Word: korchnoi
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Dates: during 1981-1981
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Word last week from the northern Italian village of Merano came 41 moves into the 18th game of the 30th World Chess Championship. Challenger Victor Korchnoi, 50, conceded his final defeat to Defending Champion Anatoli Karpov, 30, six games to two with ten draws. The pair, known to chess fans as "K-2," traded off-court insults during much of their 51 days of play. Soviet Wunderkind Karpov takes home $280,000. Korchnoi, a defector from the U.S.S.R., $170,000. A nice check, mates...
...Korchnoi, a burly, voluble Russian defector, arrived from a Swiss health retreat accompanied by an entourage Muhammad Ali would envy. Spokesman Emanuel Sztein sported a Solidarity button and passed out postcards demanding that Korchnoi's son Igor, 22, be released from a two-year prison sentence for draft evasion and that Korchnoi's wife Bella be allowed to join him. Korchnoi's party also included an American yoga instructor, who sat in the first row at the opening game last week wearing an orange sari...
Karpov, a slightly built, coldly articulate Soviet, checked into the Riz Stefanie hotel along with 18 assistants, 4,000 volumes on chess and boundless disgust for the challenger. "Korchnoi must have the right atmosphere to play well," sniffed Karpov. He took the world championship by default in 1975 when the reigning champion, American Bobby Fischer, refused to defend his title. Since then Karpov has played more tournaments than any other modern champion, in an apparent effort to legitimize his easy accession to the crown...
...Korchnoi is described even by friends as paranoid. He refuses to drive in his adopted Switzerland because, he says, the KGB would arrange an accident. Since his defection, the Soviets have attempted to boycott every tournament he has entered, except the world championships. Korchnoi's complaint: "Karpov is a little boy. I know of no other player with such poor end-game technique...
Technically, a Karpov-Korchnoi game is the equivalent of a Dallas Cowboys-Oakland Raiders Super Bowl. Karpov is his sport's Tom Landry, precise and by the book. Korchnoi plays with creative abandon, moving "out of book" into unexplored permutations. A book play proved crucial in the match's opening contest. Korchnoi made questionable exchanges at moves 10 and 12, allowing Karpov to execute a centerboard attack on the 24th move. Korchnoi resigned a hopeless position after the 43rd turn...