Chess player Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich: biography, victories and interesting facts

In June 2016 in the eighty-sixth year Victor Lvovich Korchnoi left his life. The victory over the chessboard is not the only thing he knows in the country. A man of uneasy fate, he became one of the "defectors" who defied the entire Soviet system, which turned the struggle for the chess crown into a political battle. What is known about this man today?

Difficult childhood

Date of birth of Victor Korchnoi - March 23, 1931. Place of birth is Leningrad. His parents divorced almost immediately after his birth, and during the course of his life he was convicted six times over the place of residence of the child. Mother then tried to take her son, then returned her father, referring to the lack of funds. As a result, the boy spent his childhood in the family of his father, who died at the front in the first year of the war. On the eve of Lev Merkurevich tried to send his son to evacuation, but the mother took the child and again brought to Leningrad. He was brought up in the family of Rosa Abramovna's stepmother, having learned all the horrors of the blockade. An eleven-year-old boy went to the Neva for water, breaking almost a kilometer of road under bombing.

Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi, whose biography is described in detail in his books, had Polish-Jewish roots. Polish relatives on the part of the father did not manage to survive the severe blockade. He also helped that Rosa Abramovna worked at a confectionery factory. Despite this, in 1942, he will go to the hospital with a diagnosis of "dystrophy".

Passion for chess

Another schoolboy Victor Korchnoi, whose biography is told in the article, was carried away by chess. And in 1947 he already became the champion of the USSR in his age group. Successes inspired, and in 1956 the young man was awarded the title of Grandmaster. In parallel, he graduated from the historical faculty of the Leningrad State University, but he did not work a day on his specialty. Chess flooded his whole life.

In 1957, in Gagra, he met with Isabella Markaryan, a student of the Moscow Institute for Information Technology. She had a similar fate: her parents divorced, after which she was brought up with her father. At first the girl was a little ashamed of Korchno's courtship, because he was not very fashionably dressed for those times, but soon he saw in him an intelligent and interesting person and agreed to marry. Soon the couple had a son, Igor.

In 1960 Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich became the champion of the USSR. This was the second most important title after the world champion, because in the international arena the Soviet chess school dominated. This almost automatically gave the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. The world leader at that time was Mikhail Botvinnik, but the competition inside the country was very strong. Korchnoi will win the USSR three times in 1962, 1964 and 1970.

Life of chess players in the USSR

At first Victor Korchnoi suited everything: at 29 he already had a 2-room apartment, a car. However, in 33 years I got into an accident with a car of the traffic police and did not sit behind the wheel. He was financially secured, because from 1954 he received a permanent salary. The whole world, by the way, was proving that there was no professional sport in the country, therefore some grandmasters were assigned a profession. For example, Petrosyan was a philosopher, and Anatoly Karpov - an economist.

Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich, along with Yefim Petrovich Geller, somehow after the team competitions in West Germany (1965) went to one of the small towns for work. So they called their performances and simultaneous games. During the trip, the chess players met a Russian-speaking man, who in English suggested Korchnoi stay in Germany. But at that time the grandmaster did not even consider the possibility of leaving his homeland, so he gently rejected the offer.

The reasons for emigration

There is a version voiced by Korchnoi himself, that a significant role in his expulsion from the country was played by former world champion Tigran Petrosyan. During the match of applicants in Odessa (1974), a serious incident occurred between them, due to which Petrosyan refused to continue the competition.

He had a habit of nervously twitching his leg, to which Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich complained to the judge. Petrosyan, in turn, accused the former friend of the fact that he allegedly kicked him under the table, and refused to continue the fight with a preponderance of the score in favor of Korchnoi. The conflict intensified after Viktor Lvovich's refusal to go to the match against Fischer in Buenos Aires in Petrosian's team. Surprisingly, fate will more than once bring them together in tournaments, and all these matches will be the most difficult and unsuccessful for Tigran Vartanovich, as if he really felt guilty.

Whatever it was, the decision to leave the country Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi, whose emigration in the 60's was still impossible, took in 1974 after the match with Anatoly Karpov. The winner was to fight for the chess crown with Bobby Fisher. The USSR relied on a young prospective Karpov, also Russian and working-class family. It was for him to work all the main chess and bureaucratic forces. And those who agreed to help Korchnoi, later had real problems. For example, in D. Bronshtein, who was paid by the situation.

V.L. Korchnoi lost, but in an interview he did not recognize Karpov's superiority, for which he was subjected to collective condemnation of Soviet grandmasters. The open letter was initiated by Petrosyan and was not signed only by four chess players, which became very revealing for Korchnoi.

Problems of the Korchnoi family

The opportunity to leave the country appeared in 1976. Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich stayed in Holland after the tournament in Amsterdam. Hardly he then guessed what problem he created for his family. After moving to Switzerland (Mr. Volen), he from Israel organized a challenge for his wife and son. But they were not only not released from the country, but they also arrested Igor for not wanting to serve in the army after leaving the institute. The guy had to stay 2.5 years. The persecution in the press turned his family into enemies of the people. Isabella Egishevna, in need of money, sold the puppy from a domestic poodle. A day later, they returned with the words that they did not know that they were buying from the enemies of the people.

VL Korchnoi at that time wrote his first scandalous book Anti-Ships. In a letter to A. Karpov, a copy of which will be sent to U. Chernenko, he will say that he agrees not to publish materials in exchange for permission for his family to go abroad. Later he confesses that he even appealed to the representatives of the Soviet mafia, who after 1982 found him to demand money for the family's departure, although they hardly made any effort.

Personal life

What was the most criticized for Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich, whose personal life became a public good? After getting permission to leave the country, in Switzerland Isabella Egishevna was not expecting a happy husband, but a lawyer with documents on divorce. The fact that the marriage does not exist anymore, she had known for several years.

In Holland, at one of the simultaneous games, her husband met with a native of Austria Petra Leeverik. Seeing on the foreigner's table the book of L. Tolstoy's "Resurrection" in Russian, he exchanged a few phrases with her. Later he learns that a good Russian friend of his due to the fact that 10 years spent in the camps in the Soviet Union. Well playing chess, she will attend all his sessions until one day he invites Peter to his home. And for the match applicants in Baguio (1978), she will already go as the head of his delegation.

Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich, whose wife, together with her son, arrived in Lausanne, will provide financial support to her until the last days. Isabella Egishevna gladly worked as a guide for Russian-speaking groups and died in 1995 from multiple sclerosis. Igor until his mother's death will be in a state of conflict with his father, starting communication only after her death. He is engaged in computers, having married his school friend from Russia.

Creative portrait: uncrowned winner

Victor Korchnoi has written several books, where he analyzes in detail his entire professional career. In addition to "Anti-Shahmat", he published six more works, the most interesting of which are: "My 55 wins are white" and "My 55 wins are black."

It so happened that as a five-time champion of Europe and a winner of about a hundred international tournaments, he twice fought for the right to be considered the best chess player on the planet, but never won (in 1978 and 1981). In both cases, his opponent was A. Karpov, whom he hated, to whom he refused outstanding abilities. In numerous interviews with chess geniuses, he calls only G. Kasparov and R. Fisher, paying tribute to T. Petrosyan, who died early.

His best match he considered the 21st game of the first match (1978), when A. Karpov surrendered on the 19th move, but the outcome was predetermined already on the 13th. That confrontation ended with a score of 5: 6 and was so crucial for the Soviet Union that VL Korchnoi was launched not only a massive professional, but also a political machine. The defector could not become the champion of the world, therefore the book speaks about direct threats of his physical destruction, in case of the defeat of A. Karpov.

The match of 1981 was not so stubborn and ended with a score of 2: 6, which can be explained by the fact that it was difficult for VL Korchnoi to get in shape, because for almost seven years he had not received invitations to important tournaments, being content with secondary ones.

The main victory of Viktor Lvovich is that he showed his whole life his true devotion to chess. He played more than 4,500 games, being in excellent shape, and in 80 years being the oldest grandmaster in the world. He was not afraid to challenge the system, which deprived him of his citizenship and the Motherland. In the 90 years he was reinstated, but preferred to obtain Swiss citizenship.

Afterword

Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich, whose books were returned to fans in Soviet times and demonstrated the political intrigues of the USSR, until the last days kept the mind clear. He quoted poems by heart and recalled even little-known facts of chess history. Grandmaster admitted that to become the first in the world he was prevented by personal shortcomings, and not by intrigues of enemies. He was not supertaristic, but always distinguished by diligence and sporting anger. And the defector was not because of courage, but, rather, from despair. After the interview on television, Dmitry Gordon said to the chess doltzhevitel tremendous words: "Communicating with you, I have become smarter."

The world and the country on June 6, 2016 found out that Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich had died. The cause of death was not specified, but everyone knows that in recent years the grandmaster lived with a pacemaker, moved with a cane and could hardly hear using a hearing aid. The body has developed its limit. For to live away from the Motherland, with which there has been no mutual understanding for so many years, the test is not of the lungs.