Vassily Ivanchuk (Васи́лий Ива́нчук), born March 18, 1969 in Berejiany, Ukraine, is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. Ivanchuk has an ELO rating of 2752 on the FIDE July 2005 ratings list, making him number five in the world and Ukraine's top player. March 18 is the 77th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (78th in leap years). ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... The title International Grandmaster is awarded to world-class chess masters by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. ... The ELO rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess and Go. ... The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world. ...

Ivanchuk first got fame in the chess world when he won the Linares tournament of 1991 at the age of 21. In 1991 fourteen players participated. Eight were rated in the top-ten of the world, among them World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, while the rest were none the less among top 50 players. It was a close call between Ivanchuk and Kasparov, but Ivanchuk won by half a point, and he also managed to defeat the world champion in their encounter. Here's the game (moves given in Algebraic chess notation): The annual Linares chess tournament takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain in which it is held. ... The 1984 World Chess Championship was between Anatoly Karpov (left) and Garry Kasparov (right). ... Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (, pronounced with stress falling on the second syllable: kas-PA-rov) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players in history. ... Algebraic chess notation is the method used today by all competition chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers to record and describe the play of chess games. ...

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.d4 Nf6 5.O-O cxd4 6.Qxd4 a6 7.Bxd7+ Bxd7 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.c4 e6 11.Nc3 Rc8 12.Kh1 h5 13.a4 h4 14.h3 Be7 15.b4 a5 16.b5 Qc7 17.Nd2 Qc5 18.Qd3 Rg8 19.Rae1 Qg5 20.Rg1 Qf4 21.Ref1 b6 22.Ne2 Qh6 23.c5 Rxc5 24.Nc4 Kf8 25.Nxb6 Be8 26.f4 f5 27.exf5 Rxf5 28.Rc1 Kg7 29.g4 Rc5 30.Rxc5 dxc5 31.Nc8 Bf8 32.Qd8 Qg6 33.f5 Qh6 34.g5 Qh5 35.Rg4 exf5 36.Nf4 Qh8 37.Qf6+ Kh7 38.Rxh4+ 1-0

It was believed that Ivanchuk might become World Champion, but this has still not 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 1990, rated as high as number 2 on a few occasions, he has played poorly in matches which require a different approach than tournament play. He easily gets nervous and blunders 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, tounge-in-cheek, gave his view on Ivanchuk like this: Vishy Anand Viswanathan Anand (pronounced Viswahnəhthən Ahnənd) (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. ...

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.

(http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=38320&pn=2)

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 which is why he is a threat to any chess player. However, it does sometimes lead to quick losses. Against Kasparov, he has a +6 =27 -15 score. Garry Kimovich Kasparov (Гарри Кимович Каспаров) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and the strongest chess player in the world. ...

Major tournament wins include Corus 1996, and Linares 1989, 1991 and 1995. Ivanchuk lost to Ruslan Ponomariov in the final match of the 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship. The Corus chess tournament takes place every year in a small town Wijk aan Zee in the province North Holland of the Netherlands. ... The annual Linares chess tournament takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain in which it is held. ... Ruslan Ponomariov (Русла́н Пономарёв) (born October 11, 1983) is a Ukrainian chess player. ... The 1984 World Chess Championship was between Anatoly Karpov (left) and Garry Kasparov (right). ...

Interesting games

• Kasparov - Ivanchuk, 1995, 0-1 Ivanchuk plays provocatively in the opening. The game has annotation of GM Ray Keene.
• Ivanchuk - Karpov, Linares 1991, 1-0 Ivanchuk makes an unexpected h-pawn trust in the middle-game.
• Harikrishna vs Ivanchuk, 2004, rapid game (25/10), 0-1 Ivanchuk wins with an h-pawn thrust
• Ivanchuk - Timman, 2003 Ivanchuk invades his opponent's queen side early in the game.

References

• Interview with Anand
• About Linares Tournament
• Stories about Ivanchuk and Linares

External links

• FIDE personal card
• Games of Ivanchuk
• 20 Critical Positions from His Games