By And About Viktor Kortschnoi - A Review

Viktor Korchnoi's legacy with new shades can be addictive! Viktor Kortschnoi on the Monday after the primary weekend in February 2007 in Rüdersdorf near Berlin. The day earlier than he had played for the small village close to Berlin in the Second Bundesliga on the primary board and had given GM Borki Predojevic a "lesson" in the French Defence. The Bosnian listened rather reverently in the post-mortem analysis that was customary in those days. The three youngsters have been more relaxed the next day in an analysis session with half a century of age difference between them, as a result of the chess legend needed madness and any suggestion was welcome. He was additionally not afraid - as I reported for Chess Magazine sixty four at the time - to flaunt a defeat within the French and praise his opponent's ideas. Everything was put to the take a look at, persistently and ruthlessly. It became a time-consuming session and after two and a half hours his associate Petra Leeuwerik nearly needed to drag him away so that the 76-year-previous might take a nap earlier than a simultaneous within the evening.



Another trait of the two-time World Championship runner-up got here to the fore - profitable was paramount, a draw with a celebrity bonus as a reward was out of the query - and this was also recognised by the nicely-identified film producer Atze Brauner, who sat down at the board on the age of almost 90 and soon knocked over the king. Kortschnoi died 9 years later, and so we can now pay tribute to a career that spanned an unimaginable seven a long time, from the battle years in starving Leningrad to a comfortable retirement in the tranquil city of Wohlen. Only lately has his well being kept him more at home in Switzerland, in any other case it has been a restless activity for the royal game, which since the flip of the century has been increasingly caught up in the frenzy of the internet age, the youth craze and the motoring world.



In this climate one hardly ever meets such a hero, too much of right now's chess scene is streamlined to the dictates of AI information and few danger stubbornness in chess. Viktor Kortschnoi in his ingredient: Thought ping-pong within the put up-mortem and the master hits back hard. IM Steve Berger, ChessBase writer and well-identified Twitch streamer, was an involved spectator in 2007 in Fredersdorf close to Berlin on the sidelines of the Second Bundesliga matcch between Rüdersdorf and SK Zehlendorf. Much has already been revealed about his games and life story, and ChessBase has now introduced out new insights and views with two releases that you should purchase as conventional DVDs or mental energy support obtain as a Masterclass. Is there the rest of added worth to contribute? The reply in both circumstances was "completely"; even if after all they are only particular person constructing blocks of a multi-faceted chess motion - however these are fascinating due to their authenticity and, in the case of Kortschnoi in front of the digital camera, with an almost forgotten ability to hurl chess thoughts unpolished onto the board without any engine help - or for mental energy support him fairly laboriously typing them into the database within the ChessBase studio.