Friday June 5, 2009
For the love of the game
ChessBy QUAH SENG SUN
Never a world chess champion, Viktor Korchnoi nevertheless lives for the game.
AMONG all the chess professionals, there is only one I know of who can truly claim that chess is his life. He’s not even a world chess champion. He came close to becoming one in 1978 when he lost what was to be known as the Battle of Baguio.
I’m referring, of course, to Viktor Korchnoi, a chess grandmaster from the former Soviet Union who is now a Swiss citizen and a hugely respected world senior chess figure.
From his youth until today, Korchnoi, 78, has done nothing but play chess. Twice, in 1978 and 1981, after defecting from the Soviet Union, he challenged Anatoly Karpov for the world title and lost.
In 1974, he played Karpov in the final of the Challenger matches and again lost. Karpov went on to be crowned as world champion after Bobby Fischer forfeited his defence of the title.
After 1981, Korchnoi was never able to reach the same heights in his chess career again. Nevertheless, the fire burns strong in him and he continues to compete regularly until today. In September last year, he won the 16th world senior chess championship. It was a befitting recognition for a man who has spent his whole life in the game.
In 1978, Korchnoi wrote Chess Is My Life which chronicled the challenges in his life, his struggles with the chess establishment in the Soviet Union, his defection and a small collection of games. A few years ago, he retold the story of his life in a new edition of this book.
Many other professional chess players have claimed that chess was their life. At various times, people like Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik have said it too. But then, Karpov and later, Kasparov, were also dabbling in other things, like politics. Karpov was a member of the old Supreme Soviet Commission for Foreign Affairs and president of the Soviet Peace Fund, while Kasparov is retired from competitive chess and is today an opposition figure in the new Russia.
Here is the full story.
Korchnoi is the most unique player in history.