Book Recap #20- Discussing GM Viktor Korchnoi's Chess Is My Life with John Fernandez

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Photo by Koen Suyk via Wikimedia Commons

We are back for another edition of Chess Books Recaptured. This month we take a brief break from discussing books that are focused on chess improvement and discuss the eventful, insightful, autobiography, Chess is My Life, by legendary GM Viktor Korchnoi. Korchnoi, of course, was a 4 time Soviet champion, who eventually emigrated to Switzerland, and twice challenged GM Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship.

My guest co-host this month is John Fernandez. In addition to being an old friend of mine, John is a member of the US Chess Executive Board, a USCF expert, and was an early admin and employee of the Internet Chess Club. By day, he works as a Senior Vice President of Marketing at Glia, and he is also the father of twins. John has had some memorable interactions with GM Korchnoi, so it was great to hear those, as well as to discuss the book of this legendarily irascible chess figure. As you will hear, this 2 hour podcast only scratches the surface of Korchnoi’s legacy, so you might want to click through to some of the links below, which are given with timestamps.

Click here to download the Episode

0:00- Why did we pick Korchnoi’s Chess is My Life?

Mentioned: Book Recap #17 of Bronstein’s Zurich 1953, Korchnoi’s Best Games Volume 1 and Volume 2

5:30- We go over Korchnoi’s amazing chess resume and exceptional life story.

Mentioned: Caruana-Korchnoi 2011

15:30- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessmood.com

Chessmood offers a huge library of instructive videos. You can hear GM Avetik Grigoryan on Episode 192 of Perpetual Chess. Be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel here.

16:00- Perpetual Chess is also brought you in part by Chess.com!

Among their many resources, you can check out their drills here and their vision trainer here.

17:00- We read a few excerpts from the Preface (by Kasparov), the Foreword(by GM Sergey Ivanov) and the Prologue by Korchnoi himself and discuss Korchnoi’s playing style.

Mentioned: Book Recap #1 Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, Closing Gambit, Episode 235 with Joe Posnanski

29:15- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Check out what's new from them here: New Chess Courses Online - For All Levels- Chessable.com Don’t forget to subscribe to the How to Chess podcast as well!

30:00- Perpetual Chess is also brought to you in part by AImchess.com. Check out the site, and if you decide to subscribe use the code Perpetual30 to save 30%.

31:00- We each draft our top 5 storylines from Chess if My Life, starting with Korchnoi’s difficult upbringing, which provides context for all of Viktor’s subsequent difficulties.

37:00- We discuss the insanity of the 1978 World Championship Match with Karpov.

Mentioned: Korchnoi’s Mirrored Glasses, YouTube footage of the match

51:30- Why did Petrosian and Korchnoi hate each other?

56:00- How was the Korchnoi-Fischer relationship?

1:01:00- Did Korchnoi know the rules of castling?

Mentioned: Korchnoi-Karpov Game 21 1974, Bagirov-Korchnoi 1960

1:07:00- Patreon mailbag question- “Korchnoi had a rules issue in a game with a young Magnus Carlsen- What happened there?”

Mentioned: Photo and Reddit Thread about Korchnoi-Carlsen 2004

1:13:00- Korchnoi played Maroczy while he was dead! How was the game?

Mentioned: Maroczy/Robert Rollans vs. Korchnoi 1985, Lichess analysis here

1:18:00- Korchnoi played Che Guevara!

1:20:30- What were Korchnoi’s interactions with Tal like?