Victor Korchnoi and Magic Moments

A small tribute to Victor Korchnoi and two magic
moments were I know 100% that I learned something.

The RHP Hall of Doom with players finding ingenious
ways to lose their Queen, or not, because sometimes
they are not taken and one game where a player misses
a mate in two, his opponent in turn misses a mate in one.

Blog 317

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I really enjoyed this one, thanks very much.

HI Smitty,

I meant it when I said there were not enough 'Magic Moments' with Korchnoi.

He is the one player who I could never gel with. Him and Petrosian.
I could very rarely see what they up to even after playing over the game.

I can understand the finishes and the reason why, but the build up, the 'quiet moves'.
left me wondering what just happened. How do I emulate that?

Hi greenpawn,
just a thought about the Korchnoi Petrosian game fragment. In your notes you say that Korchnoi must have spotted the final move (Kb5) at the start when he moved the pawn. I'm thinking that he probably knew the position in the fen below was won, it looks like the kind of position that one heads to knowing it's won.



If someone asked me about this I'd have said it's a draw, so it's handy to know that there's a zugzwang trick and that whoever has the move wins. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, once again I enjoyed the blog so thankyou for that too.

Hi Deepthought,

I realised much later, of course he knew of the trick in the pattern and
put it all together that way, but at the time...I thought I was good being
able to play 3-4 mating combinations but this one caught me.
(as possibly it did Petrosian because him playing on till Kb5 made me
think that he had missed it. I guess he just wanted to be shown.)

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi Deepthought,

I realised much later, of course he knew of the trick in the pattern and
put it all together that way, but at the time...I thought I was good being
able to play 3-4 mating combinations but this one caught me.
(as possibly it did Petrosian because him playing on till Kb5 made me
think that he had missed it. I guess he just wanted to be shown.)

Deleted some faulty analysis.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
He is the one player who I could never gel with. Him and Petrosian.
I could very rarely see what they up to even after playing over the game.

I can understand the finishes and the reason why, but the build up, the 'quiet moves'.
left me wondering what just happened. How do I emulate that?

Apropos: Spielman said he could understand Alehkine's combinations, but not how he got to the point where he could spring them.