1977 Candidates Tournament
As loser of the last championship (by forfeiture) and runner-up of the previous Candidates tournament, respectively, Korchnoi and Bobby Fischer were seeded directly into the tournament. When Fischer declined, Spassky, as semifinalist, of the previous tournament, was offered the spot. The two seeded players were joined by the top three from each of the two interzonals.
| 1st Round |
Semifinals |
Final |
|||||||||||||
| Viktor Korchnoi (stateless) | 6½ | ||||||||||||||
| Tigran Petrosian | 5½ | ||||||||||||||
| Viktor Korchnoi | 8½ | ||||||||||||||
| Lev Polugaevsky | 4½ | ||||||||||||||
| Lev Polugaevsky | 6½ | ||||||||||||||
| Henrique Mecking | 5½ | ||||||||||||||
| Viktor Korchnoi | 10½ | ||||||||||||||
| Boris Spassky | 7½ | ||||||||||||||
| Boris Spassky | 8½ | ||||||||||||||
| Vlastimil Hort | 7½ | ||||||||||||||
| Boris Spassky | 8½ | ||||||||||||||
| Lajos Portisch | 6½ | ||||||||||||||
| Bent Larsen | 3½ | ||||||||||||||
| Lajos Portisch | 6½ | ||||||||||||||
Korchnoi narrowly defeated Petrosian again in the Candidates quarter finals, then comfortably won his matches against Polugaevsky and Spassky to emerge as the official challenger to Karpov.
Read more about this topic: World Chess Championship 1978
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