Spelling is important but some people really work on my nerves by nitpicking everywhere.
There is no consensus about how to translate Cyrillic to Roman characters.
For Korchnoi there exist many variations.
I quote a piece of the excellent chess notes of Edward Winter: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/korchnoi.html
"Our remark in C.N. 5577 about the different ways in which Bogoljubow’s name is spelt has prompted Javier Asturiano Molina (Murcia, Spain) to report on another case:

‘I have found Korchnoi, Kortchnoi, Kortschnoi, Kortsnoi, Kortshnoi, Korchnoï, Kortchnoï, Korchnoy, Kortchnoy, Kortschnoy, Korchnoj, Kortchnoj, Kortschnoj, Korcznoj, Korcsnoj, Kortjnoj, Kortsjnoj, Kortšnoi and Korčnoj.’"

I remember that when I had to translate my name for the first time from Roman to Cyrillic that my Russian teacher told me just to select one and stick to it. I wasn't sure about which type of 'l' to use : 'л' or 'ль'. They are very different but none is exactly the same as we use.

Stigma wrote on 06/19/16 at 02:31:22:


I guess you mean Aljekhin - wihout the second "j". At least I have never seen it spelled that way...

That makes sense, since Alekhine made France his adopted home country and even played a number of olympiads for France. The spelling may even be his own.

It still doesn't work well in English though...

And the Scandinavian languages use "Aljekjin".

The English spelling "Alekhine" is odd btw. Why the final, silent -e? It's not there in Russian, and positively invites the freqent mispronounciations, like rhyming it with "shine" or actually pronouncing the -e.

Does anybody recall an old (transliterated) spelling of Alekhine that included a "j" somewhere?  I'd be very interested to be reminded, thanks in advance.