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| Dec-22-01 | | Smartypants: I hear he's been having a good year. |
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| Jan-21-02 | | soundtouch: Go Dude!!! |
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| Jan-11-03 | | refutor: After writing about Korchnoi's comments on Botvinnik's "lack of talent" last week, i found the following comments by Boris Spassky on http://www.kevinspraggett.com/humou... quite humourous... I remember fondly one conversation I had a few years back with Boris Spassky. We were discussing 'THE' Victor Korchnoi ('Victor the Terrible' to many). Boris and Victor had been bitter adversaries for more than 40 years at the time of this conversation, and they had played more than 60 times in official competitions..(including 2 candidates finals)... only Karpov can boast to have played Victor more times. Boris, at one point, came up with the incredible statement that Korchnoi had every quality necessary to become world champion BUT lacked ONE very essential quality...and it was precisely this quality that prevented him from attaining chess' highest title. I coaxed Boris on...He began to list Korchnoi's many qualities: ...Killer Instinct (nobody can even compare with Victor's 'gift') ...Phenomenal capacity to work (both on the board and off the board) ...Iron nerves (even with seconds left on the clock) ...Ability to Calculate (maybe only Fischer was better in this
department)
...Tenacity and perseverance in Defense (unmatched by anyone) ...The ability to counterattack (unrivaled in chess history) ...Impeccable Technique (Flawless, even better than Capa's) ...Capacity to concentrate (unreal) ...Impervious to distractions during the game ...Brilliant understanding of strategy ...Superb tactian (only a few in history an compare with Victor) ...Possessing the most profound opening preparation of any GM of his generation ...Subtle Psychologist
...Super-human will to win (matched only by Fischer) ...Deep knowledge of all of his adversaries ...Enormous energy and self-discipline Then Boris stopped, and just looked at me, begging for me to ask the question that needed to be asked.... I asked: 'But, Boris, what does Victor lack to become world champion?' Boris' answer floored me:
''He has no chess talent !''
And then he roared with laughter... :) |
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| Jan-11-03 | | ughaibu: It raises a very interesting point that psychologists, philosophers (PVS), ontologists, et al might like to consider, the point being that talent and capacity for work could be inversely proportional. At a glance it makes sense, for the young and talented everything and it's accompanying praise comes naturally whereas for the less talented it requires hard work to get the praise. The tendency being settled young becomes entrenched, Capablanca loses to Alekhine... Could we extrapolate that those who were successfull for the longest had the least talent? |
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| Jan-11-03 | | PVS: I have thought about this theory before. From my observations of different sports I conclude that there are two types of all star calibre players. One is very talented and often criticized for lack of effort, the other is known as a fighter who never gives up with modest talent. But the Hall of Fame greats tend to be both. While he lasted, Fischer was in this last category, supreme talent and a pathological workaholic. I think when one is talented there is a tendency to coast. Many students are like that, if with a 50% effort a really smart person can get a 3.75 GPA, why double his or her time to achieve a 3.90 is how the reasoning would go. Sometimes an indefatigable worker like Korchnoi or Pete Rose can reach the very top without outstanding gifts (but of course they are still extremely talented relative to anyone but the absolute cream of their field) and sometimes someone has so much talent they can coast to the top such as Capablanca or Mickey Mantle. |
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| Jan-12-03 | | pawntificator: And don't forget Larry Bird! He was slow and clumsy! But I like this theory. It brings hope to those of us with no talent! The only thing is....I could never think of studying chess as hard work. It's hard fun! |
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| Jan-12-03 | | refutor: <i could never think of studying chess as hard work> you obviously haven't sat down for long enough with a rook endings book ;) |
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| Jan-13-03 | | pawntificator: That I cannot deny. In fact, I must admit that I was romanticizing a bit. The truth is, when I am sitting over my board playing through a well annotated game with dizzying variations, I sometimes feel the task of playing through a side line almost too daunting, merely for the fact that I would have to move all the pieces back to the text position after I am done. CHess laziness!! |
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| Feb-02-03 | | JGD: Korchnoi was certainly a great player! My style of playing is rather similar to his. I particularly am a consistent proponent of 1. c4. I have recently read an account of the 1978 world championship match (Karpov wins against Korchnoi 6-5). I can't help but to think that everything was in Karpov's favour. Karpov had the best analysts, and Korchnoi had to be careful of his own safety should he win. The authorities allowed Karpov's disturbing psychologist to stare at Korchnoi, yet dismiss some of Korchnoi's close friends. An interesting match! I enjoy playing the open lopez as black, as Korchnoi did many times in the match. Yet Karpov's stunning Ng5 innovation in the 10th game seems to bury the line somewhat (Kasparov crushed Anand as white with it in the 1995 match). What is black's best course for future opening and middlegame action, by modern standards? |
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| Feb-02-03 | | Kenneth Sterling: Korchnoi missed the chance to go up 1-0 early in the match when he overlooked a mate in two. |
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| Feb-03-03 | | Ashley: Kasparov played it in game six against Anand who played 14…0-0-0 rather than Korchnoi's 14…Qxd1. However, when Kasparov repeated this opening in game ten and Anand used the same line for which Kasparov and his team were prepared. Kasparov played 14. Bc2 Qxc3 15. Nb3 leaving Anand at at a loss for a reply. The moves Anand playedbefore 14 were the ones found by Korchnoi. |
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| Feb-03-03 | | JGD: True enough Kenneth, in that early game with white against the nimzo indian. This was the longest WC game ever, thus I believe exaustion accounted for Korchnoi's mistake. |
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| Feb-03-03 | | JGD: Ashley, I've been analyzing Kasparov's whole idea of sacrificing the c pawn and leaving the rook of a1, as seen in the 1995 game you mentioned. I am thinking that Bd5 in direct responce to Ng5 might be black's best option. See Svidler vs. Anand, 1999 on this database. |
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| Mar-05-03 | | huflix: One thing i heard about Korchnoi is that he sometimes insults his opponents in a rude but, from my point of view, amusing way.
recently i read an interview with bologan where he tells that he was called a "coffeehouse player" by Korchnoi. Does anybody here know other annectodes of that kind? |
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| Mar-05-03 | | drukenknight: the only thing I heard was he spent lots of time on his moves in the opening and then could just bang out the last 10 or 12 moves in very short order. |
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| Apr-11-03 | | Kenneth Sterling: Korchnoi criticized Mecking in their 1973 match for wearing a T-shirt advertising a coffee firm in Brazil. He said that Fischer would never have done that. |
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| Apr-11-03 | | ughaibu: Fischer switched to a suit early on. |
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| May-06-03 | | fred lennox: I don't take Spassky's comment on Korchnoi's lack of chess talent seriously. After all I believe Korchnoi's record against Spassky is surprisingly in his favor. Spassky does exagerates too. For example, the most profound opening preperation of any GM of his generation. I would say that was a weakness when compared to Geller, Fisher, Karpov and possibly others. Let it be said that Korchnoi was one of the few enemies Spassky had. Reports about enemies are to be held suspect. Botvinnik was superb in preparing for matches. Take him out of his "homework" was the opponents best chance of beating him. I think this is what Korchnoi meant by his lack of talent. Korch was more the opposite. He played a lot of chess. He didn't take enough time off to prepare for matches. His second encounter with Karpov ended before it began. His son was in legal trouble. Heck, a bad day at work can effect my play. That match had to be the most trying moment in his career. It was amazing that he did as well as he did. Korchnoi is in some respects the player of the century. No one else except maybe Smyslov had his stamina or endurance. Playing far more games than Lasker with much tougher competition and never ducking any. Adopting to the changing strategies and never playing for a draw with a wildly aggressive style. Possibly his short comming to the world title was a lack of patience to prepare properly and unwillingess to "chill out"-to play for a draw and relieve the nerves a bit. He'd rather just play and play all out. Like Keres and Rubinstein he is somewhat underated for not winning the crown but that is because the crown is somewhat overated. |
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| Sep-29-03 | | Sylvester: Does Korchnoi have a really famous game? |
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| Sep-29-03 | | drukenknight: You could start with his end game wins against Karpov in 1974. Then a couple more wins in 1978 match. Whenever you can beat Karpov it is a good game. He also beat Spassky in a two playoffs(?) one of them was played in 1977 I think. THat won was very famous. So if you are looking at famous games there might be some. I think I understand Spassky comments perfectly. As you play through Korchnois games you will see him make moves that are not natural at all. There is a Nimzo indian we were looking at vs. Donner or someone and the obvious move was to swap queens but instead he tried somethign extremely trickly and got the worst of it. he lost several games to Spassky in the 1960s. As I recall in a couple of them, he lost when he played odd, unnatural moves that most experts would have played w/o thinking. It's stuff like that. Dont get me wrong he is very strong. I think he is really one of these guys who is actually calculating all the moves all the time, as opposed to natural intuitive players like Tal or Najdorf or Capablanca. Perhaps this is why he always gave Bobby a hard fight, both of htem are calculating everything to the last drop. |
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| Sep-29-03 | | Shadout Mapes: Here's a famous game: Korchnoi vs Tal, 1962 |
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| Sep-29-03 | | tud: Korchnoi won USSR championship in 60, 62, 64 and 70. Not bad. But after 40s he starts to make a point in worldchampionships. He is the only one not afraid to play the endgame with Karpov. Since Drunckenkight has found so many exmaples of Horhnoi outperforming Kapov in endgame I will find some reverse examples |
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| Sep-29-03 | | Benzol: "A few rounds later I played the World Champion Botvinnik. I opened 1.c4. A closed position was reached, in which move by move Botvinnik began to outplay me. Several of his moves I guessed, others I did not, but the ideas behind his moves were quite incomprehensible to me. Some six to eight years were to pass before I was able to assimilate this lesson in positional play given to me by Botvinnik. I was outplayed by all the rules (although at that time I did not know such rules); then I ran short of time". - Viktor Korchnoi |
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| Sep-29-03 | | Benzol: Spassky made a comment about Korchnoi. Something like he spends the first part of the game putting his pieces on the wrong squares and next part putting them back on the right ones. |
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| Sep-29-03 | | drukenknight: Gee whiz, the guy wins the Russian championship 3 times in 6 years. And you are wondering when he got better? You think the Russian championship is a notch below world championship level chess? I dont think so. |
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