Blockchain, Looted Art, Civil Rights, Kortchnoi

by Matthias Wüllenweber
1/13/2022 – The auction of the World Champion NFTs, in which ChessBase acted as a kind of digital art gallery, has been completed. The 14 works raised 7.2 Ether, which is currently around €21,000. Thank you and congratulations to all successful bidders! The creative process behind the development of the NFTs was inspiring, the technical background fascinating, the discussion with critical readers refreshing. Now the series has been released into the world, and it will be exciting to see what happens with it in the years to come. Finally, the raffle of the Viktor Korchnoi NFT, which was not included in the auction, has found a winner.

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Before announcing the winner, a little thematic detour. It was interesting and in hindsight not surprising to see how many readers express a critical opinion on the topic of cryptocurrencies and especially NFTs. In our role as a software producer, we are inclined to see every technical innovation with positive curiosity. However we have also experienced ourselves how chess has been intensely changed by the introduction of technology, and are thus used to meaningful critical views as well as to enthusiastic adoption. Nevertheless, here are a few optimistic thoughts on the future significance of blockchains.

Looted art and provenance research

The science of "provenance research" deals with the determination of the origin of works of art and cultural assets. After the turmoil of the 20th century and colonialism, this field offers challenging research subjects. Even if there is nowadays a political will for restitution, i.e. for the return of looted art or art extorted below value, the proof of ownership is not trivial for the heirs. Provenance research can become a thriller: We recommend the moving film "The Woman in Gold" with Helen Mirren, which tells the fate of the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer painted by Gustav Klimt in 1903 (see cover image of this article).

However in the future, provenance research will become less and less important: proof of ownership via blockchain makes it possible to easily trace the history of a work's origin with just a few clicks, even if the individual owners may remain anonymous. You find that exotic and only marginally interesting? Imagine buying a used car instead: The seller gives you the car's token ID in a blockchain and you immediately see all previous owners with mileage, maintenance, repairs and accidents. The distributed, self-monitoring structure of this data protects against manipulation.

Kasparov: Crypto is freedom

The renowned civil rights activist Garry Kasparov (chairman of the Human Rights Foundation) advocates cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology along similar lines. Digital proofs of ownership and identity strengthen civil liberties if they are stored in a decentralized way. Hard currencies that can not be printed by central banks in arbitrary numbers protect small savings from inflation.

Kasparov - Crypto means freedom

Governments try to block donations to civil rights organizations, but supporters switch to cryptocurrencies because they are more difficult to control. Alexei Nawalny or the Nigerian women's rights movement are noteworthy examples. Also repressive regimes like to take away the passports of citizens who are willing to leave the country, thus restricting their freedom of movement. In a country that stores proof of identity on a globally distributed blockchain, this will no longer work. Ethiopia is taking the first steps in this direction with Cardano's Atala Prism. A citizen carries her passport in her brain, so confiscating a printed copy is meaningless.

The passport in your brain

How to keep your passport in your memory? Well, a "wallet" that stores cryptographic tokens such as money, NFTs or passports is at its core nothing more than a huge number of about 77 decimal places. One could memorize this number. But that would be an impractical task in the decimal system. Wallet addresses today are represented as sequences of words. The Metamask wallet which is common for NFTs can be reconstructed from twelve words on any web browser in the world.

Imagine being forced to emigrate from your country. It is now sufficient to memorize a sequence of 12 words to bring your passport, perhaps your diplomas, your assets (and possibly even an art collection) across the border.

Kortchnoi as emigrant

A well-known emigration fate in chess history is Viktor Korchnoi, who received political asylum in the Netherlands after his participation in the 1976 Amsterdam tournament. Viktor Korchnoi is certainly one of the strongest and most successful players who did not become world champion. Therefore, it seemed obvious to honor him in a separate NFT.

For the auction of the World Champion series, 490 individual bids were submitted, making it 490 lots. From these we drew the bidder "b22c3", to whom we have now transferred the Kortschnoj NFT. The name "b22c3" might be read as "b2 to c3". Does somebody here play 3.Sc3 against French and then accept the doubled c-pawn? Viktor Korchnoi would have liked it as Black. Congratulations to "b22c3"!

 

Viktor Kortschnoj. Photo Rainer Woisin, Hamburg 2005.

 

Finally two famous games of Viktor against a white b22c3 :-)

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,170,31954%2421---
1.d4949,86755%2434---
1.Nf3282,62856%2440---
1.c4182,73156%2442---
1.g319,74556%2427---
1.b314,34754%2427---
1.f45,91748%2377---
1.Nc33,81651%2384---
1.b41,75948%2379---
1.a31,22254%2404---
1.e31,07349%2409---
1.d395550%2378---
1.g466646%2361---
1.h444953%2374---
1.c343551%2426---
1.h328356%2419---
1.a411460%2465---
1.f39346%2435---
1.Nh39066%2505---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3 Bd7 8.dxc5 Qc7 9.Bd3 Ba4N Predecessor: 9...Ng6 10.0-0 Qxc5 11.a4 Nc6 12.Qd2 Ncxe5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Qg5 Nc4 15.Bxc4 Qxc4 16.Ba3 f6 17.Qxg7 1-0 (28) Pavlov,M-Voiculescu,P Bucharest 1968 10.Rb1 C19: French: 3 Nc3 Bb4: Main line: 7 Nf3 and 7 a4. Nd7 11.Rb4 Bc6 12.0-0 White has an edge. Nxc5 13.Rg4 Ng6 13...0-0= 14.Nd4 14.h4 14...0-0-0 14...Rc8= 15.f4 15.Qe2 15...Bd7 16.Rg3 Kb8 17.Qe1 Ka8 18.h4 Nxd3 18...Rdg8 with more complications. 19.Rh3 Rc8 20.Bd2 Ne7 21.h5 g6 19.cxd3 h5 19...Rhg8= 20.Be3 Rde8 21.a4 Rh7 22.Rg5 Ne7 Inhibits f5. 23.Bf2 g6 24.Qa1 Rc8 25.Rc1 25.Qa3 Nf5 26.Nxf5 gxf5 27.Bd4 25...Rhh8 26.a5 26.Qa3 is superior. Rhe8 27.a5 27.Nb5 Bxb5 28.axb5 b6 26...Nf5 26...Ng8= 27.c4 27.Nxf5± exf5 28.Rg3 27...Ne7 28.Rg3 Rhd8 29.Rf3 29.Rh3± 29...Qb8 29...Bc6 30.Qa3!± Nf5 31.Nxf5 gxf5 32.Bc5 Threatens to win with Bd6. Rc6 33.cxd5! exd5 34.d4 Rg8
35.Rb1 35.Rfc3!± 35...Ra6 35...Qd8 36.Qb4 Bc6 37.Rc3 37.Be7± 37...Qd8 38.g3 38.Qb2! 38...Qxa5 38...Qxh4!? 39.Rb2 b6 40.Bxb6 axb6 39.Qb2 Qa2 40.Qc1 Qe2 ( -> ...Ra2) 41.Re3 Qg4 Strongly threatening ...Qxf4. 42.Kh2! Ra2+ 43.Rb2 Ra4 44.Rg2 Bb5       Black has good play. 45.Ra3 Ra6 46.Rxa6 Bxa6 47.Qa3 Prevents Qf3. Bf8 is the strong threat. Rc8 48.Ra2 White should try 48.Rd2= 48...Qd1 49.Qb2! Qf1 50.Qb3
White is now going downhill. 50.Ra4 50...Qc4! 51.Qa3 51.Qxc4 dxc4 52.Ra3 51...b6-+ 52.Qxa6? 52.Bb4 Qf1 53.Be1 53.Qxa6? Rc2+ 54.Rxc2 Qxa6-+ 53.Qa4? Rc1-+ 52...Qxa6 53.Rxa6       Endgame KRB-KR Kb7 And not 53...bxc5 54.dxc5 Rxc5 55.Rf6= 54.Ra1 And now Rb1 would win. bxc5 KR-KR 55.Rb1+? 55.dxc5 was worth a try. Rxc5 56.Rb1+ Kc6 57.Kg2 55...Kc6 Black is clearly winning. 56.dxc5 56.Kg2 a5 57.Kf2 56...Ra8 57.g4 fxg4 White must now prevent ...a5. 58.Kg3 a5       59.f5 a4 60.Kf4 a3 61.Kg5 a2 62.Ra1 Kxc5 aiming for ...g3. 63.Kf6 Kd4 Hoping for ...g3. 64.Kxf7 Kxe5 65.f6 Kd4 Weighted Error Value: White=0.65/Black=0.21 (precise)
0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Spassky,B2610Kortschnoj,V26450–11977Candidates f Kortschnoj-Spassky +7-4=710
Spassky,B2610Kortschnoj,V26450–11977Candidates f Kortschnoj-Spassky +7-4=72

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Matthias Wüllenweber, CEO of ChessBase

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