Korchnoi Tributes

Soon after GM Korchnoi died last week, tributes from his fans and admirers -- many of them influential chess personalities in their own right -- started rolling across the web in waves of genuine sympathy. Here is a selection of pages I bookmarked.

• 2016-06-06: Viktor Korchnoi 1931 - 2016 (theweekinchess.com; TWIC) • 'Korchnoi had one of the longest professional careers of any chess player and achieved his greatest successes in his forties.'
  
  
• 2016-06-06: “Greatest fighter” Viktor Korchnoi dies at 85 (chess24.com) • 'Viktor Korchnoi, many people’s choice as the greatest player not to have won the World Championship, has passed away at the age of 85. Nicknamed “Viktor the Terrible” for his legendary fighting spirit, Korchnoi won the USSR Championship four times before defecting from the Soviet Union, fought three matches that would have given him the world title and won games against all the World Champions from Botvinnik to Kasparov.'
  
  
• 2016-06-06: Viktor Korchnoi dies at 85 (chessbase.com; Frederic Friedel) • 'He was one of the truly great chess players, a legend. He played in three matches that produced the World Champion, but in each case lost to Anatoly Karpov. It made him the strongest player never to have won the title. In 1976 he defected from the Soviet Union and took up residence in Switzerland, where he continued to be active into his eighties in spite of a stroke. Now he has gone and leaves a grieving chess community.'
  
  
• 2016-06-06: Chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi dies in Switzerland (swissinfo.ch) • 'Russian-born Swiss chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who defected to the West in 1976 and settled in Switzerland two years later, has died at his home in Wohlen, canton Aargau. He was 85.'
  
  
• 2016-06-06: Viktor Korchnoi passes away (chessdom.com) • 'The chess world lost a player, the legend will remain forever. Viktor Korchnoi has passed away in the hospital in Switzerland.'
  
  
• 2016-06-06: Viktor Korchnoi, 1931-2016 (chess.com; Peter Doggers) • 'Today Viktor Korchnoi died at the age of 85 in a hospital in Wohlen, Switzerland. Korchnoi had been ill for some time and was hospitalized last week after suffering from internal bleeding,'
  
  
• 2016-06-07: Viktor Korchnoi 1931-2016 (fide.com; Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE President) • 'On behalf of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and me personally, I wish to express our deepest condolences in connection with the passing away of Victor Korchnoi - one of the most renowned chess players on this planet...'
  
  
• 2016-06-07: Garry Kasparov On Viktor Korchnoi (chess.com) • 'His longevity as a top-level player and his fighting spirit were such that it was easy to hope that he might trick Death himself in a rook endgame and live forever!'
  
  
• 2016-06-07: Viktor Korchnoi, Chess Giant Who Drew Soviet Ire, Dies at 85 (nytimes.com)
  
  
• 2016-06-08: Kasparov pays tribute to Korchnoi (chessbase.com) • 'At age 85, and seriously enfeebled as any could see even in photos or videos, one would think Viktor Korchnoi's death would be no great shock, and yet it was. The reason is that he had long seemed living proof age was only a number, not a reality. In print and online everywhere, players are writing tributes and testimonies. Here is Garry Kasparov's, one of his biggest admirers.'
  
  
• 2016-06-09: Peter Svidler on Viktor Korchnoi (chess24.com) • 'In the introduction to his latest Banter Blitz session, Peter Svidler paid tribute to Viktor Korchnoi, who died this week at the age of 85. Peter recalls winning their first game, but falling victim to Korchnoi’s famously sharp tongue afterwards.'

From chess-news.ru, in English, with links to other articles on the same site:-

• 2016-06-06: Viktor Korchnoi Dies
• 2016-06-07: Anatoly Karpov: "Korchnoi Was a Chess Phenomenon"

From the same source in Russian (via Google Translate):-

• 2016-06-06: Died Viktor Korchnoi
• 2016-06-07: Korchnoi is not dead with Garry Kasparov
• 2016-06-07: Obsession with Genna Sosonko; 'written for the 70th anniversary of Viktor Korchnoi'

Surveys, like this current post:-

• 2016-06-07: Korchnoi Around the Web (thechessmind.net)
• 2016-06-11: Paying homage to Viktor (chessbase.com) • 'All over the world, obituaries, eulogies, tributes and testimonies have been written on behalf of a legend whose longevity and passion were an inspiration even for world champions. Here are some of the words that have been said by players such as Anand, Short, and Nakamura, as well as special tributes sent by Judit Polgar, Kavalek, Speelman, Benko, and more...'

In all these tributes, one voice is conspicuously missing, the most influential voice of all : the voice of the current World Champion. Where's Magnus?