Second-most games in this gorgeous database are counted for Karpov with 3'121 encounters, followed by Timman (3'112) and Gligoric (3'109); then: Tal, Smyslov, Portisch, Larsen, Hort and Ivkov, to complete the top-ten list. Surprisingly, not-so-known Kholmov (he beat Fischer as well as Kasparov!) is on position 12. Besides, Kasparov has 2'112 "entries", nevertheless he stopped playing (too) early.

In former days, before World War II, it was not played that much (with the notable exception of Alekhine, who is ranked on position 24 in this "most-game list"); eg. Capablanca has only about 600 games, Fischer a bit less than thousands, Botvinnik about 1'200 games.

And just a little bit of statistical rhubarb:

From the apparently 40 listed players with the so far most games (exactly: most generated games in the chessgames database), Korchnoi played among them against 38 ... and he beat 37 of them at least once!! (the exception is Anand).

Obviously this top-forty is missing some of the greatest players as Fischer (Korchnoi's overall-score is +2 =4 -2 and +1-1 in blitz), Botvinnik (+1=2-1) or Kramnik (Korchnoi did never beat him), and "younger" stars as eg. in no specifically order: Svidler (Korchnoi beat him 1997 at St. Petersburg, quite a nice game, not yet included here), Topalov, Bacrot, Grischuk, Morozevich, Ponomariov, Rublevsky, etc. against whom Korchnoi also scored at least one win.

Against the ten or more years older Keres (+1 -4 =13) and Smyslov (+3-5=14), Korchnoi is a step beyond (not only, but also because many of these encounters were at the beginning of his career - and indeed, Korchnoi was impressed by Keres), Korchnoi’s peak was from 1960 till about 1990). Personally I think, that he was in the sixties at least so strong than in the following two decades, it’s often forgotten, but already in the sixties, especially in tournaments, he was a terrible contender, compare chessmetrics. Later Korchnoi’s career followed closely the Candidates match cycles.

Against the giants of his generation, mostly faced during their peak periods, Viktor Korchnoi was really a terrible, according to chessgames, eg.:

Korchnoi vs. Tal: +13 -6 =29
Korchnoi vs. Spassky: +20 -14 =32
Korchnoi vs. Petrosian: +12 -10 =50
Korchnoi vs. Polugaevsky: +26 -9 =36
Korchnoi vs. Gligoric: +7 -2 =13
Korchnoi vs. Geller: +11 -6 =15
(remember: Geller individually has a positive lifetime-overall-score in total against all Chess World Champions!)

These figures (stats may be incomplete) - and the fact, that Korchnoi has the most games in database - are even more impressive, if taken into account that he was boycotted by the Soviets from all strong tournaments (except FIDE matches and Olympiads) during more than half a decade (1976-1983), he was expelled of dozens of tournaments, where he wanted to play but was not allowed! Good years, maybe the best ones, Korchnoi reached his individual peak aged 47!

To sum it up: Korchnoi has lots of wins, but also - relatively - lots of losses, in fact, too many. Fischer, Kasparov, Capablanca, Alekhine – among others - had therefore a far better percentage-performance than Korchnoi, who does not stop playing even when there is some decline – you know, he hates to loose – but his love for the game is much stronger, and he said once (in german): 'the moment of winning is a feeling that you can’t describe'.

As an absolut number, I suppose, I just figure out: Korchnoi is the man on this planet with the most wins (obviously not counting professional blitz players): more than 1’600 victories for Victor!