Lansing State Journal Lansing, Michigan Wednesday, September 14, 1977 - Page 15
East Detroit Sees A 31-Game Winner
East Detroit (AP) — Viktor Korchnoi won 31 chess matches the other night — all at the same time.
Korchnoi, a former Soviet chess grand master who defected from Russia last year, was in East Detroit Monday to lecture a chess club. Afterward, he played 34 of the members simultaneously, losing only three of the matches.
THE 45-YEAR-OLD Korchnoi told the group his problems began when he lost to fellow Russian Anatoly Karpov, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, in 1974.
He says the match was “arranged for (the) benefit and convenience” of Karpov and no one asked Korchnoi's opinion or sent him condolences afterward.
He gave his opinion to the Yugoslav press, however, and says he found his home full of electronic “bugs” and his telephone tapped when “Mother Russia” found out about it. He also was expelled from the Soviet chess team.
ONCE HE was able to wrangle a trip to the Netherlands last summer, he defected.
About leaving his native country, he says, “Really, I was never a dissident. My reasons were not too political.”
The first telegram he got after defecting was from the United States' Bobby Fischer, the chess world's maverick who goes unranked because he has not played a match since he defeated then top-seeded Russian grand master Boris Spassky five years ago.
“HE SAID ‘Congratulations on your correct decision’,” Korchnoi recalled.
He said he is in frequent contact with Fischer and that the American is excited about the possibility of a future high stakes money match between the two. Korchnoi said a $350,000 match in West Germany has been mentioned.
He added that he would like a rematch with Karpov, too. “I consider it as my political duty — to beat the Soviets.”
IN THE meantime, he is doing the lecture circuit, making $600 for his appearance in East Detroit. In ten days, he returns to his adopted Netherlands to await word on family members still confined in the Soviet Union.
