Korchnoi: Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala

 Korchnoi:Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala.

Everyman Chess

February 2014

Victor Korchnoi was easily one of the ten greatest chess players of the 20th century. Because he would not toe the line demanded by the Soviet chess establishment, he defected at great personal cost but was able to achieve not one, but two title matches for the world championship against Anatoly Karpov, another tremendous player. The author covers all of this information in the book and then goes on to annotate each game in an interactive style that will be be of unique value to anyone who likes to study their chess seriously. Each game is annotated in a thorough but entertaining manner and Lakdawala's books in general are some of the best chess book I have ever read because he makes reading them fun. This is not to detract from other authors, it's just his style.

The book does a marvelous job of introducing at least two generations to a great player that many younger players may not know as much about as they should. Korchnoi has had an incredibly long career and a career at a very high level. Until he had a stroke at age 81 in 2012, he had been the longest active playing record of any GM in living memory, although several other GMs of his era also had long careers.

"Sample:Game 1 V.Korchnoi-M.Najdorf Wijk aan Zee 1971 Semi-Tarrasch Defence 1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 d4 c5 5 cxd5 Nxd5 The Semi-Tarrasch; Black hands his opponent a Grünfeld-like centre in return for a queenside pawn majority. 5 ... exd5 is inadvisable, in my opinion, since White gets a favourable Tarrasch, where the f6-knight has been developed prematurely, with 6 Bg5 Be7 7 e3 Be6 8 dxc5 Bxc5 9 Bb5+ Nc6 10 Bxf6!? (the simple 10 0-0 looks promising for White as well) 10 ... Qxf6 11 Nxd5 Bxd5 12 Qxd5 Bb4+ 13 Kf1 0-0 14 Qb3 and I’m not so sure Black extracted full compensation for the pawn, despite his lead in development, B.Macieja-R.Jedynak, Polish Team Championship 2009. 6 e4 Nxc3 7 bxc3 cxd4 8 cxd4 Bb4+ 9 Bd2 Bxd2+ 10 Qxd2 0-0

Lakdawala, Cyrus (2014-04-03). Korchnoi: Move by Move (Kindle Locations 141-148). Everyman Chess. Kindle Edition. 

The book is available in both paperback and electronic format. Highly recommended!!