Giri beats Ivanchuk in Leon

By Leontxo Garcia

The start of the three-day chess bonanza between Vassily Ivanchuk and Anish Giri did not forebode well for the Ukrainian genius. Day one was set to be two 45-minute games between the players, and after a draw in game one, Ivanchuk blundered a piece in game two to give the young Dutch player the lead.

A chipper Giri gives the sign of victory with his hands that are
the envy of every pianist.

Dr. José María López Benito, councilman of the Sports department of the city
of Leon, and Marcelino Sión, the tournament organizer.

Day two was even worse as Ivanchuk seemed to be distracted, and he lost three of the four 20-minute games as a result of appalling blunders. He was very unhappy, and began talking about retirement from chess. The score was 5-1 for Anish Giri who now led by four points. The final day was to be ten five-minute blitz games and to draw, the Ukrainian would need to score no less than 7-3.

Anish Giri chats with the arbiter Joaquín Espejo

Ivanchuk, very concentrated even between games, before the start of the day, came to the auditorium accompanied by his coach Viktor Moskalenko, wearing a baseball cap, unshaven. Among the spectators there still echoed his emotional declarations of the day before: "After an unhappy love affair, the solution is to change women. But there is only one chess, which I no longer care for, so my problem has no solution."

Ivanchuk came focused and motivated on the last day

López Benito plays the first move

Viktor Moskalenko, the second of Ivanchuk

But Giri immediately realized that today was another Ivanchuk, who was possibly protected by the speed of the game that would not let him wallow in his depression. The great Ukrainian won the first game dramatically, tied the second without much trouble and also won the next two. The Dutch did not give up, and drew the fifth game and won the sixth, but his defeat in the seventh and eighth left the duel decided.

In the subsequent press conference, Ivanchuk was energetic, recognized that he now saw life in another color and apologized for his depressing statements on the previous eve. Asked about the key to his transformation, the Ukrainian replied with another pearl: "Today at noon I had a delicious, and this relaxed me a lot. Since the sum of the previous days had left me with a negative score of four points (1.5-0.5 and 3.5-0.5) my plan was to win the final blitz match with five points difference, which I succeeded in doing."

In spite of winning more games overall, 8.5-7.5, Anish Giri nevertheless won the event as the point system awards two points per day (or time control), and since he won the 45-minute games, and the 20-minute games for four points, to Ivanchuk's two, the Dutchman is the overall winner.

Anish Giri awaits Ivanchuk's first comments

"But yesterday! Yesterday and before yesterday! That was the end of the world!"

(Such theatrics)

"Sometimes I just do not know what is happening to me!"

"It is not the first time this happens, so..."

A rapt audience follows the press conference

Leontxo García with Anish Giri and Vassily Ivanchuk after the match

The young Dutchman, number one in the world under-20, just finished his high school education, and now plans to devote the next two years to playing chess full time: "I want to see what the life of a true professional is like. But I do not rule out combine my chess career with a university degree. I would like to study psychology. In any case, my next goal is to be world champion, but I'm afraid there are other candidates, also very young, like Carlsen and Caruana, who want the same as me, and are stronger now."

Good-naturedly, Giri accepts Ivanchuk's histrionics and looks ahead

After enjoying a midday meal in Leon, Giri was explicit in describing how good it feels in Leon: "Here I won the Spanish Team Championship with Sestao in 2012, and I won my first City of Leon 2013. If I ever have the option of choosing where to play the final of the World Championship, I will propose Leon."

The final standings

Pictures from the official site

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.