Attack with LarryC:Larry’s tribute to Viktor Korchnoi Part 2

Opening: :

Player(s): Korchnoi

Going through the thousands of games in the database played by the late Viktor Korchnoi, GM Larry Christiansen decided to go with a second video as a tribute to the great Russian, who recently passed away at age 85. Larry starts with a game played in Leningrad, USSR in 1965, where Viktor the Terrible faces one of the greatest players of the time: Lev Polugaevsky. The game is one of the hundreds of examples that show Korchnoi attacking prowess. After starting with a pawn storm - one of Korchoi's favorite attacking themes - Viktor proceeded to play an excellent game, leaving no chances to his great opponent. Then Larry shows us a fantastic combo, that Korchnoi played against Miroslav Filip. You can't find fireworks-like sacs in Korchnoi's games; very rarely he went for double-rook or  queen sacs. His sacs were rather very carefully and precisely thought out, calculated to the last move, demonstrating his deep understanding of the game. The combo Larry analyzes a brilliant example of this peculiarity in Viktor's play. Larry keeps on  with showing us pearls from the huge number of games Korchnoi played in his long career, going through a game our hero played against the magician of Riga, the great Mikhail Tal. The last game of this amazing tribute is one of the best Korchnoi's efforts. It was played in 1958 in Tashkent, USSR. It is a great example of how to take advantage of a pawn storm, unleashing the attack when the troops rip open the enemy king's position, paying attention to the opponent's possible counter-play and putting in amazing tactics to win a great game. The great Viktor is not any longer of this world, but his games will tell us about him for a long time.

Teacher's library (515) Korchnoi game analysis