<He had won the Soviet Championship on four occasions and had had reached the Candidates final twice.>

Double dose of had.

<When Korchnoi dramatically defected from the USSR in 1976,>

"dramatically" doesn't seem right, although I'm mot coming up with a good alternative at the moment.

< a parapsychologist supposedly with hypnotic powers. >

Again, the adverb doesn't seem quite right and I'm not finding a good alternative. Maybe "who supposedly had hypnotic powers".

<which he said deflected light on his eyes.>

"on to" or "in to" or "in" all might be better. Tough morning, I don't feel too strong for/against any of them, though "on" would be my last choice.

<At one point in the match the players stopped shaking hands and all further communication stopped. >

Could use a comma after "match".

<Karpov opened up a 5-2 lead and seemed sure to win when Korchnoi made an astonishing comeback winning three games to tie the match at 5-5. >

Needs a comma after "win" and maybe after "lead".

<Karpov, however, won the very next game to win the match. >

<He had won the Soviet Championship on four occasions and had had reached the Candidates final twice.>" - check

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<When Korchnoi dramatically defected from the USSR in 1976,> I deleted "dramatically" for now, makes it sound like he danced his way across the border or something. Defecting is pretty exciting all by itself. Does it need an adverb? Drop a suggestion if you think of a better one than "dramatically."

#########

< a parapsychologist supposedly with hypnotic powers. > This was "Professor Zukhar," an "eminent psychologist" who was "never cited in any quasiscientific activity," according to <Karpov>:

-Anatoly Karpov
"Karpov on Karpov"
Atheneum 1991
Translated by Todd Bludeau
p. 196-197

I didn't change this yet, I just logged it as an edit.

#############

<which he said deflected light on his eyes.> Replaced with "in to"

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<At one point in the match the players stopped shaking hands and all further communication stopped. > comma, check

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<Karpov opened up a 5-2 lead and seemed sure to win when Korchnoi made an astonishing comeback winning three games to tie the match at 5-5. > Added comma only after "win"

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Game Collection: WCC: Karpov-Korchnoi 1978

<Karpov beat Korchnoi in the 1974 candidates final by the close score of +3 -2 =19.>

I changed this to

Game Collection: WCC: Euwe-Alekhine Rematch 1937

Sounds good, and thank you.

FIDE officially recognized Dr. Euwe as Alekhine's challenger at the 11th FIDE Congress (1934.07.27-29), this was item Nr. 7. Match to be played in autumn 1935. Source: Page 305 of the 1934 'Neue Wiener Schachzeitung'

Dr. Hannak comments on the result of Zürich 1934: <Es kann keinem Zweifel unterliegen, daß Euwe heute der reellste Kandidat für den nächsten Weltmeisterschaftskampf gegen Aljechin ist.> (It cannot be subject to doubt that today Euwe is the most realistic candidate for the next WC fight against Alekhine) Source: Page 210 of the 1934 'Neue Wiener Schachzeitung'

Now logged as EDIT material in Game Collection: WCC: Alekhine-Euwe 1935.

The FIDE Congress information is particularly interesting, given that I suspect <Alekhine> did not feel bound at this point (or any other point in his life) by what FIDE had to say about his potential WCC challengers.

He was involved with FIDE, attending their congresses for example, at the end of the 20ties at least.

Also, from the Winter link:

<In the meantime, FIDE was still trying to introduce rules on the selection of the challenger, applicable to subsequent matches. Its congress in Warsaw on 28-31 August 1935 had passed the following resolution:

‘Each year the above-mentioned Committee [comprising Oskam, Alekhine, Louma, Przepiórka and Vidmar] shall draw up a list of masters who have the right to challenge the world champion. Those who in the past six years have three times won or divided the first prize in international tournaments with a minimum of 14 competitors, of which at least 70% are international masters, shall automatically be included on this list.’>

There's a detailed account of how Euwe got and reacted to the challenge in <Munninghoff's> Euwe biography. The primary source for this account appears to be the recollections of Euwe's close friend and collaborator <Hans Kmoch>, who I've found to be somewhat reliable, but perhaps too ready to embellish or "misremember" important details of an incident, gusting up to whether or not the incident even happened in the first place.

With regard to precisely how the challenge came about in the first place, I'll look in all my Alekhine books. I have a pretty complete collection of these. There might be something in one of his autobiographies, or in the biographies by <Donaldson and Minev>, <Kotov>, or <Shaburov>.

Possibly someone with access to contemporaneous chess journals, such as <crawfb5> and <TheFocus>, might also be able to help us investigate this question.

Seems a rather important question to me.

<Korchnoi continously complained that he was being stared at by a member of Karpov's team during play, a parapsychologist supposedly with hypnotic powers.>

Maybe ...parapsychologist who supposedly possessed hypnotic powers.

<Draws offers were conveyed through the arbiter.>

Dele the s in "draws".

<when Korchnoi made an astonishing comeback winning three games to tie the match at 5-5.But Karpov won the very next game to win the match. >

<For many centuries, there was no formal world chess championship, but there were a select few who achieved fame for their ideas and successes over the chess board, although some of the early champions are better known to us by their writings than their recorded games.>

In no particular order, some issues with that sentence:

1. I'm not sure I like "many centuries" as opposed to "centuries" or "many years". I lean slightly toward "centuries".

2. The sentence has gotten a bit long due to editing. Maybe ".......world chess championship. However (or But), there were a select few.....".

3. I'm not sure "select few" is best either. Maybe " an elite handful" or "an elite few".

4. As written, "few" sort of reflects back to "championship". That seems to switch from a singular to a plural. It doesn't exactly roll, but "no formal World Champions. But there were a select few (elite handful or elite few) who achieved fame......".

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

<<Korchnoi continously complained that he was being stared at by a member of Karpov's team during play, a parapsychologist supposedly with hypnotic powers.>

Maybe ...parapsychologist who supposedly possessed hypnotic powers.>>

I'm going to look at Korchnoi's autobiography before changing this. Problem is that there really *were* official academic parapsychologists in the Soviet Union at this time. The government funded it as a legitimate area of scientific inquiry.

<<Draws offers were conveyed through the arbiter.>

Dele the s in "draws". >

Check, enacted.

<<when Korchnoi made an astonishing comeback winning three games to tie the match at 5-5.But Karpov won the very next game to win the match. >

Needs a comma after "comeback" and a space between the period and "But".>>