24th March, 2003

YESTERDAY, one of the games indefatigable veterans, Viktor Korchnoi,
celebrated his 72nd birthday - and incredibly still shows no sign in
slowing down despite his advancing years.

Born in 1931, he survived the Siege of Leningrad to make a winning debut
with his first USSR Junior Championship title in 1947, but only rose to
prominence with the first of his four victories in the ultra-strong
Soviet Championship in 1960.

A veteran of six Candidates cycles (against the likes of Reshevsky, Tal,
Geller, Karpov, Mecking, Petrosian, Polugavesky and Spassky) and an
unsuccessful challenger in two world championship matches against
Karpov, Korchnoi is one of the few players in modern history whose
results actually improved after his 40th birthday. He's played in over
150 elite international tournaments throughout his illustrious career,
winning or sharing over 40 of them spanning five different decades from
the 1950s through to the 1990s.

Even at 72, Korchnoi has not lost any of his appetite for the game that
he once described as "his life". Though he has yet to win a major in
the new millennium, the cunning old fox (or, as Nigel Short would have
it, "the cantankerous old git"), who is ranked world number 43, came
very close to doing so recently during the Hrokurinn Festival in
Reykjavik. After beating the top seed and world number five Michael
Adams, he was in devastating form losing only one game in the category
15 tournament to finish equal second behind winner Alexei Shirov, on a
score of 6/9.

V Korchnoi - E Bacrot
Hrokurinn Festival, (9)
Slav Defence
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nf3 c6 3 d4 d5 4 Qc2 dxc4 5 Qxc4 Bf5 6 g3 e6 7 Bg2 Nbd7 8 Nc3
Be7 9 Qb3 Qb6 10 Nd2 Bg6 11 Nc4 Qxb3 12 axb3 Nd5 13 0-0 f5 14 Na5 0-0-0
15 Bxd5 exd5 16 Bf4 Nb8 17 Rfc1 Bd6 18 Nxd5 Bxf4 19 Nxf4 Rxd4 20 Nc4 Bf7
21 Rxa7 Bxc4 22 Rxc4 Rd1+ 23 Kg2 Re8 24 Rc2 Kc7 25 Ra5 g6 26 Nd5+ Kc8 27
Ne3 Rd4 28 Ra4 Red8 29 Rxd4 Rxd4 30 Nc4 Rd1 31 Rd2 Rb1 32 b4 b5 33 Ne5
Kc7 34 h4 Kb6 35 Kf3 Na6 36 Nd7+ Kc7 37 Nf8 Nxb4 38 Nxh7 Nd5 39 Nf8 Nb6
40 Nxg6 Nc4 41 Rc2 Nxb2 42 Ne5 b4 43 Rxc6+ Kb7 44 h5 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON