included Mark Taimanov at 9/15, Lajos Portisch (9), Vladimir Simagin (9), Péter Dely (9), Wolfgang Uhlmann (8½), Gedeon Barcza (8), István Bilek (7), Jan Hein Donner (6½), and Arthur Bisguier (6).
Soviet Championship titles 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.
World Championship title candidate He first qualified as a candidate from the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal, scoring 14/22 for a shared 4th–5th-place finish, a tournament won by Fischer. The 1962 Candidates tournament, the last held in a round-robin format until 1985, was held at Curaçao a few months later and Korchnoi placed fifth out of eight with an even score, 13½/27, which Tigran Petrosian won, winning the right to challenge Botvinnik. Korchnoi's results included two victories over Fischer, one a brilliant win employing the Pirc Defense with the black pieces.
Korchnoi won at Havana 1963 with 16½/21, 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 poor showing at the 1964 Zonal tournament in Moscow, where he made 5½/12 for a shared 5th–6th place, so did not advance to the Interzonal. Korchnoi regained his form with an overwhelming triumph at Gyula, Hungary, in 1965 with 14½/15. He won at Bucharest 1966 with 12½/14, and at the Chigorin Memorial in Sochi 1966 with 11½/15.Karpov–Korchnoi 1978: the Inside Story of the Match, by Raymond Keene, Batsford 1978
Candidates' finalist, first time In the 1969 World Championship cycle, he tied for 3rd–5th places at the URS-ch34, held at Tbilisi 1966–67, with 12/20, and emerged from a three-way playoff, along with GM 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 GM Samuel Reshevsky at Amsterdam in 1968 by (+3=5). His next opponent was GM Mikhail Tal, against whom Korchnoi 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 GM Boris Spassky in the Candidates' final. Spassky prevailed at Kiev 1968, winning (+4−1=5).
USSR vs. Rest of the World 1970; Rest of the World vs. USSR 1984 Korchnoi represented the USSR on board three in the first Russia (USSR) vs. Rest of the World team match, Belgrade 1970, which took place across ten boards. He played four games with Hungarian GM Lajos Portisch, drawing three and losing one. In 1984, eight years after his defection, Korchnoi played board three in the second Rest of the World vs USSR match in London, with the match again held across ten boards. He faced Soviet GM Lev Polugaevsky, his former teammate, in three games, winning one and drawing two; he then faced GM Vladimir Tukmakov in one game, drawing. Korchnoi was the only player to play for each side in the series of two team matches.
Plays secret training matches Korchnoi, as the losing finalist, was exempt from qualifying for the 1972 World Chess Championship, and was seeded directly to the following Candidates' event. To prepare, he first played a secret training match with his good friend GM David Bronstein, who drew the 1951 World Championship match, in Leningrad 1970, losing 3½–2½. This result was kept secret until 1995; the games from this match were kept secret until 2007, when they were eventually published in Bronstein's last book, Secret Notes.Secret Notes, by David Bronstein and Sergei Voronkov, Zurich 2007, Edition Olms. Then, he played a secret training match against GM Anatoly Karpov, with whom he was close friends at the time, at Leningrad 1971; this wound up drawn in six games (+2−2=2); Korchnoi took the Black pieces in five of them, for training purposes. These games were eventually published in 1976.The Complete Games of World Champion Anatoly Karpov, by Kevin O'Connell, David Levy and Jimmy Adams, London 1976, Batsford, (paperback), pp. 146-149
Korchnoi won his first round 1971 match against GM Efim Geller at Moscow by (+4−1=3), after which he went down to defeat in the semifinal versus GM Tigran Petrosian by (−1=9), also at Moscow, with the ninth game the only decisive result.
Actor In 1972, Korchnoi appeared in the chess-themed Soviet film Grossmeister along with several other grandmasters; he played the role of the lead actor's trainer.
Candidates' finalist, second time