Misplaced Pages

#207792

119-450: Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (Russian: Виктор Львович Корчной , IPA: [vʲiktər ˈlʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj] ; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion . Born in Leningrad , Soviet Union (USSR), Korchnoi defected to

238-503: A 9–2 score. Korchnoi scored 7½–½ in his first eight games, then drew his last three games. On the January 2007 FIDE rating list Korchnoi was ranked number 85 in the world at age 75, 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 was 22 years younger than Korchnoi. In 2011, Korchnoi was still active in

357-425: A Jew by blood, a Russian by culture, Soviet by upbringing."" On his religious views, he called himself an atheist. In 1920, his mother became ill and his father left the family, but maintained contact with the children, even after his second marriage to a Russian woman. At about the same time, Botvinnik started reading newspapers, and became a committed communist . In autumn 1923, at the age of twelve, Botvinnik

476-399: A Swiss citizen. In the next world championship cycle (1976–78), for which he qualified as the losing finalist, Korchnoi first had to overcome Soviet demands that he be forfeited due to his defection; FIDE President GM Max Euwe defended Korchnoi's right to participate. Korchnoi began actual play by again vanquishing Petrosian, by (+2−1=9) in the quarter-final round at Il Ciocco, Italy, taking

595-478: 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 GM Tony Miles . At the end of the tournament, Korchnoi asked Miles to spell " political asylum " for him, whereupon Korchnoi entered

714-521: A World Championship tournament before the Groningen tournament began, and at this stage the Soviet Union was not a member and therefore took no part in framing that proposal. Since Keres lost his first four games against Botvinnik in the 1948 World Championship tournament , winning only in the final cycle after the outcome of the tournament had been decided, suspicions have sometimes been raised that Keres

833-479: A ballerina, told him that her colleagues at the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre were being evacuated to the city of Perm , then known as Molotov in honour of Vyacheslav Molotov . The family found an apartment there, and Botvinnik obtained a job with the local electricity supply organization – at the lowest pay rate and on condition that he did no research, as he had only a Candidate's degree. Botvinnik's only child,

952-546: A book on rook endings. In 2001, Korchnoi won the Biel Chess Festival for the second time in the grandmasters division, having also won in 1979. This 22-year gap still stands as the longest time period between being champion at Biel tournament, or quite possibly any international chess tournament. In September 2006, Korchnoi won the 16th World Senior Chess Championship , held in Arvier (Valle d'Aosta, Italy), at age 75, with

1071-567: A book with Korchnoi, had also helped train future World Champion Boris Spassky . 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 . In 1951, he earned the Soviet Master title, following his second-place finish in the 1950 Leningrad Championship, with 9/13. One year later, Korchnoi qualified for

1190-440: A candidate member of his school's Komsomol branch. Around this time his mother became concerned about his poor physique, and as a result he started a programme of daily exercise, which he maintained for most of his life. When Botvinnik finished the school curriculum, he was below the minimum age for the entrance examinations for higher education. While waiting, he qualified for his first USSR Championship final stage in 1927 as

1309-446: A clinching draw in a clearly favourable position in the final game. In the semifinal, held at Evian , France, Korchnoi won against GM Lev Polugaevsky , with a score of (+5−1=7). The final, in which he faced Spassky at Belgrade , began with five wins and five draws for Korchnoi, after which he lost four consecutive games. The match was noteworthy for Spassky's scandalous psychological behavior after game 10 where Spassky refused to play at

SECTION 10

#1732858649208

1428-515: A club in the city's Palace of Labour. To test the strength of Soviet chess masters, Krylenko organized the Moscow 1925 chess tournament . On a rest day during the event, world champion José Raúl Capablanca gave a simultaneous exhibition in Leningrad . Botvinnik was selected as one of his opponents, and won his game. In 1926, he reached the final stage of the Leningrad championship. Later that year, he

1547-589: A daughter named Olya, was born in Perm in April 1942. In the evenings, Botvinnik wrote a book in which he annotated all the games of the "Absolute Championship of the USSR", in order to maintain his analytic skills in readiness for a match with Alekhine. His work included wood-cutting for fuel, which left him with insufficient energy for chess analysis. Botvinnik obtained from Molotov an order that he should be given three days off normal work in order to study chess. In 1943, after

1666-676: A double round-robin event featuring the top five Soviet players and the five strongest non-Soviet players available. Despite politicking over the Soviet choices, both Krylenko and the Central Committee of the Komsomol quickly authorised the tournament. This was played in Moscow in June 1936, and Botvinnik finished second, one point behind Capablanca and 2½ ahead of Flohr. However, he took consolation from

1785-620: A drawn training match of six games in 1971. 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

1904-462: A labour camp, and served the full sentence. After his release in 1982, Korchnoi's wife and son were allowed to leave the USSR. Korchnoi divorced his wife soon after. At the time he was living with a Soviet émigrée whom he would later marry. Korchnoi still had a vital part to play in the next (1984) Candidates' cycle, although he never reached the highest pinnacle again. In the first match, he defeated GM Lajos Portisch by 6–3 at Bad Kissingen 1983. In

2023-564: A large amount of sponsorship money to save the troubled matches, Korchnoi agreed to play Kasparov in London, which at the same time also hosted the Smyslov vs. Ribli match. This was a gracious gesture by Korchnoi, since technically he had already won by default. After a good start, winning the first game, Korchnoi was beaten by a score of 7–4, with Kasparov, who was 32 years younger, proving that his all-round game and youthful stamina were too strong. After

2142-549: A local chess official, he was admitted in 1928 to Leningrad University's Mathematics Department. In January 1929, Botvinnik played for Leningrad in the student team chess championship against Moscow. Leningrad won and the team manager, who was also deputy chairman of the Proletstud , secured Botvinnik a transfer to the Polytechnic's Electromechanical Department, where he was one of only four students who entered straight from school. As

2261-403: A losing champion the automatic right to a rematch. He remained involved with competitive chess, appearing in several highly rated tournaments and continuing to produce memorable games. Botvinnik retired from competitive play in 1970, aged 59, preferring instead to occupy himself with the development of computer chess programs and to assist with the training of younger Soviet players, earning him

2380-462: A match with Samuel Reshevsky in order to strengthen his claim for a title match with Alekhine, but this received no political support. In December 1943, he won the Moscow Championship, ahead of Smyslov. At the same time, opposition to his plan for a match with Alekhine re-surfaced, on the grounds that Alekhine was a political enemy and the only proper course was to demand that he be stripped of

2499-541: A medal for the only time at an Olympiad. His final Olympiad was Tel Aviv 1964 , where he won the bronze with 9/12, playing board 2 as he had lost his title to Petrosian. Overall, in six Olympiads, he scored 54½/73 for an outstanding 74.6 percent. Botvinnik also played twice for the USSR in the European Team Championship. At Oberhausen 1961, he scored 6/9 for the gold medal on board one. But at Hamburg 1965, he struggled on board two with only 3½/8. Both times

SECTION 20

#1732858649208

2618-570: A member of the Petrograd Chess Assembly – to which its president turned a blind eye. Botvinnik won his first two tournaments organized by the Assembly. Shortly afterwards, Nikolai Krylenko , a devoted chess player and leading member of the Soviet legal system who later organized Joseph Stalin 's show trials , began building a huge nationwide chess organization, and the Assembly was replaced by

2737-438: A quadruple round-robin . Botvinnik's preparation with his second, Viacheslav Ragozin , included training matches in noisy, smoky rooms and he slept in the playing room, without opening the window. He won the tournament, 2½ points ahead of Keres and three ahead of Smyslov; moreover, with plus scores in the "mini-matches" against all his rivals. In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union . Botvinnik's wife Gayane,

2856-517: A reconciliation with the Soviet authorities, so that he could again visit his homeland. The match, including funding, was authorised at the highest Soviet political level in January 1939; however, a letter of confirmation was only sent two months later – in Botvinnik's opinion, because of opposition by his Soviet rivals, especially those who had become prominent before the Russian Revolution – and

2975-524: A result, he had to do a whole year's work in five months, and failed one of the examinations. Early in the same year he placed joint third in the semi-final stage of the USSR Championship, and thus failed to reach the final stage. His early progress was fairly rapid, mostly under the training of Soviet Master and coach Abram Model , in Leningrad ; Model taught Botvinnik the Winawer Variation of

3094-452: 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. 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

3213-516: A shared 3rd–4th place. Korchnoi improved on the previous year's showing with his shared 2nd–3rd place in URS-ch21 at Kyiv 1954, on 13/19, as GM Yuri Averbakh won. 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. FIDE awarded him the title of International Master in 1954. He won

3332-411: 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

3451-499: A short, apparently secret, training match at Tallinn 1975 with Korchnoi, who won (+1=1). Korchnoi was then allowed to play the Soviet Team Championship and an international tournament in Moscow later in 1975. The ban against Korchnoi competing outside the USSR was lifted when he accompanied fellow veteran GMs Mark Taimanov and Bronstein to London to play a Scheveningen-style event (where each team member competes against only

3570-411: A strong international opponent. In spite of this attempt to dissuade him, Krylenko insisted on staging the match, saying that "We have to know our real strength." Botvinnik used what he regarded as the first version of his method of preparing for a contest, but fell two games behind by the end of the first six, played in Moscow. However, aided by his old friend Ragozin and coach Abram Model, he leveled

3689-399: A symbol of Communist superiority, and hence the Soviet chess world was extremely politicized. As Botvinnik was the first world-class player produced by the Soviet Union, everything he said or did (or did not say or do) had political repercussions, and there were rumors that Soviet opponents were given hints that they should not beat him. David Bronstein wrote that Boris Verlinsky had won

Viktor Korchnoi - Misplaced Pages Continue

3808-537: A tournament for the title of "Absolute Champion of the USSR", whose official aim was to identify a Soviet challenger for Alekhine's title. The contestants were the top six finishers in the Soviet Championship – Bondarevsky, Lilienthal, Paul Keres (whose home country, Estonia, had recently been annexed by the Soviet Union), future World Champion Vasily Smyslov , Isaac Boleslavsky and Botvinnik – who were to play

3927-600: A two-year lay-off from competitive chess, Botvinnik won a tournament in Sverdlovsk , scoring 1½  out of 2 against each of his seven competitors – who included Smyslov, Vladimir Makogonov , Boleslavsky, and Ragozin. Chessbase regards this as one of the fifty strongest tournaments between 1851 and 1986. Shortly afterwards, Botvinnik was urged to return to Moscow by the People's Commissar for Power Stations, an admirer and subsequent good friend. On his return, Botvinnik suggested

4046-509: 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 . Then, he played

4165-568: The French Defence , which was then regarded as inferior for Black, but Botvinnik analysed it more deeply and played this variation with great success. Botvinnik won the Leningrad Masters' tournament in 1930 with a score of 6½/8, following this up the next year by winning the championship of Leningrad by 2½ points over former Soviet champion Peter Romanovsky . In 1935, Botvinnik married Gayane Davidovna Ananova, of Armenian descent, who

4284-453: 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

4403-535: The Russian Empire were restricted at the time. As a result, Botvinnik grew up in Saint Petersburg's Nevsky Prospect . His father forbade speaking Yiddish at home, and Mikhail and his older brother Isaak "Issy" attended Soviet schools. Botvinnik later recounted, "I was asked once, "What do you consider yourself to be from the point of view of nationality?" My reply was, "Yes, my position is 'complicated'. I am

4522-604: The siege of Leningrad in 1941, and later lived with him in Switzerland). He 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 , 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

4641-423: The 1929 Soviet Championship and was granted the first Soviet Grandmaster title for this achievement, yet he was later stripped of it, when it was thought more politically correct to make Botvinnik the first official Soviet GM (as distinct from the then-nonexistent FIDE grandmaster title). Botvinnik wrote that before the last round of the 1935 Moscow tournament, Soviet Commissar of Justice Nikolai Krylenko , who

4760-493: The 1940 USSR Championship, but faded badly in the later stages, eventually sharing fifth place. He attributed this to the unaccustomed difficulty of concentrating in a party-like atmosphere filled with noise and tobacco smoke. Botvinnik wrote to a friendly official, commenting that the champion was to be the winner of a match between Igor Bondarevsky and Andor Lilienthal , who had tied for first place, but had no achievements in international competition. The official's efforts led to

4879-599: 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. After his victory at Budapest 1961 ( Géza Maróczy Memorial) with 11½/15 ahead of GMs David Bronstein and Miroslav Filip , each with 9½, Korchnoi

Viktor Korchnoi - Misplaced Pages Continue

4998-595: The 1951 Soviet Championship, and tied for third in the 1952 Géza Maróczy Memorial tournament in Budapest ; and he had also performed poorly in Soviet training contests. However, he lost only five of over thirty games in the two tournaments; three of the four who finished ahead of him in the 1951 championship were future world champions Smyslov and Petrosian and a leading world championship contender (and winner in both tournaments) Paul Keres; and he finished ahead of Petrosian and even with Smyslov in 1952. Botvinnik did not play in

5117-502: The 1952 Soviet team members in his book Botvinnik's Best Games 1947–1970 , writing "these games had a definite significance for me". In 1956, he tied for first place with Smyslov in the 1956 Alexander Alekhine Memorial in Moscow, despite a last-round loss to Keres. Botvinnik was selected for the Soviet Olympiad team from 1954 to 1964 inclusively, and helped his team to gold medal finishes each of those six times. At Amsterdam 1954 he

5236-540: 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. 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

5355-475: The 1974 Candidates' matches, Korchnoi first defeated the young Brazilian star GM Henrique Costa Mecking (who had won the other Interzonal in Petrópolis ), by (+3−1=9) at Augusta , Georgia , in what he later described in his autobiography as a tough match. Korchnoi next played Petrosian again, at Odesa . The two were not on friendly terms, and it was even rumored that the two resorted to kicking each other under

5474-461: The 1980s, Botvinnik proposed a computer program to manage the Soviet economy. However, his proposals did not receive significant attention from the Soviet government. During the last few years of his life, Botvinnik personally financed his economic computer project that he hoped would be used to manage the Russian economy. He kept actively working on the program until his death and financing the work from

5593-560: 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 at Montpellier . In the 1988–90 cycle, he made the final 16 again, but was eliminated in the first round of Candidates' matches, held at Saint John, New Brunswick , Canada , losing to Iceland 's GM Johann Hjartarson in extra games, by 4½ to 3½. Finally, in

5712-598: The 1991–93 cycle, he defeated GM Gyula Sax of Hungary in the first round, by 5½ to 4½ at Wijk aan Zee . Then, at Brussels , he lost to GM Jan Timman of the Netherlands by 4½ to 2½, ending his run at the world championship, which stretched from 1962 to 1991. He continued to play in Europe and around the world to an advanced age, living in his adopted country of Switzerland. He frequently represented their Olympiad team on top board, beginning in 1978, even though his Elo rating

5831-488: The 2006 World Senior Chess Championship and became the oldest person ever to be ranked among the world's top 100 players. Korchnoi was born on 23 March 1931 in Leningrad , USSR , to a Jewish mother and a Polish-Catholic father. 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),

5950-530: 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,

6069-587: 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. 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

SECTION 50

#1732858649208

6188-639: The Netherlands in 1976, and resided in Switzerland from 1978, becoming a Swiss citizen. Korchnoi played four matches, three of which were official, against GM Anatoly Karpov . In 1974, Korchnoi lost the Candidates Tournament final to Karpov. Karpov was declared World Champion in 1975 when GM Bobby Fischer declined to defend his title. Korchnoi then won two consecutive Candidates cycles to qualify for World Chess Championship matches with Karpov in 1978 and 1981 but lost both. The two players also played

6307-604: The Soviet Union won the team gold medals. Botvinnik played one of the final events of his career at the Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World match in Belgrade 1970, scoring 2½/4 against Milan Matulović , as the USSR narrowly triumphed. After losing the world title for the final time, to Tigran Petrosian in Moscow in 1963, Botvinnik withdrew from the following World Championship cycle after FIDE declined, at its annual congress in 1965, to grant

6426-499: The Soviet team that won the 1952 Chess Olympiad in Helsinki: the players voted for the line-up and placed Botvinnik on second board, with Keres on top board; Botvinnik protested and refused to play. Keres' playing record from 1950 to early 1952 had been outstanding. Botvinnik won the 1952 Soviet Championship (joint first with Mark Taimanov in the tournament, won the play-off match). He included several wins from that tournament over

6545-440: The USSR's top player. Bronstein claimed that at the end of the 1946 Groningen tournament, a few months after the death of reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine , Botvinnik personally invited Samuel Reshevsky , Reuben Fine , Max Euwe , Vasily Smyslov , and Paul Keres to join him in a tournament to decide the new world champion, but other evidence suggests that FIDE (the " governing body " of chess), had already proposed

6664-457: The USSR. His complete Soviet international team play results follow: 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

6783-477: The World Chess Championship system after World War II and becoming a leading member of the coaching system that enabled the Soviet Union to dominate top-class chess during that time. His pupils include World Champions Anatoly Karpov , Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik . He is often described as the patriarch of the Soviet chess school and is revered for his analytical approach to chess. Botvinnik

6902-460: 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 bilberry yogurt during a game without any request for one by Karpov, the Korchnoi team protested, claiming it could be some kind of code (such as whether Korchnoi was dead equal or slightly advantageous). They later said this

7021-412: 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 alleged that when acting as his second in this match, Raymond Keene broke his contract by writing a book about the match (which appeared three days after

7140-521: The chess world with a notable win (in Gibraltar ) with black against the 18-year-old Fabiano Caruana , who was rated above 2700 and 61 years Korchnoi's junior. Korchnoi became the oldest player ever to win a national championship, when he won the 2009 Swiss championship at age 78. He won the national title again a few months after his 80th birthday in July 2011 after a playoff game with Joseph Gallagher . Till

7259-506: 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 outside the USSR. Even when Korchnoi was invited by GM Paul Keres and IM Iivo Nei to participate in a 1975 International Tournament in the Estonian SSR , Korchnoi was not allowed to play, and both Keres and Nei were reprimanded. Keres did play

SECTION 60

#1732858649208

7378-406: The details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 387633205 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:37:29 GMT Mikhail Botvinnik Botvinnik was the first world-class player to develop within the Soviet Union. He also played a major role in the organization of chess , making a significant contribution to the design of

7497-530: The dissertation as "short and good", and the first work in its field. As a result of his efforts, he missed the 1937 Soviet championship, won by Grigory Levenfish , who was then nearly fifty. Later in 1937, Botvinnik drew a match of thirteen games against Levenfish. Botvinnik challenged Levenfish, writing that Krylenko, angered by Botvinnik's absence from the tournament, ordered the match. Botvinnik won further Soviet Championship titles in 1939, 1944, 1945, and 1952, bringing his total to six. In 1945, he dominated

7616-765: The fact the Soviet Union's best had held their own against top-class competition. In early winter, 1936, Botvinnik was invited to play in a tournament at Nottingham , England. Krylenko authorised his participation and, to help Botvinnik play at his best, allowed Botvinnik's wife to accompany him – a privilege rarely extended to chess players at any time in Soviet history. Taking Lasker's advice, Botvinnik arrived ten days before play started. Although his Soviet rivals forecast disaster for him, he scored an undefeated shared first place (+6=8) with Capablanca, ½ point ahead of current World Champion Max Euwe and rising American stars Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky , and 1 point ahead of ex-champion Alexander Alekhine . This

7735-570: The final match, at Meran , Italy, from December 1980 to January 1981, Korchnoi was leading West German GM Robert Hübner by 4½ to 3½, with two more possible regulation games to come, when Hübner withdrew from the match. This forfeit advanced Korchnoi to a rematch for the title against Karpov. This final match was also held in Meran , Italy . In what was dubbed the "Massacre in Meran", Karpov defeated Korchnoi by six wins to two, with ten draws. The headlines of

7854-467: 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

7973-434: The first round began was a serious mistake and that he should have allowed ten days for acclimatization. Botvinnik wrote that he did not make this mistake again. Botvinnik placed first equal with Flohr, ½ point ahead of Lasker and one point ahead of José Raúl Capablanca , in Moscow's second International Tournament , held in 1935. After consulting Capablanca and Lasker, Krylenko proposed to award Botvinnik

8092-458: The game board, instead analyzing the game from a demonstration board while seated in a box located behind Korchnoi. Ultimately, Korchnoi steeled himself and finally secured victory in the match by (+7−4=7) to emerge as the challenger to Karpov, having defeated three world-class Soviet contenders. The World Championship match of 1978 was held in Baguio , Philippines . There was enormous controversy off

8211-595: The last few rounds, and Botvinnik had a narrow escape against Euwe, who he acknowledged had always been a difficult opponent for him. This was Botvinnik's first outright victory in a tournament outside the Soviet Union. Botvinnik also won the very strong Mikhail Chigorin Memorial tournament held at Moscow 1947. Botvinnik strongly influenced the design of the system which would be used for World Championship competition from 1948 to 1963. Viktor Baturinsky wrote: "Now came Botvinnik's turn to defend his title in accordance with

8330-419: The match finished) having specifically signed an agreement "not to write, compile or help to write or compile any book during the course of the match". Korchnoi commented: "Mr Keene betrayed me. He violated the contract. It was clear that while Mr Keene was writing one book and then another, Mr Stean was doing his work for him." Attempts to defend Keene were rebutted by Michael Stean's mother, who stated that she

8449-612: The match in the USSR. Botvinnik opened negotiations with the British Chess Federation to host the match in England, but these were cut short by Alekhine's death in 1946. When the Second World War ended, Botvinnik won the first high-level post-war tournament, at Groningen in 1946 , with 14½ points from nineteen games, ½ point ahead of former World Champion Max Euwe and two ahead of Smyslov. He and Euwe both struggled in

8568-448: The match to determine who would challenge reigning world champion Bobby Fischer in 1975. In the run-up to the match, Korchnoi 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

8687-448: The money he made for the lectures and seminars he attended, despite prominent health problems. Botvinnik died of pancreatic cancer in May 1995. According to his daughter, Botvinnik remained active until the last few months of his life, and continued to go to work until March 1995 despite blindness in one of his eyes (and extremely poor vision in the other). The Soviet Union regarded chess as

8806-415: The new qualifying system which he himself had outlined in 1946." (This statement referred to Botvinnik's 1951 title defence.) On the basis of his strong results during and just after World War II, Botvinnik was one of five players to contest the 1948 World Chess Championship , which was held at The Hague and Moscow. He won the 1948 tournament convincingly—with a score of 14/20, three points clear—becoming

8925-623: The nickname of "Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School" (see below). Botvinnik's autobiography, K Dostizheniyu Tseli , was published in Russian in 1978, and in English translation as Achieving the Aim ( ISBN   0-08-024120-4 ) in 1981. A staunch Communist, he was noticeably shaken by the collapse of the Soviet Union and lost some of his standing in Russian chess during the Boris Yeltsin era. In

9044-452: The older Soviet masters and a member of the Soviet embassy in Prague , had arranged a match between Botvinnik and Salo Flohr , a Czech grandmaster who was then regarded as one of the most credible contenders for Alexander Alekhine 's World Chess Championship title. The highest-level chess officials in the Soviet Union opposed this on the grounds that Botvinnik stood little chance against such

9163-460: The other team's players) against three young British masters: Jonathan Mestel , Michael Stean and David S. Goodman . Korchnoi then played the international tournament at Hastings, 1975–76. 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 forfeited by Fischer. Questions arose about how Karpov had qualified to be

9282-482: The outbreak of World War II prevented a World Championship match. In spring 1939, Botvinnik won the USSR Championship, and his book on the tournament described the approach to preparation which he had been developing since 1933. One striking feature of this was emphasis on opening preparation in order to gain a permanent positional advantage in the middlegame , rather than seeking immediate tactical surprises that could only be used once. Botvinnik took an early lead in

9401-473: The police station to defect, having smuggled his chess library out of the USSR in two stages, on this trip as well as the previous year's trip to England. As a result, after the chess tournament in Amsterdam, Korchnoi became the first strong Soviet grandmaster to defect from the Soviet Union. Korchnoi left his wife and son behind. The defection resulted in a turbulent period of excellent tournament results, losses in

9520-596: The pre- Revolution masters were absent. In late summer 1931, he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering , after completing a practical assignment on temporary transmission lines at the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station . He stayed on at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute to study for a Candidate of Sciences degree. In 1933, Botvinnik repeated his Soviet Championship win, in his home city of Leningrad, with 14/19, describing

9639-431: The results as evidence that Krylenko 's plan to develop a new generation of Soviet masters had borne fruit. He and other young masters successfully requested the support of a senior Leningrad Communist Party official in arranging contests involving both Soviet and foreign players, as there had been none since the Moscow 1925 chess tournament . Soon afterwards, Botvinnik was informed that Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky , one of

9758-442: The rules, and he was not allowed a rematch. The rematch rule had been nicknamed the "Botvinnik rule" because he twice benefited from it. Though ranking as formal World Champion, Botvinnik had a relatively poor playing record in the early 1950s: he played no formal competitive games after winning the 1948 match tournament until he defended his title, then struggled to draw his 1951 championship match with Bronstein, placed only fifth in

9877-469: The score in Leningrad and the match was drawn. When describing the post-match party, Botvinnik wrote that at the time he danced the foxtrot and Charleston to a professional standard. In his first tournament outside the USSR, the Hastings 1934–35, Botvinnik achieved only a tie for 5th–6th places, with 5/9. He wrote that, in London after the tournament, Emanuel Lasker said his arrival only two hours before

9996-414: 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. Korchnoi, as the losing finalist, was exempt from qualifying for

10115-525: The second round, he was to play the young Soviet GM Garry Kasparov , who at the time was battling against a Soviet Chess Federation that was clearly in favour of Anatoly Karpov. 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, in a place closed to Soviet diplomats at

10234-429: The semifinal versus GM Tigran Petrosian by (−1=9), also at Moscow, with the ninth game the only decisive result. 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. In the 1975 World Championship cycle Korchnoi and Karpov, the newest star of Soviet chess, tied for first in the 1973 Leningrad Interzonal . In

10353-419: The situation". This wound up being the 1941 Absolute Championship of the USSR, which featured the top six finishers from the 1940 event, playing each other four times. After a personal appeal to the defence minister, Vyacheslav Molotov , Botvinnik was exempted from war work for three days a week in order to concentrate on chess preparations. He won this tournament convincingly, and thus reclaimed his position as

10472-478: The sixth World Champion. While he was on vacation in Riga after the tournament, an eleven-year-old boy called Mikhail Tal paid a visit, hoping to play a game against the new champion. Tal was met by Botvinnik's wife, who said the champion was asleep, and that she had made him take a rest from chess. In 1950, Botvinnik was one of the inaugural recipients of the international grandmaster title from FIDE. Botvinnik held

10591-415: 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 face Karpov in the Candidates' Final,

10710-635: The time, and because of the soon-to-be-announced Soviet decision to boycott the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles). Kasparov was not allowed to fly there to play the match. This defaulted the match to Korchnoi. Another Soviet contender, former Champion GM Vassily Smyslov , was also at first forfeited to Hungarian GM Zoltan Ribli , with their match set to take place in the United Arab Emirates . However, upon intervention by prominent British chess organizer GM Raymond Keene, who quickly stepped up to raise

10829-482: The title Grandmaster , but Botvinnik objected that "titles were not the point." However, he accepted a free car and a 67% increase in his postgraduate study grant , both provided by the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry . He later reported to Krylenko that the 1935 tournament made it difficult to judge the strength of the top Soviet players, as it included a mixture of top-class and weaker players. Botvinnik advocated

10948-480: The title. In 1957, he lost to Smyslov by 9½–12½ in Moscow, but the rules then in force allowed him a rematch without having to go through the Candidates' Tournament , and in 1958 he won the rematch in Moscow; Smyslov said his health was poor during the return match. In 1960, Botvinnik was convincingly beaten 8½–12½ at Moscow by Tal, now 23 years old, but again exercised his right to a rematch in 1961, and won by 13–8 in Moscow. Commentators agreed that Tal's play

11067-525: The title. The dispute ended in Botvinnik's favor, and in the dismissal of a senior chess official, one of those to have opposed Botvinnik's plan, who was also a KGB colonel. After Botvinnik won the 1944 and 1945 Soviet championships, most top Soviet players supported his desire for a World Championship match with Alekhine. However, the allegations that Alekhine had written anti-Semitic articles while in Nazi-occupied France made it difficult to host

11186-411: The tournament again largely centered on the political issues. Korchnoi's wife and son had been denied emigration and were still in the Soviet Union. In 1980, his son had been promised release 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, he was arrested for evading army service, sentenced to two and a half years in

11305-502: The tournament, scoring 15/17; however, in 1952 he tied with Mark Taimanov and won the play-off match. In 1938, the world's top eight players met in the Netherlands to compete in the AVRO tournament , whose winner was supposed to get a title match with the World Champion, Alexander Alekhine . Botvinnik placed third, behind Paul Keres and Reuben Fine . According to Botvinnik, Alekhine

11424-527: The twelfth world champion in April 1975, when Fischer refused to defend his title because of disputed match conditions. In the lead-up to the Candidates' Final in 1974, as part of a campaign to promote Karpov over Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian made a public statement in the press against Korchnoi, with the Soviet federation, wishing to develop younger players, taking the stance that the generation (including Korchnoi) which had been defeated by Bobby Fischer could no longer hope to compete successfully against him. At

11543-546: 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 exhibitions . He played a short match against GM Jan Timman – the strongest active non-Soviet player at that time – and comprehensively defeated him. He moved to West Germany for a short period, and then eventually settled in Switzerland by 1978, becoming

11662-560: The very end, Korchoi remained a fierce competitor. In late December 2012, it was reported that Korchnoi was recovering from a stroke and was unlikely to play competitive chess again. He was scheduled to play in the 37th Zurich Christmas Open tournament in December 2013, but withdrew for health reasons. Chess grandmaster Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

11781-407: The very strong 1940 Soviet Championship, finishing in a tie for fifth/sixth places, with 11½/19, two full points behind Igor Bondarevsky and Andor Lilienthal . With World War II under way by this time, and the strong possibility of little or no chess practice for some time in the future, Botvinnik seems to have prevailed upon the Soviet chess leadership to hold another tournament "in order to clarify

11900-431: The world title, with two brief interruptions, for the next fifteen years, during which he played seven world championship matches. In 1951, he drew with David Bronstein over 24 games in Moscow, +5−5=14, keeping the world title, but it was a struggle for Botvinnik, who won the second-last game and drew the last in order to tie the match. In 1954, he drew with Vasily Smyslov over 24 games in Moscow, +7−7=10, again retaining

12019-444: The youngest player ever at that time, tied for fifth and sixth places and gained the title of master. He wanted to study Electrical Technology at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute and passed the entrance examination; however, there was a persistent excess of applications for this course and the Proletstud , which controlled admissions, had a policy of admitting only children of engineers and industrial workers. After an appeal by

12138-532: Was also in charge of Soviet chess, proposed that Ilya Rabinovich should deliberately lose to Botvinnik, to ensure that Botvinnik took first place. Botvinnik refused, saying "... then I will myself put a piece en prise and resign". The game was drawn, and Botvinnik shared first place with Salo Flohr . Botvinnik sent an effusive telegram of thanks to Joseph Stalin after his victory at the great tournament in Nottingham in 1936. Botvinnik played relatively poorly in

12257-414: Was an engineer , who worked at a candy factory. 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, paternal grandmother and later his adoptive mother Roza Abramovna Fridman (who took responsibility for his upbringing when his father was killed during

12376-526: Was born on August 17, 1911, in what was then Kuokkala , Vyborg Governorate , Grand Duchy of Finland , now the district of Repino in Saint Petersburg . His parents were Russian Jews ; his father, Moisei Botvinnik (1878–1931), was a dental technician and his mother, Shifra (Serafima) Rabinovich (1876–1952), a dentist, which allowed the family to live outside the Pale of Settlement , to which most Jews in

12495-479: Was close, but Korchnoi won by (+2−1=7), and moved on to face GM Boris Spassky in the Candidates' final. Spassky prevailed at Kyiv 1968, winning (+4−1=5). 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

12614-436: 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, IM (later GM) Raymond Keene and IM William Hartston . Korchnoi trailed 3–0 late in the match, but won games 19 and 21 to make it very close right to the end. Karpov eventually won this battle, played in late 1974 in Moscow, by a 12½–11½ score. By default, Karpov became

12733-564: Was forced to "throw" games to allow Botvinnik to win the Championship. Chess historian Taylor Kingston investigated all the available evidence and arguments, and concluded that: Soviet chess officials gave Keres strong hints that he should not hinder Botvinnik's attempt to win the World Championship; Botvinnik only discovered this about half-way through the tournament and protested so strongly that he angered Soviet officials; Keres probably did not deliberately lose games to Botvinnik or anyone else in

12852-451: Was in a position to know what was in Keene's contract since she herself had typed it. Keene, she claimed, had signed this despite having already negotiated a contract with Batsford to write a book about the match. She described "a premeditated and deliberate plan to deceive" and noted that Keene's conduct had come under suspicion during the match. As the losing world title match finalist, Korchnoi

12971-434: 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

13090-462: Was most interested in playing an opponent who could raise the funds. After consulting the nearest available Soviet officials, Botvinnik discreetly challenged Alekhine, who promptly accepted, subject to conditions that would enable him to acclimatize in Russia and get some high-quality competitive practice a few months before the match. In Botvinnik's opinion, Alekhine was partly motivated by the desire for

13209-443: Was on board one and won the gold medal with 8½/11. Then at home for Moscow 1956, he was again board one, and scored 9½/13 for the bronze medal. For Munich 1958 , he scored 9/12 for the silver medal on board one. At Leipzig 1960 , he played board two behind Mikhail Tal, having lost his title to Tal earlier that year, but he won the board two gold medal with 10½/13. He was back on board one for Varna 1962 , scored 8/12, but failed to win

13328-417: 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 Kyiv 1964–65 with 15/19. His final title was at Riga 1970, for URS-ch38, with 16/21. He first qualified as a candidate from the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal , scoring 14/22 for

13447-463: Was seeded into the next cycle's final eight players. In his first match, Korchnoi once more defeated Petrosian in March 1980 at Velden am Wörthersee , Austria , by 5½ to 3½. This victory earned him a rematch with Polugaevsky, whom he had defeated in the previous cycle. At Buenos Aires during July and August 1980, Korchnoi again triumphed by 7½ to 6½; the match was tied following the regulation ten games. In

13566-492: Was selected for Leningrad's team in a match against Stockholm , held in Sweden, and scored +1=1 against the future grandmaster Gösta Stoltz . On his return, he entertained his schoolmates with a vivid account of the rough sea journey back to Russia. Botvinnik was commissioned to annotate two games from the match, and the fact that his analyses were to be published made him aware of the need for objectivity. In December 1926, he became

13685-401: Was sometimes considerably below that of compatriot Vadim Milov , who appeared not to make himself available for selection. From 2001 onwards, 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 (along with several other authors) of Soviet politics applying to chess; he also wrote

13804-521: Was taught chess by a school friend of his older brother, using a home-made set, and instantly fell in love with the game. He finished in mid-table in the school championship, sought advice from another of his brother's friends, and concluded that for him it was better to think out "concrete concepts" and then derive general principles from these – and went on to beat his brother's friend quite easily. In winter 1924, Botvinnik won his school's championship, and exaggerated his age by three years in order to become

13923-524: Was the daughter of his algebra and geometry teacher. She was a student at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in Leningrad and, later, a ballerina in the Bolshoi Theatre . They had one daughter, named Olga, who was born in 1942. In 1931, at the age of 20, Botvinnik won his first Soviet Championship in Moscow, scoring 13½ out of 17. He commented that the field was not very strong, as some of

14042-469: Was the first tournament victory by a Soviet master outside his own country. When the result reached Russia, Krylenko drafted a letter to be sent in Botvinnik's name to Stalin. On returning to Russia, Botvinnik discovered he had been awarded the "Mark of Honour". Three weeks later, Botvinnik began work on his dissertation for the Candidate's degree, obtaining this in June 1937, after his supervisor described

14161-458: Was weaker in the rematch, probably due to his health, but also that Botvinnik's play was better than in the 1960 match, largely due to thorough preparation. Botvinnik changed his style in the rematch, avoiding the tactical complications in which Tal excelled and aiming for closed positions and endgames, where Tal's technique was not outstanding. Finally, in 1963, he lost the title to Tigran Petrosian , by 9½–12½ in Moscow. FIDE had by then altered

#207792