chessgames.com
Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players · Kibitzing
Viktor Korchnoi vs Irina Krush
Gibraltar Masters (2007), La Caleta GIB, rd 8, Jan-31
English Opening: King's English. Four Knights Variation Korchnoi Line (A28)  ·  0-1

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
0-1

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

Click Here to play Guess-the-Move
Given 56 times; par: 46 [what's this?]

explore this opening
find similar games 4,864 more games of Korchnoi
PGN: download | view | print Help: general | java-troubleshooting

TIP: Premium members can see a list of all games that they have seen recently at their Game History Page.

PGN Viewer:  What is this?
For help with this chess viewer, please see the Olga Chess Viewer Quickstart Guide.
PREMIUM MEMBERS CAN REQUEST COMPUTER ANALYSIS [more info]

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 5 ·  Later Kibitzing>
May-21-13  shivasuri4: <SamAtoms1980: A puzzle later in the week could be made from the position on the very previous ply, after 27.Rf8+ the crusher Krush would be crushed.> Not so sure about that. What would White do after 27...Kg7? Or alternately, 27…Rxf8 28.Bd5 Kg7 29.Bxe6 Bxe6, when the win for White is hardly trivial?
May-21-13  Nick46: The syndrome "Korchoi's complaint" is a well known psychiatric disorder.
May-21-13  shivasuri4: Of course, White wins a pawn after 27.Rf8+ Kg7 28.Rxd8 Nxd8 29.Qxc7+ Qd7, but the advantage might prove insufficient to force a win.
May-21-13  James D Flynn: Material is equal but Black’s pawn structure is better because White has an isolated pawn on e3. Both sides have potential problems with back rank mate, if for instance Black were to play 27…. Rxd2 to remove the defender of White’s B on e4, White would reply 28.Qf8#.The defense of e4 is in any case illusory because Black can play 27…..Qxe4 and if 28.Nxe4 Rd1+ forces mate. How then will White answer 27…..Qxe4? and how will Black exploit his material advantage? Black can try to remove the threat of Qf8# by forcing the White Q off the c5 to f1 diagonal thus freeing the R to take the N on d2 e.g. 28….b6 29.Qg5 Rxd2 30.Rxd2 Qb1+ 31.Kf2 Qf1#. White will probably try to anticipate that plan by 28.Nf1 adding a defender to the e3 pawn. and ensuring that moves such as Rd1 or Qb1 do not come with check. 28.Nf1 b6 29.Qg5 Rd1 30.Qh6(threats Qf8# and Qxh3) Qh1+ 31.Kxh1 Rxf1#. Instead White will probably try to remove the Black Q from its dominant position 28.Rf4 Qxf4 29.exf4 Rxd2 30.Qc4+ Kf8 31.Qc5+ Ke8 White has run out of checks and must shield his Q from discovered checks after 32….Rg2+ 33.Kf1( not Kh1 Rf2 and the Q must guard the f1 square and exchange itself for a R) 32. Qg5(the only square on the 5th rank not subject to immediate loss) Rg2+ 33.Kxf1 Rg3+ wins the Q.
May-21-13  awfulhangover: I love that a young girl insulted the always nasty, grumpy and unpleasant Viktor. He insults opponents after he loses, and even more after he wins. The stories are countless. I can't understand why some defend him. Maybe they like him as a clown.
May-21-13  TheTamale: I came up with a nifty solution. Then I realized it was BLACK to play and I went back to the blackboard. Then I solved for Black to play as well! I dominate them all!
May-21-13  Marmot PFL: As an older guy I was looking for wins for white. It never crossed my mind that Korchnoi would lose.
May-21-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  chrisowen: Teased in a wave queen feed at edifice 27...Qxe4,

If peer in d2 takes then mate in two seems apt,

OK molester 28...rd1+ me think thod in carry over feckless rig bishnoi h3 and rookd1 mind the gap to fefifofum 29.rf1 Rxf1#

May-21-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  skeptic50: Looks to me like Korchnoi's 27th move (Rf2) just gave it away -- he had an easy win I think with 27. Bd5, pinning and winning the Queen. Am I missing something? I don't even see the point of 27. Rf2.
May-21-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  skeptic50: okay, never mind my earlier post-- I was looking at 27. Bd5 Rxd5 28.Qf8#. Simply 27. Bd5 Qxd5 and white just gives up a bishop
May-21-13  tivrfoa: Maybe the fact that it is Viktor Korchnoi and it is not Monday I wasn't initially looking for a queen sacrifice. But the year of the game justifies it. old man. =)
May-21-13  Kanatahodets: <awfulhangover: I can't understand why some defend him. Maybe they like him as a clown.> Genius-clown, how many times I've seen that. I am starting to think that genius must be nasty, grumpy and unpleasant with few exceptions.
May-21-13  kevin86: Qxe4! and mate in two if white takes the queen and even a second sacifice at b1,if he doesn't.
May-21-13  Jack Kerouac: Chess Community:
'Check' this out-

http://www.tsutpen.blogspot.com/sea...

May-21-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: 27...Qxe4 is krushing.
May-21-13  Once: Hmmm ... I wonder. There is more than one way to interpret the story on page 1 of the kibitzing. Irina told the story from her perspective. But it's not the only way of seeing this.

Irina's version has Korchnoi as a grumpy old man who is annoyed at having lost to her. Perhaps because she is a woman and/or much younger than him.

The other way of looking at this is that Korchnoi might also have been annoyed at himself for losing from a strong position, especially when he had a winning move of his own with 27. Rf8+.

I'm sure we've all played games where we were comfortably ahead, only to play a last minute lemon and allow the other guy to win trivially. That can really hurt - and probably more so than being steadily outplayed by someone clearly better than yourself.

All we've got to go on is Irina's account. Is it possible that she may have misread his reaction to the game? I really don't know, but it's food for thought.

May-21-13  Conrad93: Man, that took me a minute or two to see. I'm getting really bad.
May-21-13  RookFile: Alekhine said to examine all captures and checks. Obviously, you don't play them all, but they help find solutions like this.
May-21-13  bengalcat47: Korchnoi got "krushed" by Irina!
May-21-13  Ceri: Hi, all,

Back in the days when we playing Team Chess together, Irina and I used to exchange e-mails. She knew stuff like dense mists blowing over the Welsh hills.

From what I saw, she was an engaging young lady.

Cheers,

Ceri

May-21-13  Chess for life: Add my name to the list of people who stared at this for 15 minutes thinking it was White to play...For some reason I couldn't make Rf8+ work...
May-21-13  BlackSheep: Ouch , I'm on the list .
May-21-13  BOSTER: "People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent of Luck". If somebody could shot the moment when Korchnoi touched the rook from f4, and this rook bouncing a split of second was hanging in the thick air, he would see deeply into life.

With a little Luck it goes forward (Rf8) and you win, or maybe it doesn't and you lose (Rf2).

May-21-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  scutigera:   
There have been a few comments in this thread conflating one’s manners at the chessboard with one’s attitude towards the game: <Kanatahodets: I conclude; in order to be a very good chess player, nothing is wrong if you are a horrible loser. This motivates for future wins>; <Once: The other way of looking at this is that Korchnoi might also have been annoyed at himself for losing from a strong position.>; <SteinitzLives: Korchnoi is like Fischer in that to tolerate him, one must separate him from his art.>. The notion is questionable at best and both wrong and unjust at worst; Fischer is universally agreed by his opponents to have been unfailingly polite at the board, however wackadoo he was away from it, and for every world champion who was nasty in the tournament hall, e.g. Alekhine, there was at least one who was sportsmanlike even beyond the norm, e.g. Lasker. If rudeness is an expression of will-to-win, then politeness is an expression of self-discipline and objectivity, surely at least as necessary to top-level play. However hard you may be on yourself, if you cannot contain that rage, you really can’t expect to do well at chess; outbursts like Korchnoi’s (repeated and extended, you will observe) in this instance mean not that he didn’t have the power to control himself, but that he simply didn’t care to. The final verdict on manners is given by the champions themselves: Kasparov may be ungenerous in print, but even Alekhine, despite the plastic surgery he sometimes performed on his own games, was rarely unfair in print even to opponents he detested, and we may regard the occasions to the contrary not as acceptably Nietzschean Homo superioritism, but as simple lapses from mores he did believe in and tried to express. GMs, even top-flight GMs, can be sharp, dismissive, even nasty in annotations, but they back it up with variations and analysis that they expect to stand up against universal scrutiny and criticism; those who emit comments in passing after a game, in public but not in writing, are, like non-GMs and non-chessplayers who do this, unmannerly. The colloquial expression for an unmannerly person is “jerk”.
May-21-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Kortschnoi was actually complaining about the ridiculous prolixity of some Kibitzers.
Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 5)
search thread:   
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 5 ·  Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

  1. No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
  2. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
  3. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
  4. Nothing in violation of United States law.
  5. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
  6. No trolling.
  7. The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
  8. Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

Blow the Whistle

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.


NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific game only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

This game is type: CLASSICAL. Please report incorrect or missing information by submitting a correction slip to help us improve the quality of our content.

Home | About | Login | Logout | F.A.Q. | Profile | Preferences | Premium Membership | Kibitzer's Café | Biographer's Bistro | New Kibitzing | Chessforums | Tournament Index | Player Directory | Notable Games | World Chess Championships | Opening Explorer | Guess the Move | Game Collections | ChessBookie Game | Chessgames Challenge | Store | Privacy Notice | Contact Us

Copyright 2001-2025, Chessgames Services LLC