%2c_Bestanddeelnr_933-9735_(cropped).jpg) Korchnoi in 1987 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Viktor Lvovich KorchnoiВиктор Львович Корчной (1931-03-23)23 March 1931 Leningrad,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 6 June 2016(2016-06-06) (aged 85) Wohlen, Aargau, Switzerland |
| Chess career | |
| Country |
|
| Title | Grandmaster (1956) |
| Peak rating | 2695 (January 1979)[2] |
| Peak ranking | No. 2 (January 1976) |
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi[a] (Russian:Виктор Львович Корчной,IPA:[vʲiktərˈlʲvovʲɪtɕkɐrtɕˈnoj]; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980)chess grandmaster (GM) andchess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have becomeWorld Chess Champion.[3]
Born inLeningrad, Korchnoi defected to the Netherlands in 1976, and resided in Switzerland from 1978, becoming a Swiss citizen.
Korchnoi played four matches against GMAnatoly Karpov, three of which were official. In 1974, Korchnoi lost to Karpov in theCandidates Tournament final. After GMBobby Fischer declined to defend his title against Karpov, Karpov was declaredWorld Champion in 1975. In1978 and1981, Korchnoi won consecutive Candidates cycles and qualified to challenge Karpov for theWorld Chess Championship, but lost both matches. The two players also played a drawn training match of six games in 1971.
Korchnoi was a candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions (1962,1968,1971,1974,1977,1980,1983,1985,1988, and1991). He was also four times aUSSR Chess Champion, five times a member of Soviet teams that won the European championship, and six times a member of Soviet teams that won theChess Olympiad. He played competitive chess until old age. At age 75, he won the 2006World Senior Chess Championship[4] and became the oldest person ever to be ranked among the world's top 100 players.[5]
Korchnoi was born on 23 March 1931 inLeningrad,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, to a Jewish mother and a Polish-Catholic father.[6][7][8] His mother, Zelda Gershevna Azbel (1910—?), a daughter of the Yiddish writer Hersh Azbel, was a pianist and alumna ofLeningrad Conservatory of Music; his father, Lev Merkuryevich Korchnoi (1910–1941), was an engineer, who worked at a candy factory.[9]
Both parents came to Leningrad with their families fromUkraine in 1928: mother fromBorispol and father fromMelitopol. After their divorce, Victor lived with his mother until 1935, then with his father and paternal grandmother. They suffered under thesiege of Leningrad during which Victor's father was killed in 1941. Victor's stepmother and adoptive mother Roza Abramovna Fridman then took responsibility for his upbringing. (She would later live with him in Switzerland.)
He graduated fromLeningrad State University with a major in history.[10]
He learned to play chess from his father at the age of five. In 1943, he joined the chess club of the Leningrad Pioneer Palace, and was trained byAbram Model, Andrei Batuyev, and Vladimir Zak. Model had earlier played a major role in the development of future World ChampionMikhail Botvinnik, while Zak, who later co-authored a book with Korchnoi, had also helped train future World ChampionBoris Spassky.
In 1947, Korchnoi won the Junior Championship of the USSR, with 11½/15 at Leningrad, and shared the title in 1948 with 5/7 atTallinn, Estonia.[11]
In 1951, he earned the SovietMaster title, following his second-place finish in the 1950 Leningrad Championship, with 9/13.[12]
One year later, Korchnoi qualified for the finals of theUSSR Chess Championship for the first time. In the semifinal atMinsk, 1952, he scored 10½/17 for a shared 2nd–4th place, to advance. In the 20th Soviet final, held at Moscow, he scored 11/19 for sixth place, as GMMikhail Botvinnik and GMMark Taimanov came joint first.[13] The next year, he again had to qualify through the semifinal event held atVilnius 1953, with 9/14 for a shared 3rd–4th place. Korchnoi improved on the previous year's showing with his shared 2nd–3rd place in URS-ch21 atKiev 1954, on 13/19, as GMYuri Averbakh won.
This high championship placing was rewarded with his first international opportunity, a participation inBucharest 1954, where he finished in clear first place with 13/17.[14]FIDE awarded him the title ofInternational Master in 1954. He won the 1955Leningrad Championship with a massive score of 17/19, and shared 1st–2nd places atHastings 1955–56 on 7/9. He was awarded theGrandmaster title at the FIDE Congress in 1956.[12]
Korchnoi earned his first international team selection for the Soviet student team in 1954, joined the full national team for the European Team Championship three years later, and would represent the USSR through 1974. He won 21 medals for the USSR. His complete Soviet international team play results follow:
Korchnoi rose to prominence within the Soviet chess school system, where he competed against his contemporaries and future GM stars such asMikhail Tal,Tigran Petrosian, andBoris Spassky, following in the path laid out byMikhail Botvinnik. Korchnoi's playing style initially was an aggressive counterattack. He excelled in difficult defensive positions.[17][18][19]
His results during the 1950s were often inconsistent. One particularly bad result was his 19th place (only one from bottom) at the URSch-22, Moscow 1955, with 6/19. During the 1960s he became more versatile, as he gained experience at the top level. He won atKraków 1959 with 8½/11, shared 1st–2nd places with GMSamuel Reshevsky atBuenos Aires 1960 with 13/19, and won atCórdoba, Argentina 1960 with 6/7.[20] After his victory atBudapest 1961 (Géza Maróczy Memorial) with 11½/15 ahead of GMsDavid Bronstein andMiroslav Filip, each with 9½, Korchnoi was recognized as one of the world's best players.[21]
Korchnoi won theUSSR Chess Championship four times during his career. AtLeningrad 1960 for URS-ch27, he scored 14/19. He won atYerevan 1962, URS-ch30, with 13/19. He won atKiev 1964–65 with 15/19. His final title was atRiga 1970, for URS-ch38, with 16/21.[14]
He first qualified as a candidate from the 1962StockholmInterzonal, scoring 14/22 for a shared 4th–5th-place finish, a tournament won by Fischer. The1962 Candidates tournament, the last held in around-robin format until 1985, was held atCuraçao a few months later and Korchnoi placed fifth out of eight with an even score, 13½/27, whichTigran Petrosian won, winning the right to challenge Botvinnik.[14] Korchnoi's results included two victories over Fischer, one a brilliant win employing thePirc Defense with the black pieces.[22]
Korchnoi won atHavana 1963 with 16½/21, but fared less well in the next Soviet Championship, URS-ch31 at Leningrad, with just 10/19 for 10th place. He missed qualifying for the next world championship cycle, 1964–66, because of a poor showing at the 1964 Zonal tournament in Moscow, where he made 5½/12 for a shared 5th–6th place, so did not advance to the Interzonal. Korchnoi regained his form with an overwhelming triumph atGyula, Hungary, in 1965 with 14½/15. He won atBucharest 1966 with 12½/14, and at theChigorin Memorial inSochi 1966 with 11½/15.[23]
In the1969 World Championship cycle, he tied for 3rd–5th places at the URS-ch34, held atTbilisi 1966–67, with 12/20, and emerged from a three-way playoff, along with GMAivars Gipslis, atTallinn 1967, to the Interzonal, staged atSousse,Tunisia, later that year. A strong performance at the Interzonal, with 14/22, for a shared 2nd–4th place, took him through to the Candidates' matches.[14] In his first match, he defeated American GMSamuel Reshevsky atAmsterdam in 1968 by (+3=5). His next opponent was GMMikhail Tal, against whom Korchnoi had a large plus score in previous meetings. The match, held in Moscow 1968, was close, but Korchnoi won by (+2−1=7), and moved on to face GMBoris Spassky in the Candidates' final. Spassky prevailed atKiev 1968, winning (+4−1=5).[24]
Korchnoi represented the USSR on board three in the firstRussia (USSR) vs. Rest of the World team match, Belgrade 1970, which took place across ten boards. He played four games with Hungarian GMLajos Portisch, drawing three and losing one. In 1984, eight years after his defection, Korchnoi played board three in the second Rest of the World vs USSR match in London, with the match again held across ten boards. He faced Soviet GMLev Polugaevsky, his former teammate, in three games, winning one and drawing two; he then faced GMVladimir Tukmakov in one game, drawing. Korchnoi was the only player to play for each side in the series of two team matches.
Korchnoi, as the losing finalist, was exempt from qualifying for the1972 World Chess Championship, and was seeded directly to the following Candidates' event. To prepare, he first played a secret training match with his good friend GMDavid Bronstein, who drew the 1951 World Championship match, in Leningrad 1970, losing 3½–2½. This result was kept secret until 1995; the games from this match were kept secret until 2007, when they were eventually published in Bronstein's last book,Secret Notes.[25] Then, he played a secret training match against GMAnatoly Karpov, with whom he was close friends at the time, at Leningrad 1971; this wound up drawn in six games (+2−2=2); Korchnoi took the Black pieces in five of them, for training purposes. These games were eventually published in 1976.[26]
Korchnoi won his first round 1971 match against GMEfim Geller at Moscow by (+4−1=3), after which he went down to defeat in the semifinal versus GMTigran Petrosian by (−1=9), also at Moscow, with the ninth game the only decisive result.[27]
In 1972, Korchnoi appeared in the chess-themed Soviet filmGrossmeister along with several other grandmasters; he played the role of the lead actor's trainer.[28]
In the1975 World Championship cycle Korchnoi and Karpov, the newest star of Soviet chess, tied for first in the 1973LeningradInterzonal.[29] In the 1974 Candidates' matches, Korchnoi first defeated the young Brazilian star GMHenrique Costa Mecking (who had won the other Interzonal inPetrópolis), by (+3−1=9) atAugusta, Georgia, in what he later described in his autobiography as a tough match. Korchnoi next played Petrosian again, atOdesa. The two were not on friendly terms, and it was even rumored that the two resorted to kicking each other under the table during this match; however, Korchnoi denies this. According to him, Petrosian just kicked his legs nervously and shook the table. Although the match was supposed to go to the first player to win four games, Petrosian resigned the match after just five games, with Korchnoi enjoying a lead of 3–1, with one draw.[30]
With his victory over Petrosian, Korchnoi advanced to face Karpov in the Candidates' Final, the match to determine who would challenge reigning world champion Bobby Fischer in 1975. In the run-up to the match, Korchnoi was virtually unable to find any Grandmasters to assist him.[citation needed] Bronstein apparently assisted Korchnoi, for which he was punished.[citation needed] Bronstein, in his last book,Secret Notes, published in 2007, wrote that he advised Korchnoi before the match began, but then had to leave to play an event himself; when he returned, Korchnoi was down by three games. Bronstein then assisted Korchnoi for the final stages.[31] Korchnoi also received some assistance later in the match from two British masters, IM (later GM)Raymond Keene and IMWilliam Hartston.[32] Korchnoi trailed 3–0 late in the match, but won games 19 and 21 to make it very close right to the end. Karpov eventually won this battle, played in late 1974 in Moscow, by a 12½–11½ score. By default, Karpov became the twelfth world champion in April 1975, when Fischer refused to defend his title because of disputed match conditions.
In the lead-up to the Candidates' Final in 1974, as part of a campaign to promote Karpov over Korchnoi,Tigran Petrosian made a public statement in the press against Korchnoi, with the Soviet federation, wishing to develop younger players, taking the stance that the generation (including Korchnoi) which had been defeated byBobby Fischer could no longer hope to compete successfully against him. At the closing ceremony of the Candidates' Final, Korchnoi had made his mind up that he had to leave the Soviet Union. The central authorities prevented Korchnoi from playing any international tournaments outside the USSR. Even when Korchnoi was invited by GMPaul Keres and IMIivo Nei to participate in a 1975 International Tournament in theEstonian SSR, Korchnoi was not allowed to play, and both Keres and Nei were reprimanded.[5]
Keres did play a short, apparently secret, training match at Tallinn 1975 with Korchnoi, who won (+1=1). Korchnoi was then allowed to play the Soviet Team Championship and an international tournament in Moscow later in 1975. The ban against Korchnoi competing outside the USSR was lifted when he accompanied fellow veteran GMsMark Taimanov and Bronstein to London to play a Scheveningen-style event (where each team member competes against only the other team's players) against three young British masters:Jonathan Mestel,Michael Stean andDavid S. Goodman. Korchnoi then played the international tournament at Hastings, 1975–76.[33]
Korchnoi, in a 2006 lecture in London, mentioned that the breakthrough that allowed him to resume international appearances came whenAnatoly Karpov inherited the World Championship title forfeited by Fischer. Questions arose about how Karpov had qualified to be a World Champion, when he had never played Fischer. Since Korchnoi was not publicly visible, it was largely believed that he (and Karpov) could not be very strong. Korchnoi was then allowed to play the 1976Amsterdam tournament, as a means to prove Karpov was a worthy World Champion.[34][failed verification] Korchnoi was joint winner of the tournament, along with GMTony Miles.
At the end of the tournament, Korchnoi asked Miles to spell "political asylum" for him, whereupon Korchnoi entered the police station to defect. He had smuggled his chess library out of the USSR in two stages, on this trip as well as the previous year's trip to England.[35] Korchnoi thus became the first strong Soviet grandmaster to defect from the Soviet Union.[36] He left his wife Bella and son Igor behind. The defection resulted in a turbulent period of excellent tournament results, losses in the two matches for the World Title, all overshadowed by the oppressive political climate of theCold War.
Korchnoi resided in the Netherlands for some time, givingsimultaneous exhibitions. He played a short match against GMJan Timman – the strongest active non-Soviet player at that time – and comprehensively defeated him. He moved toWest Germany for a short period, and by 1978 had settled in Switzerland, eventually becoming a Swiss citizen.[12]
In the next world championship cycle (1976–78), for which he qualified as the losing finalist, Korchnoi first had to overcome Soviet demands that he be forfeited due to his defection; FIDE President GMMax Euwe defended Korchnoi's right to participate.[35] Korchnoi began actual play by again vanquishing Petrosian, by (+2−1=9) in the quarter-final round at Il Ciocco, Italy, taking a clinching draw in a clearly favourable position in the final game. In the semifinal, held atEvian, France, Korchnoi won against GMLev Polugaevsky, with a score of (+5−1=7). The final, in which he faced Spassky atBelgrade, began with five wins and five draws for Korchnoi, after which he lost four consecutive games. The match was noteworthy for Spassky's scandalous psychological behavior after game 10 where Spassky refused to play at the game board, instead analyzing the game from a demonstration board while seated in a box located behind Korchnoi.[37] Ultimately, Korchnoi steeled himself and finally secured victory in the match by (+7−4=7) to emerge as the challenger to Karpov, having defeated three world-class Soviet contenders.[38]
The World Championship match of 1978 was held inBaguio, Philippines. There was enormous controversy off the board, ranging from X-raying of chairs, protests about the flags used on the board, hypnotism complaints and the mirror glasses used by Korchnoi. When Karpov's team sent him abilberryyogurt during a game without any request for one by Karpov, the Korchnoi team protested, claiming it could be some kind of code (such as whether Korchnoi was dead equal or slightly advantageous). They later said this was intended as a parody of earlier protests, but it was taken seriously at the time.[39]
In quality of play, the match itself never measured up to the press headlines that it generated, although as a sporting contest it had its share of excitement. The match would go to the first player to win six games, draws not counting. After 17 games, Karpov had an imposing 4–1 lead. Korchnoi won game 21, but Karpov won game 27, putting him on the brink of victory with a 5–2 lead. Korchnoi bravely fought back, scoring three wins and one draw in the next four games, to equalise the match at 5–5 after 31 games. However, Karpov won the very next game, and the match, by 6–5 with 21 draws.[40]
Shortly before the match began, Korchnoi's son, who along with Korchnoi's wife had applied to leave the Soviet Union, was drafted into the Soviet army and went into hiding. In 1979 he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for draft evasion.[41]
Korchnoi alleged thatRaymond Keene, hissecond in the World Championship match, broke his contract by writing a book about the match (which appeared three days after the match finished) having specifically signed an agreement "not to write, compile or help to write or compile any book during the course of the match". Korchnoi commented: "Mr Keene betrayed me. He violated the contract. It was clear that while Mr Keene was writing one book and then another,Mr Stean was doing his work for him."[42] Attempts to defend Keene were rebutted by Michael Stean's mother, who stated that she was in a position to know what was in Keene's contract since she herself had typed it. Keene, she claimed, had signed this despite having already negotiated a contract with Batsford to write a book about the match. She described "a premeditated and deliberate plan to deceive" and noted that Keene's conduct had come under suspicion during the match.[43][44]
As the losing world title match finalist, Korchnoi was seeded into the next cycle's final eight players. In his first match, Korchnoi once more defeated Petrosian in March 1980 atVelden am Wörthersee,Austria, by 5½ to 3½. This victory earned him a rematch with Polugaevsky, whom he had defeated in the previous cycle. AtBuenos Aires during July and August 1980, Korchnoi again triumphed by 7½ to 6½; the match was tied following the regulation ten games. In the final match, atMeran, Italy, from December 1980 to January 1981, Korchnoi was leading West German GMRobert Hübner by 4½ to 3½, with two more possible regulation games to come, when Hübner withdrew from the match. This forfeit advanced Korchnoi to a rematch for the title against Karpov.
This final match was also held in Meran, Italy. In what was dubbed the "Massacre in Meran", Karpov defeated Korchnoi by six wins to two, with ten draws.[45]
The headlines of the tournament again largely centered on the political issues. Korchnoi's wife and son had been denied emigration and were still in the Soviet Union. His son was released from prison in 1982 and was promptly drafted again. But later that year, Korchnoi's wife, son and step mother were allowed to leave the USSR.[46] Korchnoi divorced his wife soon after.[47] At the time he was living with Petra Leeuwerik, a German woman who had been imprisoned in the Soviet Union and who had led Korchnoi's delegation during the candidate matches in 1977; the two would later marry.[48][5]
Korchnoi still had a vital part to play in the next (1984) Candidates' cycle, although he never reached the highest pinnacle again. In the first match, he defeated GMLajos Portisch by 6–3 atBad Kissingen 1983. In the second round, he was to play the young Soviet GMGarry Kasparov, who at the time was battling against a Soviet Chess Federation that was clearly in favour of Anatoly Karpov. The match was to be held inPasadena, California, but the Soviet Chess Federation protested (possibly because Korchnoi was a defector and the match was in the cold-war enemy's back yard, in a place closed to Soviet diplomats at the time, and because of the soon-to-be-announced Soviet decision to boycott the1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles). Kasparov was not allowed to fly there to play the match. This defaulted the match to Korchnoi. Another Soviet contender, former Champion GMVassily Smyslov, was also at first forfeited to Hungarian GMZoltan Ribli, with their match set to take place in theUnited Arab Emirates.[citation needed]
However, upon intervention by prominent British chess organizer GM Raymond Keene, who quickly stepped up to raise a large amount of sponsorship money to save the troubled matches, Korchnoi agreed to play Kasparov in London, which at the same time also hosted the Smyslov vs. Ribli match. This was a gracious gesture by Korchnoi, since technically he had already won by default. After a good start, winning the first game, Korchnoi was beaten by a score of 7–4, with Kasparov, who was 32 years younger, proving that his all-round game and youthful stamina were too strong.[49]
After the 1983 Kasparov match, Korchnoi continued playing at a top level but without seriously threatening the world championship again. In the 1985–87 World Championship cycle he finished equal thirteenth out of 16 in theCandidates' Tournament atMontpellier.[50]
In the 1988–90 cycle, he made the final 16 again, but was eliminated in the first round of Candidates' matches, held atSaint John, New Brunswick, Canada, losing toIceland's GMJohann Hjartarson in extra games, by 4½ to 3½.[51]
Finally, in the 1991–93 cycle, he defeated GMGyula Sax ofHungary in the first round, by 5½ to 4½ atWijk aan Zee. Then, atBrussels, he lost to GMJan Timman of the Netherlands by 4½ to 2½, ending his run at the world championship, which stretched from 1962 to 1991.[52]
He continued to play in Europe and around the world to an advanced age, living in his adopted country of Switzerland. He frequently represented theirOlympiad team on top board, beginning in 1978, even though hisElo rating was sometimes considerably below that of compatriotVadim Milov, who appeared not to make himself available for selection.
From 2001 onwards, Korchnoi became a prolific author of books on his career, publishing five new volumes, including two books of annotated games, an updated autobiography, and an overview (along with several other authors) of Soviet politics applying to chess; he also wrote a book on rook endings.
In 2001, Korchnoi won theBiel Chess Festival for the second time in the grandmasters division, having also won in 1979.[53] This 22-year gap still stands as the longest time period between being champion at Biel tournament, or quite possibly any international chess tournament.
In September 2006, Korchnoi won the 16thWorld Senior Chess Championship, held inArvier (Valle d'Aosta, Italy), at age 75, with a 9–2 score. Korchnoi scored 7½–½ in his first eight games, then drew his last three games.[4]
On the January 2007FIDE rating list[54] Korchnoi was ranked number 85 in the world at age 75, the oldest player ever to be ranked in the FIDE top 100. The second-oldest player on the January 2007 list wasAlexander Beliavsky, age 53, who was 22 years younger than Korchnoi. In 2011, Korchnoi was still active in the chess world with a notable win (inGibraltar) with black against the 18-year-oldFabiano Caruana, who was rated above 2700 and 61 years Korchnoi's junior.[55]
Korchnoi became the oldest player ever to win a national championship, when he won the 2009Swiss championship at age 78.[56] He won the national title again a few months after his 80th birthday in July 2011 after a playoff game withJoseph Gallagher.[57]
Till the very end, Korchnoi remained a fierce competitor. In late December 2012, it was reported that Korchnoi was recovering from a stroke and was unlikely to play competitive chess again.[58] He was scheduled to play in the 37thZurich Christmas Open tournament in December 2013, but he withdrew for health reasons.[59] However, in 2014, he returned to the board to play a two-game match against GMWolfgang Uhlmann (1935–2020), winning both games; the combined age of the two players was 162 years, which is almost certainly a record for a standard play match between Grandmasters. In 2015, the two played a four-game rapid match (25 minutes per player for all moves, plus 30 seconds extra per move), which was drawn 2–2. Korchnoi's final match against another Grandmaster was a similar four-game rapid match in November 2015, against GMMark Taimanov (1926–2016) – the first time since 1980 that Korchnoi had played in an official or friendly match against an opponent older than himself. The combined ages of the players was 174.[60] Korchnoi won the match 2–1 with one draw.
Korchnoi died aged 85 on 6 June 2016 in the Swiss city ofWohlen.[61]
FIDE PresidentKirsan Ilyumzhinov said that Korchnoi "has contributed substantially to the popularisation of our sport and is considered rightly as one of the strongest and charismatic players in the entire history of world chess".[62] One obituary, written byLeonard Barden, called him "the greatest player never to have been world champion".[5]
Korchnoi was comfortable playing with or without the initiative. He could attack, counterattack, play positionally, and was a master of theendgame. He became known as the master of counterattack, and he was the most difficult opponent ofMikhail Tal, an out-and-out attacker. He had a large lifetime plus score against Tal (+13−4=17), and also had plus scores against world champions Petrosian and Spassky. He had equal records against Botvinnik (+1−1=2) and Fischer (+2−2=4). He defeated nine undisputed world champions from Botvinnik through toGarry Kasparov, andMagnus Carlsen.[63]
At times Korchnoi displayed his temper after losing games by sweeping all the pieces off the board. Among his colleagues, he had a reputation of being short tempered.[47] At times, however, he displayed genial manners. In the 1983U.S. Open Chess Championship in Pasadena, California, Korchnoi was paired against GMLarry Christiansen who was late showing up to the game when his "old jalopy" car ran out of gas on the way to the event. Rather than starting Christiansen's clock, Korchnoi waited until Christiansen arrived.[64]
Korchnoi never succeeded in becoming world chess champion, but many people consider him the strongest player never to have done so, a distinction also often attributed toAkiba Rubinstein andPaul Keres.[65][66][67] On the other hand, the 10th world championBoris Spassky argued that Korchnoi did not deserve to be champion, both because he did not play the best moves (sometimes taking 140 moves to win a game that could have been won in 40), and because he did not have any individuality.[68]
One of the variations of theEnglish Opening is called the Korchnoi Variation,[69] a variation for White against the French Defense is called the Korchnoi Gambit[70] and a closed variation of theSicilian Defense is called the Korchnoi Defense.[71]
Korchnoi defeated nine undisputed world champions (Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen),a record he shares withPaul Keres andAlexander Beliavsky.
He was the only player to have won or drawn—in individual game(s)—against every World Chess Champion, disputed or undisputed, in the period between the world chess championship interregnum of World War II and his death.[72]
