Portal:Chess/Selected article/Introduction/Viktor Korchnoi
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Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (also Korchnoy, Kortchnoy, Kortschnoi, etc.) (Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й), born March 23, 1931, in Leningrad, USSR, is a professional Swiss chess player and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the world tournament circuit. Korchnoi is also a chess author.
Korchnoi is best known for playing three matches against Anatoly Karpov for the World Chess Championship. In 1974, he lost the Candidates final to Karpov, who went on to win the World championship by forfeit against Bobby Fischer. Then, after defecting from the Soviet Union in 1976, he won the Candidates twice to qualify for World Championship matches against Karpov in 1978 and 1981, losing both times.
In all, Korchnoi was a Candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions (1962, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1991). Korchnoi is also a four-time USSR chess champion (1960, 1962–63, 1964–65, 1970), a five-time European champion, and a six-time member of Soviet teams that won the Chess Olympiad. In September 2006, he won the World Senior Chess Championship.
