LaviChess

Pia Cramling vs. Korchnoi, Biel 1984

Two years after their draw in London, Pia Cramling and Viktor Korchnoi met again, in the first round at Biel. This time she didn't let him get away. “Pia beat Korchnoi!” wrote the Swedish chess magazine.

  • WhitePia Cramling
  • BlackViktor Korchnoi
  • WhereBiel
  • WhenJuly 22, 1984
  • EventBiel Grandmaster Tournament, round 1
  • Result1–0, White won
  • OpeningCaro-Kann Defense (B10)
  • Length33 moves

Pia Cramling had met Viktor Korchnoi once before, in London 1982. There she missed a win and had to settle for a draw. In the summer of 1984 they were paired again, in the first round of the grandmaster tournament in Biel, Switzerland.

Korchnoi had twice played a world championship match against Anatoly Karpov, in 1978 and 1981, and he lived in Switzerland. Pia was 21 and the only woman in the tournament. In January that year she had been the highest-rated woman in the world.

Hort and Hübner shared first place, and Korchnoi was third. Pia scored five points out of eleven.

The players

Pia Cramling (born 1963) from Stockholm became Sweden's first female grandmaster in 1992, and the fifth woman in the world to hold the title. She has three times won gold on first board at the Women's Chess Olympiad, in 1984, 1988 and 2022, and in November 2026 she won the World Senior Championship in the women's 50+ section.

Viktor Korchnoi (1931–2016) from Leningrad is counted among the strongest players never to become world champion. He left the Soviet Union in 1976 and later became a Swiss citizen. At 75 he won the World Senior Championship.

Read more about Pia Cramling among the great chess players.

The game move by move

Step through with the arrows or tap a move. Moves with a dot have a comment.

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Pia Cramling has the white pieces, Viktor Korchnoi the black.

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Open on the analysis board

Watch the game on the living board

Play like Cramling

Guess the moves Cramling played, one at a time. The move from the game earns two points, and a move Lavi thinks is about as good earns one. The other side's moves and the game's notes come as you go.

Play like CramlingPlay like Korchnoi

The moments that decided it

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After 30…Qf6: “The losing move.” After the queen trade the black king is exposed.
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After 32.Re3: the rook is on its way to h3, and the rook on d7 is waiting on the seventh rank.

The end

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The final position after 33.Rh3. Black resigned after 33.Rh3.

Why the game is famous

“Pia besegrade Kortjnoj!” (Pia beat Korchnoi!) was the headline in Tidskrift för Schack, which called the game sensational. Korchnoi was a two-time world championship challenger, and Pia was the only woman in the tournament.

A few weeks later Pia met the Spanish grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellón at a tournament in Zurich. He too had just beaten Korchnoi in the first round, and Pia and Juan married four years later. Korchnoi joked about it: “just after the two of them had beaten me, they fell in love!”

The whole game with notes, as text

1. e4 c6 2. c4 Pia meets the Caro-Kann with an early c4. Pawns are traded in the center, and the game becomes open. 2… d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. cxd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nxd5 6. Nf3 e6 7. d4 Bb4 8. Bd2 Nc6 9. Bd3 Be7 10. a3 Bf6 11. O-O O-O 12. Qe2 Bxd4 Korchnoi takes a pawn, and after the trades that follow Pia is a pawn down. 13. Nxd5 Qxd5 14. Be4 Qd6 15. Bxc6 bxc6 16. Nxd4 Qxd4 17. Bb4 The bishop attacks the rook on f8, which has to move. 17… Re8 18. Rfd1 Qb6 19. Qe5 Qb5 20. Qc7 Qb6 21. Qe5 a5 22. Bc5 Qb3 23. f4 Ba6 24. Rd7 The rook breaks into the seventh rank. 24… Qc2 25. Bd4 Qg6 26. Re1 f6 “Black is now in serious time trouble,” wrote Tidskrift för Schack. 27. Qc5 Qf5 28. Qd6 e5 29. fxe5 fxe5 30. Bc5 Qf6 “The losing move,” wrote Tidskrift för Schack, and so it was. The position was level before it, but after the queen trade the black king is exposed. 31. Qxf6 gxf6 The queens are gone. Black is a pawn up, but the pawns in front of the black king are split. 32. Re3 The only move that wins. The rook on e1 swings up toward h3, and the rook on d7 stays on the seventh rank. 32… Kh8 33. Rh3 Korchnoi resigned. The threat is 34.Rhxh7+ Kg8 35.Rdg7#. Tidskrift för Schack wrote that the mate could not be stopped. It isn't quite that bad: Black can avoid mate, but only by giving up material, and then the position is lost anyway.

PGN – the game as text for other chess programs
[Event "Biel Grandmaster Tournament, round 1"]
[Site "Biel"]
[Date "1984.07.22"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Pia Cramling"]
[Black "Viktor Korchnoi"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B10"]

1. e4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. cxd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nxd5 6. Nf3 e6 7. d4 Bb4 8. Bd2 Nc6 9. Bd3 Be7 10. a3 Bf6 11. O-O O-O 12. Qe2 Bxd4 13. Nxd5 Qxd5 14. Be4 Qd6 15. Bxc6 bxc6 16. Nxd4 Qxd4 17. Bb4 Re8 18. Rfd1 Qb6 19. Qe5 Qb5 20. Qc7 Qb6 21. Qe5 a5 22. Bc5 Qb3 23. f4 Ba6 24. Rd7 Qc2 25. Bd4 Qg6 26. Re1 f6 27. Qc5 Qf5 28. Qd6 e5 29. fxe5 fxe5 30. Bc5 Qf6 31. Qxf6 gxf6 32. Re3 Kh8 33. Rh3 1-0

Download .pgn

Sources

  • Tidskrift för Schack 1984 no. 6: “Pia besegrade Kortjnoj!” (p. 214)
  • ChessBase: Ten highlights in the life and career of chess grandmaster Pia Cramling (Eduard Frey, 2023), with the game
  • PGN Mentor, Korchnoi.pgn
  • Wikipedia: Viktor Korchnoi
  • Wikipedia: Pia Cramling
  • Swedish Chess Federation, November 14, 2026: Pia Cramling tog guld i veteran-VM (in Swedish)

The moves compared in three sources. Tidskrift för Schack 1984, the Swedish federation's magazine, and the game that goes with the ChessBase article are identical, 65 half-moves. PGN Mentor has a different 32nd move, 32.Rd3 instead of 32.Re3, and so a different final position. We follow the magazine and ChessBase: the magazine's note about mate with Rxh7+ and Rg7 needs the rook to still be on d7, which it only is after 32.Re3. The date, July 22, 1984, is in the ChessBase game; that it was the first round is also in the magazine. Every move has also been replayed by computer and checked against the rules of chess.

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Updated November 14, 2026