It is with great sadness that I have to report that Viktor Kortschnoi, the former world championship contestant and player of the alleged "chess game with beyond" with Géza Maróczy, which is still under investigation, has died yesterday at 15:30h local time in Wohlen, Kanton Aargau, Switzerland.
Kortschnoi's wish he once expressed was to receive a chess set as burial object. We will hope this is taken care for.
Kortschnoi came into the international spotlight for abandoning the Soviet Union and playing several world championship matches against Anatoly Karpov in de facto 1975 (Fischer refused to defend his title so the qualification match between Kortschnoi and Karpov essentially decided the title) as well as officially 1978 and 1981, as is most likely known anyway to our readers. As a small reward for his persistence he won the senior world championship in 2006, being as of January 2007 on place 85 of the world Elo ranking list, and the oldest player in the top 100.
Yesterday the world has lost an exceptional personality. The Soviet Union has lost a great and fierce enemy, chess has lost a legend.
No comments:
Post a Comment