In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Lvovich and the family name is Korchnoi.
Viktor Korchnoi
Korchnoi in 1993
Full name
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi Виктор Львович Корчной
Country
Soviet Union (until 1977)
Stateless (1977–1979)
Switzerland (from 1979)[1]
Born
(1931-03-23)23 March 1931 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died
6 June 2016(2016-06-06) (aged 85) Wohlen, Aargau, Switzerland
Title
Grandmaster (1956)
Peak rating
2695 (January 1979)[2]
Peak ranking
No. 2 (January 1976)
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi[3] (Russian: Виктор Львович Корчной, IPA:[vʲiktərlʲvovʲɪtɕkɐrtɕˈnoj]; 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.[4]
Born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (USSR), Korchnoi defected to 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 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 the 2006 World Senior Chess Championship[5] and became the oldest person ever to be ranked among the world's top 100 players.[6]
^"Kortschnoj, Viktor". OlimpBase. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
^Viktor Korchnoi FIDE rating history, 1967–2001 at OlimpBase.org
^Variously romanized as Korchnoy, Kortchnoy, Kortschnoj
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (Russian: Виктор Львович Корчной, IPA: [vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj]; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976)...
1978 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and ViktorKorchnoi in Baguio, Philippines, from July 18 to October 18, 1978. Karpov won...
1981 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and ViktorKorchnoi in Merano, Italy from October 1 to November 19, 1981. Karpov won with...
even occasionally among high-level players. Alexander Beliavsky and ViktorKorchnoi both had to consult the arbiter during tournaments on whether castling...
Keres, Lajos Portisch, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, ViktorKorchnoi, Jan Timman, Anatoly Karpov, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik, Garry...
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. With the further exception of ViktorKorchnoi, who had defected from the USSR in 1976, each challenger was also a...
not included in his opponents' totals. Bent Larsen went on to win, with Korchnoi, Geller, Gligorić, and Portisch taking the next four places. There was...
Pal Benko, Miroslav Filip, Bobby Fischer, Efim Geller, Paul Keres, ViktorKorchnoi, and Mikhail Tal. Petrosian, representing the Soviet Union, won the...
seed GM ViktorKorchnoi (Switzerland) won the 126-player men's section 9.0/11. Competing in his first and sole Seniors' Championship, Korchnoi won his...
consecutive Candidates, the others being Vasily Smyslov, Boris Spassky, ViktorKorchnoi, and Anatoly Karpov. (Of these, only Smyslov and Nepomniachtchi achieved...
in the world in 1977, behind only World Champion Anatoly Karpov and ViktorKorchnoi. He is the first Brazilian to become a grandmaster. Despite winning...
players were Efim Geller (USSR), Miroslav Filip (Czechoslovakia), and ViktorKorchnoi (USSR), in place of former champion Vasily Smyslov (USSR), Svetozar...
a ten-year-old Nigel Short beat ViktorKorchnoi as a participant in a simultaneous exhibition, the only game Korchnoi lost in the event. In March 2021...
five "Experienced" players. Caruana played against Evgeny Bareev, ViktorKorchnoi, Artur Jussupow, Simen Agdestein, and Ljubomir Ljubojević. He scored...
the age of 66. In 2014, GM ViktorKorchnoi (b. 1931) played a two-game match against GM Wolfgang Uhlmann (b. 1935). Korchnoi won both games. The combined...
Portisch vs. Korchnoi, 1970 A famous draw for threefold repetition occurred in the fourth game between Lajos Portisch and ViktorKorchnoi in Belgrade in...
Geller and Paul Keres had prearranged to draw all their games, and that ViktorKorchnoi had been instructed to lose to them. Yuri Averbakh, who was head of...
5 of the World Chess Championship 1978 between Anatoly Karpov and ViktorKorchnoi. With 25...Rac8, Nepomniachtchi unbalanced the position by giving up...
Michael Stean and Jacob Murey, Keene helped ViktorKorchnoi during the 1978 World Chess Championship Karpov–Korchnoi match. In 1981, Keene came to the USSR...
championship contender ViktorKorchnoi sought political asylum in The Netherlands. In a discussion a few days earlier Euwe told Korchnoi, "...of course you...
Teesside 1975, clear first at Moscow 1975 (ahead of Boris Spassky, ViktorKorchnoi, and Petrosian), clear first at Las Palmas 1976, equal first with Gennadi...
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