Young Master
One year later, he qualified for the finals of the USSR Chess Championship for the first time. In the semi-final at Minsk, 1952, he scored 10.5/17 for a shared 2nd–4th place, to advance. In his debut, in URS-ch20 at Moscow, he scored 11/19 for sixth place, as Mikhail Botvinnik and Mark Taimanov came joint first. The next year, he again had to qualify from a semi-final, and succeeded in an event held at Vilnius 1953, with 9/14 for a shared 3rd–4th place. Korchnoi improved on the previous year's showing with his shared 2nd–3rd place in URS-ch21 at Kiev 1954, on 13/19, as Yuri Averbakh won. This high championship placing was rewarded with his first international opportunity, and he did not disappoint, taking clear first at Bucharest 1954 with 13/17. The FIDE awarded him the title of International Master in 1954. He won the 1955 Leningrad Championship with a massive score of 17/19, and shared 1st-2nd places at Hastings 1955–56 on 7/9. He was awarded the Grandmaster title at the FIDE Congress in 1956.
Read more about this topic: Viktor Korchnoi
Famous quotes containing the words young and/or master:
“When I was young ... there never was any question about right and wrong. We knew our catechism, and that was enough; we learned our creed and our duty. Every respectable Church person had the same opinions. But, now if you speak out of the Prayer-book itself, you are liable to be contradicted.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. “What!” he said, “Must we void ourselves as we run?” Use our time as best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)