A Living Chess Legend

Victor Korchnoi (1931-) from Leningrad, learns to play chess at the tender age of seven. He competes against experienced Masters for the first time during the Leningrad Championship of 1950, he finish second.

The characteristic features of Korchnoi's playing, his constant striving for the initiative, his tactical inventiveness and his love of unusual, dizzying combinations are clearly evident at the time. He boldly seeks complexities and, as a rule, makes more accurate and far-sighted appraisals of entangled positions than his skilled opponents.

Korchnoi becomes a Candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions (1962, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1991). He is also a four-time USSR Chess Champion (1960, 1962–63, 1964–65, 1970), a five-time European champion, and a six-time member of Soviet teams that wins the Chess Olympiads. He also wins the World Senior Chess Championship in 2006.

In the following game, played in 1954, Korchnoi defeats his formidable Soviet counterpart Yefim Geller. (Notes by Soviet GM Alexander Kotov)