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Friday, August 19, 2011

Veterans' chess in Botvinnik Festival: Korchnoi proves the best

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everyone, 

Here's a chess trivia question: How do you define an 80-year-old super champion, super grandmaster in two words?
The answer is: Viktor Korchnoi

 
Nice photo collage by www.chessvibes.com

Living up to his definition, Viktor Korchnoi has just won the Botvinnik Memorial Veterans rapid tournament in Suzdal-Vladimir Oblast, Russia. The 80-year-old grandmaster finished on 7/9, a full point ahead of Evgeni Vasiukov. The rest of the field included many legends: Lajos Portisch, Borislav Ivkov, Igor Zaitsev, Aleksandar Nikitin, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Oleg Chernikov, Anatoly Bykhovsky and Mark Taimanov.

Michael Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911. He won the World Championship title three times, and passed away May 5th, 1995, at the age of 84. Two days ago, on August 17th, he would have celebrated his hundredth birthday. For this reason, FIDE declared 2011 the Year of Botvinnik, and several Botvinnik memorial tournaments are taking place this month, including a strong open in St. Petersburg.

The veterans event held August 15-19 in Suzdal-Vladimir Oblast, Russia, with legendary players from the era of the 6th World Champion. It was a 10-player, single round robin rapid tournament with 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment on the clock. Despite being one of the oldest participants, Korchnoi maintained the lead throughout the tournament and took a clear first place with 7/9, finishing a point ahead of Evgeni Vasiukov.



The legends playing on stage, watched by the great Mikhail Moiseyevich

You can read a nice report in English at www.chessvibes.com and in official website
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
Also see her personal blog at

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