Viktor Korchnoi Wins the Botvinnik Senior 2011
One of the events of the Botvinnik Memorial held recently is a senior tournament. There were ten players in a round robin. Viktor Korchnoi came in clear first with 5 wins and 4 draws. The particpants are listed with their ratings, scores, and birth years: 1. Viktor Korchnoi (2553) 7 1931, 2.Evgeni Vasiukov (2455) 6 1933, 3. Lajos Portisch (2523) 5 1937, 4. Borislav Ivkov (2416) 4.5 1933, 5. Igor Zaitsev (2408) 4.5 1938, 6. Alexander Nikitin (2430) 4 1935, 7. Wolfgang Uhlmann (2379) 4 1935, 8. Oleg Chernikov (2402) 4 1936, 9. Anatoly A. Bykhovsky (2354) 3.5 1934, 10. Mark Taimanov (2386) 2.5 1926.
I have selected Korchnoi’s game with Bykhovsky to examine. Anatoly Avraamovich Bykhovsky won the Moscow Championship in 1963. He came in places 10-12 in the USSR Championship in 1965, when he was the only player not considered a professional. He was tied with Korchnoi and Simagin. Bykhovsky’s profession was secret space research. However, from 1967 to 1992, he was the trainer for Soviet juniors. During that time, he became an IM (1982). He has also written chess literature.
The game is a Scotch Four Knights. There are game references and notes. The ending concludes with a resignation. For readers needing to understand why a player resigned there is an explanation of why the game was lost. One of the most instructive things a reader can do is to try to think over the position before looking at the notes. This is true during the game as well as at the end.
