Grandmaster Victor Korchnoi plays in the National Open in Las Vegas

World-Champion challenger Victor Korchnoi was the honored guest and participant at the 2007 National Open held in Las Vegas, Nevada. His appearance at the tournament included a chance for his fans to meet him personally at his book signing and simultaneous exhibition. At the spry age of 76, Korchnoi finished tied for second with 5 players who were ½ point behind talented American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.

Many younger players cannot take the schedule of playing 2 rounds a day, yet Victor the Senior World Champion took on the challenge and finished in 2nd place. When you consider that one game can last six hours, and 2 could be twelve hours in one day, you understand how draining a tournament can be for the top players. All the game scores are available on the Monroi website, www.monroi.com including his simultaneous games.

At the beginning of the tournament Victor and his wife Petra Leeuwerik were introduced and given a standing ovation in the tournament hall as he made his way to Board 1 where he ceremoniously played the entire tournament. Things didn’t get off to a roaring start as he was held to a draw in the 1st round by 2216-rated Erkin Gurbauzade. Victor actually was down a pawn in a rook and pawn ending and managed to pull out the draw from an awkward position. Shown below is Victor at Board 1 vs. Erkin. Behind Victor is Alexander Shabalov who had just won the 2007 US Championship played in Stillwater, Oklahoma preparing for his 1st round game.

Round 2 got back on track with a victory against 2235-rated Viktors Pupols. In round 3 the winning continued with a victory against 2378-rated Elliott Liu. Round 4 Victor defeated GM Pashzegue Sharavdorj who was rated 2502.

Round 5 saw the 8th meeting of Victor with Chicago-based Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich rated 2586. Going into this contest the two competitors had previously met seven times and had a dead even result of 2 wins and 3 draws each. So this contest was going to break the tie.

They first played each other in the 1983 US Open in Pasadena, California. Back when the US Open tournament was 12 rounds, Victor in the last 7 rounds drew and beat the best players America had to offer:

After the 1983 US Open victory, Victor beat Dmitry in 1984 on the black side of a Queen's Indian in 40 moves. That was followed by 3 draws in 1986, 1987 and 1993. In 1996 Dmitry was finally able to beat Victor in 35 moves on the Black side of a French Defense for his 1 st victory in the Bern Cup.

In 1998, Dmitry followed up with this win on the White side of a Queen Pawn Game in 48 moves.

(1) Gurevich,D (2540) - Korchnoi,V (2625) [D00]

Bratto op 18th Bratto, 1998

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Let's try the Trompovsky Attack. 2...d5 3.Bxf6 Since Black didn't make a move that would allow the Queen to recapture, White breaks up the K-side pawn structure at the cost of the Bishop. 3...exf6 4.e3 Bd6 5.c4 dxc4 6.Bxc4 0–0 7.Nf3 c5 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.Qxd8 Rxd8 10.Nc3 Nc6 11.Ke2 Dmitry decides the Queen less middle game doesn't provide any undue risk to his King so he connects his rooks so they can challenge the open files. 11...Be6 12.Bb3 b6 13.Bxe6 This repairs the Black pawn structure, but in order to activate the Q-side and not get a double pawn on the b-file white trades his last bishop. 13...fxe6 14.a3 Kf7 15.Rhc1 Rac8 16.b4 Be7 17.Rc2 Nb8 18.Rac1 a5 19.Na2 xc2+ 20.Rxc2 axb4 21.Nxb4 Bc5 22.Rc4 Nd7 23.a4 Ra8 24.Nd3 e5 25.Nd2 Ke6 26.e4 Kd6 27.Nb3 Ba3 28.a5 Bc5 29.Rc2 g6 30.Rd2 Ke7 31.Ndxc5 bxc5 32.Kd3 Rb8 33.Kc4 Rb4+ 34.Kc3 Rb7 35.a6 Ra7 36.Kc4 Ra8

Black cannot capture the "free" a pawn due to the decoy tactic of Rxd7+ followed by Nxc5+ picking up a piece. White has a slight advantage here due to his King position. 37.Kb5 Ke6 38.Na5 Rc8 39.Nb7 c4 40.Rc2 c3 41.a7 Ra8 Trading off the advanced pawns further highlights the better placement of White's pieces. 42.Rxc3 Rxa7 43.Nd8+ Kd6 44.Rd3+ Kc7 45.Ne6+ Kb8 46.Kc6 Kc8 47.Rc3 Setting up a discovered check which is hard to meet. Kb8 allows Kd6 and the King gets into the Black pawns on the K-side. Instead Victor's move ends the game quickly. 47...Ra6+ 48.Kb5+ If Kb7 to save the rook, Rc7+ drives the King away and the rook is lost. This position shows even though material is even piece placement can make the difference in the result. 1–0

After this game, Dmitry said Victor became so upset that he chose not to talk to him for seven years.

So the scene was set for a momentous showdown in Las Vegas . If the body language is any indicator this was not going to be Grandmaster draw but a knockdown battle. Shown below are the 2 players blitzing off their opening moves.

(2) Korchnoi,V - Gurevich,D [A31]

National Open Las Vegas 2007,

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nf3 Inviting play to enter the Benoni or Benko Gambit formation which Victor declines. 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 We now have the English Opening which Korchnoi has specialized in for years. Except that the c and d pawns are missing play resembles a reversed Sicilian. Black decides to rid himself of his backward d pawn immediately and sacrifices it for the initiative. 5...d5 6.cxd5 Bc5 7.N5c3 0–0 8.g3!?  e3 is much more common here, was Victor planning something special here? Qb6 The pressure on the f2 pawns forces Korchnoi to open 2 white diagonals on his Kingside. Since his bishop cannot control both Black should be able play on the white squares. 9.e3 Bg4 10.Be2 Bh3 And not surprisingly play has centered around controlling the white squares. With his last move Black prevents White from castling short but traps his bishop behind enemy lines. The question is how the players react to this imbalance.

11.g4!? h5 Dmitry spent 41 minutes on this reply. There are many variations where the white squared bishop could be trapped so he opened a line immediately. 12.g5 Victor spent 24 minutes on this response driving the Knight away and having the h5 pawn on the radar. 12...Nh7 19 minutes were spent on this move so both players are using their time in this complex middle game. White's King seems pretty comfortable in the center. 13.Rg1 Well there goes Kingside castling. The White King is destined to be in the center for the foreseeable future. Can Dmitry take advantage of that situation? 13...Be7 14.Rg3 Bg4 15.Bxg4 hxg4 16.Qxg4 Bxg5 17.e4 The mate threat on g7 does not allow the bishop to get off the g file. Taking the free bishop on c1 results in Qg7#. So with h4 in the offing to attack the pinned piece how will the game proceed? 17...Bh6 18.Bxh6 Qxh6 19.Nd2 Nf6 20.Qf3 Nbd7 Now that the fireworks have subsided for the moment, both players take this opportunity to complete their development. And White is able to castle on move 21. 21.0–0–0 Nh5 22.Rh3 Ndf6 Pins are present for both sides, Black the N on h5 and White the N on d2. Korchnoi promptly frees the Knight with his next King move. 23.Kb1 Rac8 24.d6 Qg6 Now it's Black's turn to get out of the pin. The upcoming activity around the passed d-pawn puts a crimp in the Black position. 25.Nd5 Nxd5 26.Qxh5 Qxh5 27.Rxh5 The Knight on d5 is hanging and so is the e5 pawn. White is about to go 2 pawns up. 27...Nb6 28.Rxe5 The dust has settled and White is in a Rook and Knight ending with a solid 2 pawns up. Except for the weak h-pawn his pieces are well prepared to support the passed d-pawn. Black has to seek counter play in a hurry or he will soon be lost. 28...Rfd8 29.Nf3 Rc6 30.Re7 Rcxd6 31.Rxd6 Rxd6 32.Ng5 Having given the d-pawn back for counter play Korchnoi is now threatening mate, with the Rook on the 7th rank he has 2 Black pawns under attack. Black is quite lost, as Dmitry said after the game "he (Korchnoi) has good technique". 32...g6 33.Nxf7 Rf6 34.Ne5 Rxf2 35.Rxb7 g5 36.Rxa7 Rxh2 37.Ra6 The black Knight is trapped, sending it to c8 allows Ra8 with a fatal pin. Black has managed to capture the weak White Kingside pawns but his pieces lack coordination. 37...Rh6 38.a4 Re6 39.Ng4 Kg7 40.e5 Kf7 41.Kc2 As is so typical, the opposing Kings enter the battle and head for the center of the board. 41...Nd5 42.Rxe6 Kxe6 43.Kd3 Nc7 44.b4 Kd5 45.Kc3 Ne6 46.b5 Black resigns. Dmitry said later he was playing on the fact Victor was short on time and that he would have resigned earlier and Victor showed great technique in this game. 1–0

Going into the last round, Victor was paired against Washington-based Grandmaster 2557-rated Gregory Serper. While Nakamura was battling Renier Gonzalez in an 84 move game which resulted in a win for Hikaru and clear 1st place prize, Victor and Gregory managed to call it a draw after:

(3) Korchnoi, V – Serper, G [E16]

National Open Las Vegas, 2007

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 a5 7.0–0 0–0 8.Nc3 Ne4 ½–½

Had he chosen to contest and win this game, Victor would have at least tied for 1st.

In between rounds, Victor also graciously signed his books for the participants at the National Open. Shown below are Victor and his wife handling the numerous requests.

After the tournament concluded on Sunday night, Victor also agreed to hold a 25 board simultaneous exhibition on Monday morning for which the seats were hotly contested. Shown below is Victor taking on all the challengers. Although he did not win all the games, just having the energy to walk around the room handling the boards for over 3 ½ hours is a testament to the saying that Chess is Victor Korchnoi's Life. Many fans appreciate your ongoing commitment to the game of chess.

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