The Legacy of Viktor Korchnoi

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said that Korchnoi "has contributed substantially to the popularisation of our sport and is considered rightly as one of the strongest and charismatic players in the entire history of world chess." One obituary, written by Leonard Barden, called him "the greatest player never to have been world champion".

Korchnoi was comfortable playing with or without the initiative. He could attack, counterattack, play positionally, and was a master of the endgame. He became known as the master of counterattack, and he was the most difficult opponent of Mikhail Tal, an out-and-out attacker. He had a large lifetime plus score against Tal (+13−4=17), and also had plus scores against world champions Petrosian and Spassky. He had equal records against Botvinnik (+1−1=2) and Fischer (+2−2=4). He defeated nine undisputed world champions from Botvinnik through to Garry Kasparov, and Magnus Carlsen.

At times Korchnoi displayed his temper after losing games by swiping all the pieces off the board. More often, however, he displayed genial manners. In the 1983 U.S. Open Chess Championship in Pasadena, California, Korchnoi was paired against GM Larry Christiansen who was late showing up to the game when his "old jalopy" car ran out of gas on the way to the event. Rather than starting Christiansen's clock, Korchnoi waited until Christiansen arrived—a very kind gesture indeed.

Korchnoi never succeeded in becoming world chess champion, but many people consider him the strongest player never to have done so, a distinction also often attributed to Paul Keres. On the other hand, the 10th world champion Boris Spassky argued that Korchnoi did not deserve to be champion, both because he did not play the best moves (sometimes taking 140 moves to win a game that could have been won in 40), and because he did not have any individuality.

One of the variations of the English Opening is called the Korchnoi Variation, a variation for White against the French Defense is called the Korchnoi Gambit and a closed variation of the Sicilian Defense is called the Korchnoi Defense.

Records

Korchnoi defeated nine undisputed world champions (Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen), a record he shares with Paul Keres and Alexander Beliavsky.

He is the only player to have won or drawn—in individual game(s)—against every World Chess Champion, disputed or undisputed, since the world chess championship interregnum of World War II.