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Evil-Doer: Half a Century with Viktor Korchnoi
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About Evil-Doer: Half A Century With Viktor Korchnoi
Product Description Viktor Korchnoi was one of the leading grandmasters of the 20th century, coming within one game of winning the world championship in 1978. His battles with Karpov for the world crown were among the most important chess matches ever played. A man with a unique – and in many ways tragic – life and career, Korchnoi’s defection to the West in 1976 was a major event in Cold War politics. Grandmaster Genna Sosonko was Korchnoi’s coach and second during tournaments and candidates matches in 1970-71 and then a close friend of Korchnoi for decades. Indeed, Sosonko’s emigration to the West in 1972, which is described in detail in this memoir, had a key impact on Korchnoi’s decision to defect four years later. They would meet up at tournaments and at home and discuss chess, politics, and just about everything else. Their conversations constitute an important part of this book, in which Sosonko tackles difficult questions about Korchnoi’s personality and places much of his often challenging behavior into its historical context. This book, like Sosonko’s previous masterpiece The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein, contains no games but focuses on Korchnoi’s life, from his early childhood to his final years. Further, it includes many previously unpublished photos from the private collections of Sosonko and the Korchnoi family. Review "He [Genna Sosonko] surely knows that the great Viktor Korchnoi in his chess heaven would roar with approving laughter when reading this beautiful book" - Grandmaster Hans Ree, New in Chess magazine, 2018/5 (July 2018) "[These] stories and anecdotes bring the many facets of Korchnoi's character to life -- and Sosonko's book is full of such stories. Sosonko's reflections, comments, background information, and his benevolent view of the strengths and weaknesses of Korchnoi connect and unite these stories and turn Evil-Doer into a very readable and entertaining book." - FIDE Master Johannes Fischer, Chessbase website, 19 July 2018 "Viktor Korchnoi is the subject of a poignant new book from the distinguished pen of the Dutch grandmaster and former Soviet emigre Genna Sosonko. The title Evil-Doer (published by Elk and Ruby) refers to the damnatio memoriae meted out by the USSR after Korchnoi's very public defection to Amsterdam from the socialist paradise in 1976. Thereafter, Korchnoi combined the pursuit of a successful chess career, including two challenges for the world title, with the life of a persecuted traitor to the anointed heirs of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. As a fellow 'betrayer' of the Soviet chess empire, Sosonko is well placed to chronicle the inner emotions, haunting fears and occasional huge triumphs of one of the most prominent personalities ever to defect. Although his book is a factual account, Sosonko has a prose style which puts him in the tradition of other literary giants who have depicted the internal workings of the chess mind and psyche in fiction. I am drawn to comparisons with Stefan Zweig's Schachnovelle, Vladimir Nabokov's The Defence, or even Elias Canetti's Auto da Fe. For me, this is the supreme award-winning chess book of 2018." - Grandmaster Raymond Keene in The Spectator, 16 June 2018 "Who is the book for? Any chess player whose interest in chess literature extends beyond the purely pragmatic (but not little kids, not yet). It's a history lesson, it's a biography, and simply an interesting story that can be appreciated by readers of almost all ages and backgrounds. Highly recommended." - FIDE Master Dennis Monokroussos, The Chess Mind blog, 14 July 2018 "For me, this book is easily one of the very finest chess books of 2018 and I'm happy to give it my highest recommendation." - FIDE Master Carsten Hansen, American Chess Magazine, October 2018 "Genna Sosonko's articles and books are almost always a good read, and this new work on the legendary Viktor Korchnoi appears to be no different. Sosonko was actually Korchnoi's second during the Candidates cycle of 19
