VASSILY IVANCHUK

'Vassily Ivanchuk', also transliterated as 'Vasyl' () (born March 18 1969), is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. Ivanchuk has an Elo rating of 2762 on the FIDE July 2007 ratings list, making him number four in the world and Ukraine's number one.
Ivanchuk was born in Berezhany, Ukraine, and reached chess world fame at the age of 21 when he won the Linares tournament in 1991. Fourteen players participated, eight of them rated top-ten of the world, including World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, while the rest were all among the world's top 50 players. It was a close call between Ivanchuk and Kasparov, but Ivanchuk won by half a point, and Ivanchuk defeated Kasparov in their individual game.
It was believed that Ivanchuk would become World Champion, but this has not yet happened, although he came close in 2002 when he reached the finals of the FIDE World Championship Knockout. Even though he has been consistently among the top 10 since 1989, ranked as high as number 2 on a few occasions, he has played poorly in matches which require a different approach than tournament play. Most chess fans blame this on his weak nerves and his tendency to blunder in critical positions.
"Big Chucky", as Ivanchuk is called, has been described by Viswanathan Anand as the most eccentric player in the chess world. Anand, tongue-in-cheek, gave his view on Ivanchuk like this [1]:
:''He’s someone who is very intelligent ... but you never know which mood he is going to be in. Some days he will treat you like his long-lost brother. The next day he ignores you completely. ''
:''The players have a word for him. They say he lives on 'Planet Ivanchuk'. (Laughs) ... I have seen him totally drunk and singing Ukrainian poetry and then the next day I have seen him give an impressive talk.''
:''For a while he was trying to learn Turkish. Don’t ask me why ... Everyday is a surprise with him.''
When he plays, Ivanchuk rarely looks at the board. Instead he stares at the ceiling and at the walls with a blank stare. His playing style is unpredictable and highly original, making him a threat to any chess player, although it sometimes also leads to quick losses.
Major tournament wins include Corus 1996, Linares 1989, 1991 and 1995, Foros (Aerosvit) 2006 and 2007, Montreal International 2007. Ivanchuk lost to Ruslan Ponomariov in the final match of the 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship. In 2004 he won the European Championship, in 2006 he came in second.

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References

★ Interview with Anand

★ About Linares Tournament

★ Stories about Ivanchuk and Linares

External links

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