Vassily Ivanchuk 

Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian Grandmaster. His an ELO of 2787 on the FIDE January 2008 list, making him number 9 in the World and Ukraine's number one. He played board one on the victorious Ukraine team at the 2004 Calvia Olympiad. As of November 2007 he is the World Blitz Chess champion.

Career 

He first achieved international notice by winning the 1988 New York Open with 7.5/9, ahead of a field filled with Grandmasters. He tied for first place in the 1988 World Junior Championship at Adelaide, but lost the title on tiebreak to Joel Lautier. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1988.


Ivanchuk 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.

Major tournament wins include New York Open 1988, Corus 1996, Linares 1989, 1991 and 1995, Foros (Aerosvit) 2006 and 2007, Montreal International 2007. Ivanchuk lost to compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov in the final match of the 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship. In 2004 he won the European Championship, and in 2006 he finished second in that Championship. He won the 2005 Canadian Open Championship at Edmonton. In November 2007, Ivanchuk won the World Blitz Chess Championship in Moscow beating classical World Champion Anand in the last decider game.


Ivanchuk has often been at his best in international team competitions. He has played in ten chess Olympiads, twice for the Soviet Union (1988 and 1990), and eight times for Ukraine, after the Soviet Union split up in 1991. He has won a total of ten medals, and has been on three gold-medal winning teams (USSR in 1988 and 1990, Ukraine in 2004). In 122 games, Ivanchuk has scored (+47 =71 -4), for 67.6 per cent.

През 2008 г. Ivanchuk постигна изключителни резултати – убедително зае първото място на супертурнирите в София (България), Форос (Украйна) и Москва (Русия). След някои по-слаби резултати в края на годината, отново изригна в началото на 2009, разделяйки 1-2 място на супертурнира в Линарес (Испания).

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