+100

his longevity makes me think about Anand's probably next candidate for WC.   next WC ??

too bad mr K. insulted opponents, A real champ' respects ALL the others,as does Naka, and ... Anand the wonderful. you can kill tigers and keep Baby Face Nelson's smile..

Well, for some people, especially those from the old school USSR political correctness is not an option. If a cat is black and covered in mud, one would describe it the way he sees it and feels about it. Something along the lines of "What a disgusting black cat it is!" :) So, when Korchnoi saw somebody play badly, he'd have no problem expressing his feelings about it. Good thing that he hasn't seen our games.

By the way, Korchnoi never considered himself to be a great chess player. In his book, the titile goes to Fischer and Kasparov. So, in a way, he's saying things how he sees them - with zero sugarcoating.

1/2 Виктор Корчной (2000)

2/2 Виктор Корчной (2000)

Happy Birthday Victor Korchnoi!

I always felt his playing strength was only half a step behind Karpov and Kasparov and he has gifted the chess world with many memorable games.

He also was perhaps the strongest player ever at a high age, preserving his rating and results unlike any 70+ year old before him. Until his stroke, he was a true monster of senior chess.

As for his often... undiplomatic behaviour, in his defense it must be said he had to deal with some of the toughest things in life that can possibly happen to a person. First losing basically every relative in Stalingrad, then losing his new family and wife again when he fled the USSR. They used the family to he left behind to put additional pressure on him when he tried to repeat Bobby Fischers achievement of taking on the Soviet chess machine by himself.

All these things must surely have left him with some deep emotional traumas that most of us growing up in todays comperatively safe times would have a hard time dealing with.

So I'm quite willing to excuse most of his more... eccentric behaviour.

http://chess-news.ru/node/21213

my favorite korchnoi photo bomb moment

he's definitely been through a lot

Viktor is known also as a practitioner of yoga. Yoga is the best fitness activity for longevity. How many World Seniors Championship did Viktor win?

Not sure, but I think at least one back in 2006. He became a World Champion after all. :)

He was a smoker who stopped at ...80 i guess. imagine if not smoking, yoga, good health food a nd jogging, smiling instead of insulting, 45, wouldn't he be a westerner ... Anand winning 2016 Tornament facing Drawjaking and shiny Caruana, kamikaze Topalov, undecipherable Aronian? 

just a fictious question of a 64 patzer.. Long life to Mr K3. (Kasparov K1 Karpov K2)

Hey, Frenchbasher, I think you forgot Mr. Kramnik. He puts Korchnoi at #4 in the KKKK list, LOL!

At any rate, Korchnoi is still probably the toughest, most fearsome fighter that there ever was in chess. He kept fighting long after Kasparov retired - both in terms of age and years. Kasparov retired in 2005 while Korchnoi was still going.

Speaking of the history between this two. In 1983, there was the Korchnoi - Kasparov match. It was scheduled to be held in San Francisco but, for some reason, Kasparov wasn't allowed to play there. So Korchnoi won by default. However, he agreed the match to be played anyway and the match took place in London. Korchnoi won the first game with Black pieces but the young Kasparov swept him away decisively with 4 wins, 1 loss, and 6 draws. He then went on to challenge Karpov. After that match Kasparov and Korchnoi remained lifelong buddies, if not friends. Just goes on to show Korchnoi's character. :)

And here's Victor Korchnoi's profile on chessgames.com. Victor had a peak rating of 2695. Impressive even by today's standards, he was #2 during his heyday.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=15866

I think it would be nice if Chess.com had a "Hall of Fame" kind a place to honor the legends of the past. It's good to remember & appreciate people like Korchnoi while they're still with us.

What particularly impressed me about Korchnoi was reading that he still studied the game for 4 hours on a daily basis when he was 80! That's some dedication!

Thanks, but why do you write in this large font?

Cos it makes it easier to read.