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Ricardo Calvo Minguez vs Viktor Korchnoi
"Calvo's Salvo" (game of the day May-20-2008)
Havana Olympiad qual-1 (1966), Havana CUB, rd 7, Nov-03
Sicilian Defense: Kan. Polugaevsky Variation (B42)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
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Mar-04-06  deadlyfischer: Amazing game..Viktor Korchnoi have been devastated with this solid Kan opening.
Mar-04-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  OlimpBase: Some believe this was worst game Kortschnoj ever played in his pro career.
Mar-11-08  Cibator: The Soviet team's only loss in the prelims that year - but often enough during that stage of the Olympiad they didn't lose ANY!!
Mar-11-08  MichAdams: One possible contributing factor to Soviet team strength:

<Scientists at universities in Plymouth and Durham analysed data on all English league clubs since World War II and found home teams in red won more often.

Players in yellow or orange shirts had the worst record but performances away from home did not show any differences.

Researchers believe there could be a psychological boost in wearing red.

They said the crimson shade is often associated with male aggression and dominance. >

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/...

True, there are no team strips in chess, but there are national flags on the playing tables.

May-20-08  Billy Vaughan: What a lovely windmill that would ensue if 18...Qh3 19. Rxf7+ Kg8 20. Rxe7+ Kf8 21. Rxf7+ etc....
May-20-08  Rod Serling: At the last moment right before this contest began highly regarded GM Victor Korchnoi heard a little voice whisper in his ear. The voice said Victor dont play The French today play the Kan Sicilian instead, so GM Korchnoi decided why not and slowly began his descent into The Twilight Zone.
May-20-08  Granny O Doul: In "Chess is My Life", Korchnoi cited this game as why he doesn't like to play in the morning.
May-20-08  RookFile: Fischer felt the same way, and felt so strongly about not playing Reshevsky at 11 am that he forfeited the match to him based upon this principle.
May-20-08  whiteshark: The road to hell is paved with principles and good intentions. :D
May-20-08  kellmano: The same thing happened again to Korchnoi 38 years later:

Morozevich vs Korchnoi, 2004

May-20-08  xKinGKooLx: Ouch! This loss has got to hurt. Poor Korchnoi.
May-20-08  TheaN: <<Billy Vaughan:>What a lovely windmill that would ensue if 18...Qh3 19. Rxf7+ Kg8 20. Rxe7+ Kf8 21. Rxf7+ etc....>

Actually: 18...Qh3 19. Rxf7+ Kg8 20. Rxe7+ Kf8/Qe6 21.Re8#.

May-20-08  kevin86: A strange windmill effect ends this one... If 18 ...♕h3 19 ♖xf7+ ♔g8 20 ♖xe7+ ♔f8 21 ♖e8#. White could be sadistic enough to gobble up a few pieces on the queen side before going in for the kill.
May-20-08  General Akpufni: You would not think he went on to become a grandmaster. Qh4 is too ambitious!?
May-20-08  ajile: lol! Korchnoi should know better than to play his queen out so early.
May-20-08  RookFile: Yes, he should have brought it out earlier... on move two, like Nakamura does on a regular basis.
May-20-08  brankat: It has happened very rarely that Viktor the Terrible got hammered like this.

More often than not, it's been the other way around.

May-20-08  Chessmensch: <ajile> The mystery is why he brought the queen out so early. He did nothing with it.
May-21-08  brankat: <Chessmensch> Actually, he did.

Three consecutive moves:

<14...Qh6...15...Qf6...16...Qxe6> :-)

May-31-08  patzer2: As <jaime gallegos> suggests, perhaps 8...Qh4?! is the beginning of Korchnoi's problem in this game. Better IMO is 8...d6 as in Deep Junior vs Kasparov, 2003.

White takes advantage of Black's misplaced Queen with a series of attacking developing moves to harass her while simultaneously preparing an attack on the Black King, with 12. f4! being the first attack on the Queen and 14. g3! being the most noticeable and decisive thrust.

In the final position, Black resigns in the face of the possibility 18...Qg6 19. Rf7+ , When Black will have to surrender the "trapped" Queen to delay the coming mate.

Oct-22-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <Granny, RookFile> Robert Huebner is another player who always hated morning rounds, as is the custom at Wijk aan Zee on the final day.

They'd love American Swisses!

Aug-12-14  Marmot PFL: <It has happened very rarely that Viktor the Terrible got hammered like this.>

Vic got hammered fairly often in the those days, but usually had time to sleep it off before the game.

Jun-18-22  jerseybob: <RookFile: Fischer felt the same way, and felt so strongly about not playing Reshevsky at 11 am that he forfeited the match to him based upon this principle.> It wasn't just the starting time per se, it was the fact Fischer felt the organizers had lied to him, changing the starting time after the match had already started. Was he oversensitive and inflexible and juvenile? Maybe, but some of the good playing conditions today's players have, not to mention money, stem in part from Bobby's complaints.
Jun-18-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Without Fischer's kvetching, who knows how far the game would have progressed beyond Spassky getting $1500 (or $2k) for winning the title in 1969?
Jul-19-25  Petrosianic: <RookFile: Fischer felt the same way, and felt so strongly about not playing Reshevsky at 11 am that he forfeited the match to him based upon this principle.>

No he didn't, it was just an excuse to get out of the match. Fischer played morning games at times, and Reshevsky, the older man, was able to do it. But one of Fischer's <genuine> principles was about having lots of games to avoid a fluke result. That's why he wanted 22 round US Championships, and Candidates Matches that required 10 wins. With a tie score, and only 5 games left, anything could happen against a player like Reshevsky. Fischer momentarily lost confidence after failing to win Game 11, and got out.

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