Wijk aan Zee 1978 (Hoogovens)

The 40th Hoogovens tournament went to Lajos Portisch, who finished on 8/11 for his fourth Wijk aan Zee title in little more than a decade. Runner-up Viktor Korchnoi, the defected Soviet grandmaster then only months from his second world-title match against Anatoly Karpov, took second on 7½.

◇A tournament in Korchnoi's shadow

Twelve players contested the 1978 Hoogovens top group, an eleven-round single round-robin of 66 games. Viktor Korchnoi arrived as the marquee name: he had defected from the Soviet Union in 1976 and, later that same year, would challenge Anatoly Karpov for the world championship in Baguio City. The rest of the field mixed Dutch regulars — Jan Timman, Hans Ree, Gennadi Sosonko, Paul van der Sterren — with Ulf Andersson, Oscar Panno, Miguel Najdorf, Anthony Miles, Lubomir Kavalek and Lajos Portisch himself.

It was Portisch, not Korchnoi, who left Wijk aan Zee with the title.

◇Portisch's fourth title

Portisch finished on 8/11, half a point clear of Korchnoi's 7½. Andersson took third on 6½, with Timman and Ree sharing fourth on 6. It was Portisch's fourth Wijk aan Zee/Hoogovens victory, following his wins in 1965, 1972 and 1975 — a record of sustained excellence at this event matched by very few players.

For Korchnoi, second place was a solid tune-up result rather than a setback: months later he sat down opposite Karpov in the Philippines for one of the most contentious world championship matches in chess history, played from 18 July to 18 October 1978.