Jon Speelman: Triple-jump in spring, a celebration of Vasyl Ivanchuk

by Jonathan Speelman
5/11/2025 – Ukrainian chess legend Vasyl Ivanchuk has made a remarkable comeback, gaining 40 rating points in April and re-entering the top 100 with a FIDE rating of 2644. The 54-year-old grandmaster remained unbeaten in 27 games across three tournaments, including the Reykjavík Open, Semana Santa Open and Menorca Open, where he finished first with an impressive 8/9 score. Despite the turmoil in Ukraine, Ivanchuk continues to demonstrate his enduring talent, reminding the chess world of his prodigious skill and unpredictable brilliance. | Photo: Andreas Kontokanis, via Wikimedia Commons (2007)
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Pure brilliance

[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]

This month we celebrate with joy and awe the great Vasyl Ivanchuk. About a dozen years younger than me, I faced Ivanchuk about 10 times in the early-to-mid-1990s and found him almost unplayable, making about the same number of draws as losses. Even more so than Karpov or Kasparov, I felt that I was playing "God", and a capricious god whose moves were almost impossible to predict.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ivanchuk, who lives in Lviv, cannot but have been deeply upset. He's continued to play quite a lot and host some fascinating streams, but by this March his rating had dwindled to a mere 2604, which he retained at the beginning of April too.

But between April 9th and 26th, he played an incredible 27 games in three tournaments in a row (obviously sometimes twice a day) not losing a single one and coming second equal in the Reykjavík Open behind Parham Maghdoosloo, first equal at the Semana Santa Open in San Vicente and first outright in the Menorca Open with a massive 8/9.

This gained Ivanchuk an enormous 40 rating points in a month, and he's moved up into the top hundred again with 2644, which puts him 82nd. It's an incredible jump, and I'm eager to see what he does next.

For this month's games I've chosen a couple of the 27, and to remind us of his prodigious talent, Ivanchuk's beautiful win against Kasparov in Linares 1991, which he won ahead of Kasparov (and was one of my best ever tournaments too).

Vasyl Ivanchuk

Vasyl Ivanchuk at the 2024 Chess Olympiad | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.

Links

Topics: Jon Speelman's Agony Column, Vassily Ivanchuk
Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.