Viktor Korchnoi vs Alexandra Kosteniuk
Two chess prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
%2C%20Bestanddeelnr%20933-9735%20(cropped).jpg?width=640)
The record, side by side
| Viktor Korchnoi | Alexandra Kosteniuk | |
| Field | Sports | Sports |
| Sub-field | Chess | Chess |
| Born | 1931 | 1984 |
| Died | 2016 | living / not documented |
| Country of birth | Russia | Russia |
| Star sign | Pisces | Taurus |
Who they are
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 →
Alexandra Kosteniuk
Alexandra Kosteniuk arrived at the 2008 Women's World Chess Championship in Nalchik, Russia, as a player who had spent a decade on the edge of the title without claiming it. She had been a silver medalist in 2001 at only seventeen, a candidate multiple times, and a recognizable figure across the global chess circuit. In Nalchik she finally converted potential into the crown, defeating Hou Yifan in the final to become Women's World Chess Champion and cementing her place among the greats of the game. She was twenty-four years old and had been working toward…
Full biography of Alexandra Kosteniuk →
What they share
- Both are held here under Sports.
- Same sub-field: Chess.
- Both born in Russia.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- 53 years separate their births (1931 and 1984).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Viktor Korchnoi or Alexandra Kosteniuk?
- Viktor Korchnoi. Viktor Korchnoi was born in 1931, Alexandra Kosteniuk in 1984.
- What field is each of them in?
- Viktor Korchnoi is filed under Sports (Chess). Alexandra Kosteniuk is filed under Sports (Chess).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.