Vasyl Ivanchuk

Wassyl Iwantschuk, chess grandmaster, at the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in January 2012
Surname	Vasyl Mychajlowytsch Ivanchuk
Association	Soviet Union (until 1992) Ukraine (since 1992)
Born	March 18, 1969 Kopytschynzi , Ukrainian SSR
title	International Master (1987) Grand Master (1988)
Current  Elo rating	2678 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2787 (October 2007)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Vasyl Ivanchuk Mychajlowytsch ( Ukrainian Василь Михайлович Іванчук , scientific. Transliteration Vasyl 'Mychajlovyč Ivančuk , FIDE designation Vasyl Ivanchuk ; * 18th March 1969 in Kopychyntsi , Ukrainian SSR ) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster . In 2004 he became European champion and in 2001/2002 vice world champion of the world chess federation FIDE. He is also a four-time team Olympic champion. On December 28, 2016, he won the rapid chess world championship in Doha ( Qatar ) with 11 points from 15 rounds, ahead of Alexander Grishchuk and Magnus Carlsen .

Life and Achievements

Ivanchuk, whose father is a lawyer and mother is a physics teacher, learned to play chess from his aunt when he was six. In 1985 he won the Soviet Junior Championship and was third in the Ukrainian Championship. He qualified for participation in the World Youth Championship in Sharjah . In 1988 he finished second in Adelaide at the Junior World Championship , which Joël Lautier won at the age of 15.

He won countless international tournaments . In the early 1990s, he was one of the best and most successful players in the world together with Garri Kasparow and Anatoli Karpow (both Russia ). His best placement in the world rankings was the second place he took in July 1991 and July 1992. With the team of the Soviet Union, he won the Chess Olympiad in 1988 and 1990 and was team world champion in 1989. After the collapse of the Soviet Union , he and the Ukraine team first became team world champions in 2001 in the Armenian capital Yerevan and finally Olympic champion in 2004 in Calvià (Mallorca). He also won the 2010 Chess Olympiad with the Ukrainian national team and came second in 1996 . He and his team took third place at the Chess Olympiads in 1998 , 2000 and 2012 ; In addition, there are two second and two third places in the team world championships and a second place in the team European championship in 1992.

In detail, Ivanchuk won the super tournament in Linares (Spain) three times (1989, 1991 and 1995) and in 2009 shared the victory with Grishchuk , which can be described as the Wimbledon of chess. He achieved other important tournament victories in Biel / Bienne (1989), Tilburg (1990), Reykjavík (1991), Dortmund (1992), Munich (1994), Novgorod (1994), Horgen (1995), Wijk aan Zee (1996), Belgrade (1997), Elista (1998), Lemberg and Montecatini Terme (2000). In 2002 he lost the final against Ruslan Ponomarjow at the FIDE World Championship 2001/2002 with 2.5: 4.5. Previously, he had eliminated defending champion Viswanathan Anand in the semifinals . In 2004 he won the European Championship in Antalya . His victory in the Capablanca Memorial in Havana in May 2005, which he won with 9.5 points from twelve games, is also remarkable . His lead over the runner-up, Lázaro Bruzón from Cuba , was 2.5 points.

In January 2006, won Ivanchuk tied with former world champions Anatoly Karpov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov , the Keres -Gedenkturnier in rapid chess in Tallinn and finished the tournament in Wijk aan Zee to with Michael Adams shared third place behind the former world champion Veselin Topalov and Vice World Champion Viswanathan Anand . In December 2006 Ivanchuk won the Carlos-Torre Memorial in Mérida in the final against Lázaro Bruzón. In June 2007 he was successful at the Aerosvit tournament of category 18 (Elo average 2693) in Foros (South Crimea). The following month he clearly won the Montreal Grand Masters tournament with seven points from nine games, one point ahead of Sergey Tiviakov and 1.5 points ahead of Pentala Harikrishna . In November Ivanchuk was in Moscow with 25.5 points out of 38 games Blitz chess world champion, against Viswanathan Anand and defending champion Alexander Grishchuk .

At the M-Tel Masters 2008 in Sofia , a double-round tournament of category 20 (Elo average 2737), Ivanchuk won all games of the first round against his five opponents and in the end won with eight points from ten games ahead of Wesselin Topalow (6.5 / 10). In August he won the Tal Memorial in Moscow (6/9) and the subsequent blitz tournament (23.5 / 34). At the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden , he quickly left the game room after losing a game and thus evaded a doping test . On January 21, 2009, after a hearing, FIDE decided that there had been a procedural error and that Ivanchuk had not understood the request. Therefore, no ban was imposed on him.

In March 2009 he shared unbeaten first place in the Grand Slam tournament in Linares with Alexander Grischuk, who was declared the winner because of the higher number of wins after two draws were recorded in a direct comparison . In August 2009 Ivanchuk won the 5th FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Jermuk with 8.5 points from 13 games . In October 2010 he and Ukraine won the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk . He was also awarded eight points from ten games and an Elo performance of 2890 as the best player on the first board.

Ivanchuk (at the 2nd table on the right) in the 21st and last World Cup blitz round 2015 against Kramnik (in front Kasimdzhanov vs. Vachier-Lagrave)

At the Rapid and Blitz Chess World Championships in Berlin in 2015 , Ivanchuk was close to a medal in both competitions. At the rapid chess World Cup, the defeat in the penultimate game against Radjabov made him lose this chance, but still on the 8th place overall. In the blitz chess world championship he was fourth overall in the final phase and helped shape the top placements: in the 19th round he defeated the later silver medal winner Vachier-Lagrave with white , and in the 20th with the black pieces defending champion Carlsen and drew in the 21st against the bronze medal winner Kramnik .

Ivanchuk played club chess, among others, in Russian and German (he was registered with SC Remagen from 2005 to 2012, for which he had individual appearances in the Bundesliga in the 2006/07 , 2007/08 and 2009/10 seasons , played in the 2016 season / 17 for SG Trier and in the 2017/18 season for DJK Aufwärts St. Josef Aachen 1920 ), Polish (he won the Supercup with Polonia Warsaw in 2001 and 2002), British , Chinese, Swedish (he was champion in 2004 with the SK Rockaden Stockholm ), French (he was champion in 2012 with Clichy-Echecs-92), Dutch (he was champion in 2007 with Share Dimension Groningen), Spanish (he played for CA Intel-Tiendas UPI Mancha Real from 2005 to 2007, was with CCA in 2008 CajaCanarias Santa Cruz and 2014 champion with Mérida Patrimonio de la Humanidad and competed for CAC Beniajan Duochess in 2019 ), Czech (he plays for GASCO Pardubice in the 2019/20 season ), Belgian (he was champion in 2005 with the KSK 47 Eynatten ) and Hungarian n (he plays for DVTK Sport Korlátolt Felelősségű Társaság in the 2019/20 season ) leagues.

It is not only his sporting results, but also his creative achievements and original ideas on the chessboard that justify his reputation as a “chess genius”. Some experts certify that he has a deeper understanding of chess than Kasparov's. However, his career has been marked by ups and downs. In decisive situations, his nervousness often had a negative effect, for example in the 1991 candidate competition against Artur Yusupov .

Game example

Ivanchuk – Shirov

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Position after 20.… Rd7

One of his most famous games was played by Ivanchuk in the third round of the Hoogovens tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 1996 against Alexei Schirow .

Ivanchuk – Shirov 1-0

Wijk aan Zee, January 16, 1996

Semi-Slav Defense , D44

1. d2 – d4 d7 – d5 2. c2 – c4 c7 – c6 3. Nb1 – c3 Ng8 – f6 4. Ng1 – f3 e7 – e6 5. Bc1 – g5 d5xc4 6. e2 – e4 b7 – b5 7. e4– e5 h7 – h6 8. Bg5 – h4 g7 – g5 9. Nf3xg5 h6xg5 10. Bh4xg5 Nb8 – d7 11. e5xf6 Bc8 – b7 12. g2 – g3 c6 – c5 13. d4 – d5 Qd8 – b6 14. Bf1 – g2 0 –0–0 15. 0–0 b5 – b4 16. Nc3 – a4 The two opponents already had this Botvinnik variant position on the board at the 1994 Novgorod tournament, when Shirov played 16.… Qa6 16.… Qb6 – b5 17. a2 – a3 e6xd5 18. a3xb4 c5xb4 19. Bg5 – e3 Nd7 – c5 20. Qd1 – g4 + Rd8 – d7 diagram The move 20.… Kb8 was played by Chandler against Agsamow in Belgrade in 1982 and applies because of the answer 21. Qd4 as not good. After the move played by Schirow, 21.Nxc5 Bxc5 22.Bxc5 Qxc5 leads to a position with mutual chances. 21. Qg4 – g7 A queen sacrifice in the long run. It was described by the chess magazine New In Chess as the most spectacular move it has published in 25 years. 21.… Bf8xg7 22. f6xg7 Rh8 – g8 23. Sa4xc5 d5 – d4 Better is instead 23.… Rc7 24. Bg2xb7 + Rd7xb7 25. Nc5xb7 Qb5 – b6 Even after 25.… Kxb7 26. Bxd4 a5 27. Rfe1 White is better 26 Be3xd4 Qb6xd4 27. Rf1 – d1 Qd4xb2 28. Nb7 – d6 + Kc8 – b8 29. Rd1 – b1 Qd4xg7 30. Rb1xb4 + Kb8 – c7 31. Ra1 – a6 Rg8 – b8 32. Ra6xa7 + White is on a win. With 32.Rb7 + Rxb7 33. Ne8 + Kb8 34.Nxg7 c3 he could have lost. 32.… Kc7xd6 33. Rb4xb8 Qg7 – g4 34. Rb8 – d8 + Kc6 35. Ra7 – a1 1: 0 Black gave up.

Private

Vasyl Ivanchuk was married in 1991 to the Russian chess grandmaster Alissa Galljamowa , who lived in Kazan and from whom he has since divorced, and is the father of a son born in 1991. He lives in the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Lemberg). In addition to Ukrainian and Russian, he speaks English, Spanish and Turkish.

Web links

Commons : Wassyl Iwantschuk  - Collection of images

• Website about Vasyl Ivanchuk ( Memento of January 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (Ukrainian)
• Wassyl Iwantschuk at the World Chess Federation FIDE (English)
• Elo history up to 2001 at olimpbase.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ André Schulz : Congratulations, Vassily Ivanchuk In: de.chessbase.com. March 18, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019.
2. ↑ Rapid World Championship at Sport1
3. ^ Matthias Wahls : Junior World Championships with surprises . Schach-Echo -Verlag, JugendSchach issue 0/88, pp. 3 to 5 (report with picture and games).
4. ↑ Wassyl Ivantschuk's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
5. ↑ Wassyl Ivanchuk's results at team world championships on olimpbase.org (English)
6. ↑ Wassyl Ivanchuk's results at the European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
7. ^ Decision of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel
8. ↑ Wassyl Iwantschuk's results in the Polish Supercup on olimpbase.org (English)
9. ↑ Steve Giddins (Ed.): New In Chess, the first 25 years. Alkmaar 2009, ISBN 978-90-5691-296-3 , p. 165.