Anna Akhsharumova and her husband Gulko were at the time refuseniks and had been prevented for leaving Russia since 1977.

Gulko writing in: 'The KGB Plays Chess' (an interesting read) partly blames Korchnoi for the refusal being extended. When hearing Gulko was leaving Korchnoi 'apparently' made a statement Gulko would be his second at the 1978 match.

So Gulko and wife and were not going anywhere till the threat of Korchnoi had receded. They were allowed to leave in 1986.

Regarding Jim's question, just prior to the 1983 woman's event both Gulko and his wife were on hunger strike.

Gulko states that Nana Ioseliani in a difficult position lost on time. He continues that remembering his wife's political situation Ioseliani sent in a complaint, '...probably about the clock.' he makes an excuse for her by adding players sometimes do silly things after a loss.

A week later the order came from Moscow that the game be replayed from the 38th move.

In the Soviet Union, it was hard to tell. The whole country was often on a hunger strike whether they liked it or not.

When Gulko came to the US, Chess Life published a photo of him and Anna Aksharumova in a supermarket, apparently marvelling at the fact that in this country stores had food on the shelves!

It's hard to judge the case without seeing the game and the clock. Clocks do sometimes malfunction. When Petrosian lost his only game to Huebner in a drawn position, he claimed that there was still white space showing between the hand and the hour, but it was disallowed. (In these days of digital clocks, people won't even understand that).

Offhand I can't think of a case where a protest like this was upheld, and the fact that it was upheld by someone in Moscow rather than someone at the scene gives me no confidence that it was decided fairly. Still, Arnold Denker got screwed worse than this in a US Championship, and kept playing. If Aksharumova was winning the game, maybe she should have resumed, and beaten Ioseliani again.

<Gulko writing in: 'The KGB Plays Chess' (an interesting read) partly blames Korchnoi for the refusal being extended. When hearing Gulko was leaving Korchnoi 'apparently' made a statement Gulko would be his second at the 1978 match.>

That's Korchnoi all over. He not only liked getting in trouble, he liked getting other people in trouble. In the 1974 Candidates Final Polugaevsky wanted to give him some opening analysis, but didn't dare do so openly, so they arranged a secret meeting wherein Polugaevsky handed the stuff over in his car. Sounds like Polugaevsky took a risk and stuck his neck out to be a pal.