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Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian vs Viktor Korchnoi
USSR Championship 1961a (1961)  ·  Gruenfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack. Grünfeld Gambit (D83)  ·  1-0
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Given 22 times; par: 61 [what's this?]

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sac: 34.Rxd5 PGN: download | view Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
Mar-11-04  ughaibu: Korchnoi's one of these flexible types who plays all sorts of openings but in his case I dont think this is indicative of any kind of universality rather it suggests to me that there wasn't an opening that suited him, I guess that's why his play makes me feel like my clothes have been doused with itching powder and could explain why he was always losing on time.
Mar-11-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  drukenknight: I tend to agree. He had a hard time finding a response to 1 e4 when he played Karpov. He tried Russian, the Spanish usually got into some prepared opening. He did a Carokann or two, he did not trust the French at least vs Karpov finally settling on a Pirc when he lost the final game in Baguio in 1981. Obviously keeping things simple, like a Capablanca or a Lasker was not to his liking. How about a SPanish, Lucena var. for instance?

Spassky's joke about him has a ring to it. He seems to analyze everything so deeply that he often overlooked more obvious positional moves.

Mar-11-04  ughaibu: As I was writing that post I thought about Spassky's joke, maybe he had a point.
Mar-11-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  drukenknight: He did. You can find that sort of thing in at least one of the SPassky/Korchnoi games, I have made a comment about that game, you can probaly search it.

There's another game vs Timman in the Nimzo indian that is like that.

Mar-11-04  ughaibu: Thanks, I'll have a look. (The 1968 games?)
Mar-11-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: There was another joke about Korchnoi (if I remember right): He hated to put a piece on a good square because it meant then it had nowhere to go but bad squares.
Mar-11-04
Premium Chessgames Member
  drukenknight: Its funny to see him playing Fischer, have you looked at the Souza game? (one of only two in the database) That opening was a crazy English or Nimzo attack or something wasnt it? I dont know how he managed to save it at one pt he looked dead.
Feb-05-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  Resignation Trap: Korchnoi lost this game on time. His position is quite poor, anyway.
Feb-05-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  CapablancaFan: <Resignation Trap> <"Korchnoi lost this game on time"> ? What difference did it make? Look at the position, Korchnoi had nothing to fight for anyway.
Jan-10-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  watwinc: What? We're talking about a major FIGHTER at the chessboard. Nuts, maybe - but there's a rich tradition of that, and the Soviet players had plenty of justification for paranoia ...
Jan-10-11  Petrosianic: A lot of justification for paranoia, but Korchnoi liked to stir the pot and draw trouble onto himself. Kind of like standing on the street corner in the Third Reich, and yelling "The Gestapo Sucks!" On one hand you feel sorry for him, but on the other hand you want to say "Shut up, you idiot."

Not sure what that has to do with losing a game on time, though.

May-06-11  Rama: Well, his time spent on 28. ... e4, was time wasted. Why play e5 if not to exchange?
Oct-11-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiteshark: <Rama: <Well, his time spent on 28. ... e4, was time wasted. Why play e5 if not to exchange?>>


click for larger view

It's probably not that easy, e.g. <28...exd4 29.Rxd4 Rxd4 30.Rxd4> and if you for example trade-off the 2nd pair of rooks with <30... Rxd4 31.Qxd4 Bxc4 Qd8+> <kabum!!<>>


click for larger view

you get a lost endgame after some forced moves: <32... Kf7 33.Qd7+ Kg8 34.Qe8+ Kg7 35.Bd6 Bg8 36.Bf8+ Kh8 37.Bxh6 Qb7 38.Qd8 Qf7 39.Qxb6 >


click for larger view

Feb-05-12  Everett: White's 34th, another Petrosian exchange sac. Soltis in Rethinking the Chess Pieces mentions that Petrosian felt only one pawn was enough compensation for the exchange in most situations. Here he gets two pawns and takes away Korchnoi's two-bishop potential.

<drukenknight: I tend to agree. He had a hard time finding a response to 1 e4 when he played Karpov> huh? Check out Korchnoi's French vs Karpov. The problem for Korchnoi is that he was seeking winning chances at times, and he was only getting draws with Black, thus the switching of Black openings to positions more double-edged.


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