Vasily Smyslov vs Viktor Korchnoi
Two chess prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
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The record, side by side
| Vasily Smyslov | Viktor Korchnoi | |
| Field | Sports | Sports |
| Sub-field | Chess | Chess |
| Born | 1921 | 1931 |
| Died | 2010 | 2016 |
| Country of birth | Russia | Russia |
| Star sign | Pisces | Pisces |
Who they are
Vasily Smyslov
There is a quality in the chess of Vasily Smyslov that analysts have struggled for decades to name precisely. The word most often used is harmony — his pieces moved as if pulled by gravitational attraction to their correct squares, his positions unfolded with the logic of a musical composition, his endgame technique translated apparently equal positions into victories with a consistency that approached the mechanical. But harmony is an aesthetic judgment, and Smyslov's chess was something more than aesthetically pleasing. It was, in the deepest sense, correct — and correctness sustained over a career…
Full biography of Vasily Smyslov →
Viktor Korchnoi
There are players who fight for the World Championship, and there are fighters who make the World Championship tremble. Viktor Korchnoi was the second kind — a man of such consuming competitive fury that he challenged for the chess crown twice in the late 1970s under conditions that would have broken most players: stripped of Soviet support, separated from his family held hostage in the USSR, playing across the board from the Soviet machine's handpicked champion. He was known as "Viktor the Terrible," a nickname that captured something true about his nature: the ferocity, the…
Full biography of Viktor Korchnoi →
What they share
- Both are held here under Sports.
- Same sub-field: Chess.
- Both born in Russia.
- Near contemporaries - 10 years apart.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
- Both Pisces.
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Vasily Smyslov or Viktor Korchnoi?
- Vasily Smyslov. Vasily Smyslov was born in 1921, Viktor Korchnoi in 1931.
- What field is each of them in?
- Vasily Smyslov is filed under Sports (Chess). Viktor Korchnoi is filed under Sports (Chess).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.