58 Facts About Viktor Korchnoi

Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi was a Soviet and Swiss chess grandmaster and chess writer.

Viktor Korchnoi is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion.

Viktor Korchnoi played four matches, three of which were official, against GM Anatoly Karpov.

In 1974, Viktor Korchnoi lost the Candidates Tournament final to Karpov.

Viktor Korchnoi then won two consecutive Candidates cycles to qualify for World Chess Championship matches with Karpov in 1978 and 1981 but lost both.

Viktor Korchnoi was a candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions.

Viktor Korchnoi was 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.

Viktor Korchnoi was born on 23 March 1931 in Leningrad, USSR, to a Jewish mother and a Polish-Catholic father.

Viktor Korchnoi's mother, Zelda Gershevna Azbel, a daughter of the Yiddish writer Hersh Azbel, was a pianist and alumna of Leningrad Conservatory of Music; his father, Lev Merkuryevich Korchnoi, was an engineer, who worked at a candy factory.

Viktor Korchnoi graduated from Leningrad State University with a major in history.

Viktor Korchnoi learned to play chess from his father at the age of five.

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 Viktor Korchnoi, had helped train future World Champion Boris Spassky.

Viktor Korchnoi was awarded the Grandmaster title at the FIDE Congress in 1956.

Viktor 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.

Viktor 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.

Viktor Korchnoi won the USSR Chess Championship four times during his career.

Viktor Korchnoi's results included two victories over Fischer, one a brilliant win employing the Pirc Defense with the black pieces.

The match, held in Moscow 1968, was close, but Viktor Korchnoi won by, and moved on to face GM Boris Spassky in the Candidates' final.

Viktor Korchnoi represented the USSR on board three in the first Russia vs Rest of the World team match, Belgrade 1970, which took place across ten boards.

Viktor Korchnoi played four games with Hungarian GM Lajos Portisch, drawing three and losing one.

In 1984, eight years after his defection, Viktor Korchnoi played board three in the second Rest of the World vs USSR match in London, with the match again held across ten boards.

Viktor Korchnoi 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.

Viktor Korchnoi was the only player to play for each side in the series of two team matches.

Viktor Korchnoi won his first round 1971 match against GM Efim Geller at Moscow by, after which he went down to defeat in the semifinal versus GM Tigran Petrosian by, at Moscow, with the ninth game the only decisive result.

In 1972, Viktor Korchnoi appeared in the chess-themed Soviet film Grossmeister along with several other grandmasters; he played the role of the lead actor's trainer.

Viktor Korchnoi received some assistance later in the match from two British masters, IM Raymond Keene and IM William Hartston.

At the closing ceremony of the Candidates' Final, Viktor Korchnoi had made his mind up that he had to leave the Soviet Union.

The central authorities prevented Viktor Korchnoi from playing any international tournaments outside the USSR.

Viktor Korchnoi was then allowed to play the Soviet Team Championship and an international tournament in Moscow later in 1975.

Since Viktor Korchnoi was not publicly visible, it was largely believed that he could not be very strong.

Viktor Korchnoi was then allowed to play the 1976 Amsterdam tournament, as a means to prove Karpov was a worthy World Champion.

Viktor Korchnoi was joint winner of the tournament, along with GM Tony Miles.

Viktor Korchnoi resided in the Netherlands for some time, giving simultaneous exhibitions.

Viktor Korchnoi moved to West Germany for a short period, and then eventually settled in Switzerland by 1978, becoming a Swiss citizen.

Viktor Korchnoi began actual play by again vanquishing Petrosian, by in the quarter-final round at Il Ciocco, Italy, taking a clinching draw in a clearly favourable position in the final game.

Ultimately, Viktor Korchnoi steeled himself and finally secured victory in the match by to emerge as the challenger to Karpov, having defeated three world-class Soviet contenders.

When Karpov's team sent him a bilberry yogurt during a game without any request for one by Karpov, the Viktor Korchnoi team protested, claiming it could be some kind of code.

Viktor Korchnoi alleged that when acting as his second in this match, Raymond Keene broke his contract by writing a book about the match having specifically signed an agreement "not to write, compile or help to write or compile any book during the course of the match".

Viktor Korchnoi described "a premeditated and deliberate plan to deceive" and noted that Keene's conduct had come under suspicion during the match.

Viktor Korchnoi still had a vital part to play in the next Candidates' cycle, although he never reached the highest pinnacle again.

However, upon intervention by prominent British chess organizer GM Raymond Keene, who quickly stepped up to raise a large amount of sponsorship money to save the troubled matches, Viktor Korchnoi agreed to play Kasparov in London, which at the same time hosted the Smyslov vs Ribli match.

Viktor Korchnoi continued to play in Europe and around the world to an advanced age, living in his adopted country of Switzerland.

Viktor Korchnoi frequently represented their Olympiad team on top board, beginning in 1978, even though his Elo rating was sometimes considerably below that of compatriot Vadim Milov, who appeared not to make himself available for selection.

From 2001 onwards, Viktor Korchnoi became a prolific author of books on his career, publishing five new volumes, including two books of annotated games, an updated autobiography, and an overview of Soviet politics applying to chess; he wrote a book on rook endings.

In 2001, Viktor Korchnoi won the Biel Chess Festival for the second time in the grandmasters division, having won in 1979.

Viktor Korchnoi became the oldest player ever to win a national championship, when he won the 2009 Swiss championship at age 78.

Viktor Korchnoi won the national title again a few months after his 80th birthday in July 2011 after a playoff game with Joseph Gallagher.

In late December 2012, it was reported that Viktor Korchnoi was recovering from a stroke and was unlikely to play competitive chess again.

Viktor Korchnoi was scheduled to play in the 37th Zurich Christmas Open tournament in December 2013, but withdrew due to health reasons.

Viktor Korchnoi died aged 85 on 6 June 2016 in the Swiss city of Wohlen.

Viktor Korchnoi could attack, counterattack, play positionally, and was a master of the endgame.

Viktor Korchnoi became known as the master of counterattack, and he was the most difficult opponent of Mikhail Tal, an out-and-out attacker.

Viktor Korchnoi had a large lifetime plus score against Tal, and had plus scores against world champions Petrosian and Spassky.

Viktor Korchnoi had equal records against Botvinnik and Fischer.

Viktor Korchnoi defeated nine undisputed world champions from Botvinnik through to Garry Kasparov, and Magnus Carlsen.

At times Viktor Korchnoi displayed his temper after losing games by sweeping all the pieces off the board.

Viktor Korchnoi never succeeded in becoming world chess champion, but many people consider him the strongest player never to have done so, a distinction often attributed to Akiba Rubinstein and Paul Keres.

Viktor Korchnoi defeated nine undisputed world champions, a record he shares with Paul Keres and Alexander Beliavsky.