XXVII Campeonato de Ajedrez de la URSS 1960
XXVII Campeonato de Ajedrez de la URSS 1960
XXVII Campeonato de Ajedrez de la URSS 1960
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XXVII Campeonato de Ajedrez de la URSS 1960

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Author: Marimón, Luis de signed by Viktor Korchnoi

Year: 1960

Publisher: Ediciones Limitadas Catalan

Place: Barcelona

Description:

192 pages with tables, diagrams and index. Octavo (8 3/4" x 6 1/2") bound in brown cloth with leather spine label and lettering in black. Signed by the winner Victor Korchnoi. IX Coleccion de Torneos Seleccionados. First edition.

The 27th USSR Championship was held at the Chigorin Chess Club in Leningrad from January 26th to February 26th, 1960. Twenty of the Soviet Union's best grandmasters and masters participated in the event. Mikhail Tal was absent because of his preparation for the coming world championship match with Mikhail Botvinnik. Tigran Petrosian and Vasily Smyslov were exempted into the championship, but the remaining eighteen competitors all qualified from semi-finals. The tournament was the first of what would be several championship wins for Viktor Korchnoi. Here he dominated with 14/19, earning wins against over half the field. However, he only edged out Efim Geller and Petrosian by half a point at the end with a stellar three win streak in the final rounds. This tournament also saw the famous King's Gambit game between Boris Spassky and David Bronstein in the sixteenth round that would later be featured in the James Bond film, From Russia With Love. The rest of the field in the following order: 4th Vladimir Bagirov 12, 5th Lev Polugaevsky 11½, 6th Yuri Averbakh 11, =7th Vasily Smyslov 10½ and =7th Mark Taimanov 10½, =9th Nikolai Krogius 10 and =9th Boris Spassky 10, 11th Vladimir Simagin 9½, =12th David Bronstein 9 and =12th Anatoly S Lutikov 9, =14th Eduard Gufeld 7½ and =14th Iivo Nei 7½, =16th Vladimir Liberzon 6½ and =16th Leonid Shamkovich 6½, three way =18th Bukhuti Gurgenidze 6, =18th Yuri Sakharov 6 and =18th Alexey Suetin 6.

Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi was born in Leningrad, USSR. His father taught him chess when he was seven years old. He won the Soviet Championship four times: USSR Championship (1960), USSR Championship (1962), USSR Championship (1964/65) and USSR Championship (1970). He made eight appearances in the world championship candidates cycle. He reached the Spassky - Korchnoi Candidates Final (1968), but failed to beat Spassky. In the next cycle he won his quarterfinal Korchnoi - Geller Candidates Quarterfinal (1971), but lost his semifinal match to Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian. He made it to the Karpov - Korchnoi Candidates Final (1974), but lost. Korchnoi defected from the USSR in 1976, and two years later he finally managed to win the Candidates and qualify for the Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Match (1978). Trailing late with just two victories to Karpov's five, Korchnoi staged a comeback, winning three games to level the score at 5-5. However, Karpov then won the final game, thereby taking the match and retaining the crown. Korchnoi qualified again for the Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Rematch (1981), but was beaten 6-2. In the next candidates cycle he was beaten by the rising young Soviet star Garry Kasparov. He continued to play at a very high level throughout the 1980s and 1990s, though he never contended for the world title again. He did, however, capture the 2006 World Seniors' Championship, scoring nine points out of eleven games. Though never World Champion himself, Korchnoi defeated nine players who at some time held the title: Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Robert James Fischer, Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen. After defecting, Korchnoi settled in Switzerland, which he represented at Olympiads and other international events. He was ranked in the top 100 on the FIDE world rating list as late as January 2007 (aged 75), the oldest player ever so ranked.

Condition:

Signed on half title. Rebound lacking wrappers, some edge chips to back pages, age toning to pages old institutional stamp to half title else a very good copy.