Review: Advanced Lessons, Volume 15: Victor Korchnoi and My Chess Life

Victor Korchnog is well known to everyone who has an interest in chess midway. Born in Leningrad in 1931, died in 2016 at the age of 85 and devoted his entire life
Chess life. Having emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1976, he played in and lost in 1978 and 1981 to Anatoly Karpov in two World Championship matches.

Due to his unusually long active career, Korchnoi holds the record for the most played chess games with nearly 5,000 documented plays.
For nearly 50 years he has fought in the Chess Olympiad and crowned his countless successes in 2006 with the title of first world champion. In January 2007, he was still ranked 85th in the world, making him the oldest player in the top 100 at 75 years old.

His uncompromising style earned Korchnoi the nickname Victor the Terrible; His best ever Elo rating was 2695.

Although Korchnoj himself has published various collections of games that are worth reading, many chess fans would like to see and experience their idols in real life. This became possible thanks to my Chessbase coach Fritz “My Life in Chess” and the new edition “Masterclass 15 – Viktor Kortschnoj”, which I looked at with enthusiasm.

Kortschnoj himself photographed two Fritztrainer trainers with approximately 20 ChessBase games and explained them in detail in English. Here you can see the “Master” in his element, here he’s reviving memories, explaining his decision on one form the other, here Korchnog is always mischievous
Smile – definitely worth seeing!

Now let’s move on to the master class itself, which contains all of Korchnoi’s games in a separate database!

I found the introductory commentary by renowned Swiss educator and ChessBase commentator Yannick Pelletier, who was often able to measure himself against and practice with Kortschnoj, both interesting and entertaining. Accordingly, after eight hours of chess practice every day, the young Pelletier was exhausted and tired at the end of the day, not the warrior horse Korchnog.

I also found it a revealing anecdote to hear how Korchnoi tried to master the problems of his time and eventually succeeded. How a small bottle of kongnac helped calm excitement, we find out in the introduction to Pelletier! Here you will also find ideas for all the chess friends among us who feel that time is running out faster than their opponents.

The other contents of the main chapter also relate to Korchoj’s opening reference. Viktor Korchnog was considered a great fighter. What exactly is this
Mean opening pick GM Yannick Pelletier features in his videos. Korchnoj has always tried to approach openings conceptually.
One of his most distinctive trademarks was skepticism of well-known movements. The videos explicitly cover the Dutch Leningrad Variation, the Indian King’s Defense, and classic openings such as the Orthodox Queen’s Gambit, the English Open, and Korchnoi’s Ammo with Black for 1.d4 and 1.e4. In conclusion, GM Pelletier sums up Korchnoj’s opening preferences once again.

The next big nugget concerned Korchnoi’s strategic preferences. It can be said that it is difficult to name a player with a greater strategic arsenal
Like Victor Korchnoi. Even in his seventies, he continued to try out slots and positions he had never played before.

As Botvinnik once noted, Korchnoi used to build his games in a very interesting way, which always resulted in purposeful play. As a rule, he aimed at positions with complex pawn structures in which tangible nuances played an important role. Any set of Korchnoi games can be considered a comprehensive chess encyclopedia. General Manager Mihail Marin reviews some of these masterpieces in his videos.

Oliver Reh covered the topic of tactics in detail and selected 27 Korchnoj educational games and recorded them as a video with interactive questions.
They show Korchnoj as a fearless victim player and reckless striker, but also as a superb defender and a sharp calculator who is tactically full at every moment.
It was in the heyday – just “terrible Victor”!

It wouldn’t be a truly comprehensive ‘master class’ without Hamburg grandmaster Karsten Müller examining Korchnoj’s meticulous style at the end of the game with a magnifying glass
Will be! According to Carsten Müller, Viktor Korchnog always fought to the end and had many long final games. Endgame expert Müller has over 20 amazing titles
Korchnoj’s endgames were picked, including, sensationally, quite a few matches against endgame giant Anatoly Karpov. Topics covered here deal with, among others, the barrier, the position of Lucina, pawns in groups with rooks, the Korchnoi king, the power of a passed electronic pawn, and the power of connected elements
Pawns passed, Karpov-Kortschnoj Baguio City 1978 World Cup match, Kortschnoj’s irrepressible will to win, initiative, black and white power play, zugzwang and other disciplines at the end of the game.

Conclusion: Thanks to Pelletier, Marin, Rey and Müller, Korchnog, who is considered one of the most controversial masters of greatness of the past few decades, will be able to participate in the new Masters class
In an entertaining and educational way for a large mass of players accessible, concrete and understandable! Anyway, I have a new main class
15- Viktor Korchnog regarding “My Chess Life” and can warmly recommend it!

Master Class Volume 15 – Victor Korchnoi

In this video course, experts examine the games of Viktor Korchnoi. Let them show you which slots Korchnoi chose, where his strength lies in the middle of the game or how he beat his opponents in the end game.

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