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Viktor Korchnoi vs Georgy Lisitsin
USSR Championship (1954), Kiev URS, rd 17, Feb-02
Nimzo-Indian Defense: Kmoch Variation (E20)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Mar-29-14  ndg2: Nice little rook you have, Viktor! I think I'll just keep it save for you, it could get lost otherwise.
May-07-15  A.T PhoneHome: Hah, that White Rook is kept on the a-file for so long!

Too bad Lisitsin didn't feel kind enough to help Korchnoi avoid losing. :P

Oct-08-15  zydeco: Korchnoi was in hot pursuit of Averbakh and might have easily won the USSR Championship if he had pulled off this game.

I'm not sure where Korchnoi's mistake is (maybe white should play 24.Nf4), but it's pretty clear that he has no real choice except 27.Rxa7?! when he has to try for an amazing swindle with queen-and-knight.

If 30....Qxa7 31.Qg3 g6 32.Nf6+ Kf8 33.Qd6+ and white should win.

29....f6 30.Qf4 Qxa7 31.Qc7 would also have won for white.

So Lisitsin decides that he can win without the rook.

Oct-08-15  Petrosianic: <Korchnoi was in hot pursuit of Averbakh and might have easily won the USSR Championship if he had pulled off this game.>

If you reverse the result of this game from a Loss to a Win, Korchnoi still doesn't win the tournament.

Oct-09-15  zydeco: <Petrosianic> Korchnoi started the round a half-point behind Averbakh, with three games to go, and the two of them slated to play the last-round game. Averbakh drew his game this round, so if Korchnoi had won, he would have been tied for first with two rounds to go.
Oct-09-15  Petrosianic: But Korchnoi still would have finished 2nd unless we alter the result of more games than just this one. We'd probably have to alter several of them to get Korchnoi to win easily.

Korchnoi lost 3 games in this tournament, and Listsin was the strongest of the three he lost to (the other two were to Seutin and Bannik). It was just part of Korchnoi's style then. The Risk-taking that brought him some of his victories also brought a few losses. Averbakh won as many games as Korchnoi did without losing any. That's why he won the tournament.

Oct-10-15  zydeco: <Petrosianic> Fair enough.

All I mean to say is that there was more drama in this tournament than the final crosstable might indicate.

If you were following the tournament at the time, it would have seemed like Averbakh and Korchnoi were running neck-and-neck (and it would have been an interesting contrast in style - Averbakh playing methodically and positionally, while Korchnoi was taking insane risks in chaotic positions). Averbakh only broke away in the seventeenth and eighteenth rounds, when he scored 1.5 to Korchnoi's 0.5, so that by the time they met in their last-round game, Korchnoi vs Averbakh, 1954, the tournament was already wrapped up (which didn't, however, stop Korchnoi from playing hard to win).

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