1/13/2016 – He was one of the brightest talents in the world of chess, with an impressive rating of 2658. On 12th of January 2016, at the age of just twenty years and eight months, Ivan Bukavshin died from a stroke, leaving the entire chess world in a state of shock. The 2015 Russian Cup winner is no longer with us. What a player he was, what a beautiful chess career it would have been. A heartfelt eulogy.
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Ivan Bukavshin, 3rd May 1995 – 12th January 2016
One of the brightest talents not only in Russia but in the entire world of chess, Ivan Bukavshin, passed away tragically on 12th of January 2016. Preliminary reports say that he died of a stroke. Born on 3rd May 1995, Bukavshin, was 20 years, eight months and nine days old on the day he died. He had a FIDE rating of 2658 and was dubbed as one of the best upcoming talents from Russia. The way he played in 2015, we could have been sure that he would have developed into a world class player in a few years. His death is a huge loss to Russia and the chess world.
Bukavshin at the Aeroflot Open 2015 [picture by Boris Dolmatovski]
Some of Ivan’s best career achievements were:
U12 European champion in 2006
U14 European champion in 2008
U16 European champion in 2010
Tied for first place at the Chigorin Memorial in 2013 with ten other players
Joint first place at the Chigorin Memorial 2014 along with Ivan Ivanisevic
Winner of the Russian Junior (Under-21) Championship in 2014 and 2015
In April 2015, third place at Aeroflot Open behind Nepomniachtchi and Dubov
Tied for first in the Russian Championship Higher League with Motylev and Artemiev in July 2015 and qualified for the Russian Superfinal.
Won the 11th Ugra Governor’s Cup in December 2015 edging out Rakhmanov and Eliseev on tiebreaks
Winning the Russian Cup knockout tournament at the year-end defeating players like Eliseev, Khairullin, Khismatullin and Kokarev
Ivan Bukavshin had a special feel for the game of chess by which he made things look simple and easy. He was an excellent technical player. His games show high class handling of the bishop pair as well as perfect use of the king as a piece in the endgame, sometimes even the early middlegame. In one of his annotations for ChessBase Magazine Evgeny Tomashevsky gives us a good idea of Ivan’s style of play:
I went into the round nine game [Russian Superfinal 2015] against Ivan Bukavshin as the sole leader. But my narrow lead in the table and also my awareness of my young opponent's good technique in simple positions gave me the idea of not aiming to be too safe, but rather of defending my lead in a complicated struggle. That is the reason for the choice of the Anti-Moscow Gambit, because this is one of the critical variations for Ivan's repertoire. This meant that I could assume that he would not deviate from it.
In the only Russian Superfinal of his career Ivan did quite well, scoring 5.0/11 [picture by Eteri Kublashvili]
Tomashevsky’s words reveal two important things to us: one, Ivan’s technique was feared even by the best in the world and two, – Bukavshin was a fighter who did not shy away from critical lines and complicated positions. In fact going over some of his games reveals that more often than not he felt quite at home in complex positions and calculated quite accurately. Just to give you an example, here is a position from his game against Khairullin from the Russian Superfinal:
Bukavshin-Khairullin, Russian Superfinal 2015
It seems as if White is lost here. But Ivan found a beautiful resource. Can you do the same?
[Event "68th Superfinal RUS-ch Men"] [Site "Chita"] [Date "2015.08.13"] [Round "5"] [White "Bukavshin, Ivan"] [Black "Khairullin, Ildar"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E18"] [WhiteElo "2655"] [BlackElo "2662"] [Annotator "Sagar Shah"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/pR3p1k/5npp/P2p4/6P1/1Q2PN1P/r3qPK1/8 w - - 0 56"] [PlyCount "7"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] [EventCountry "RUS"] 56. Nd2 $3 {A brilliant move which interferes the action of the queen and the rook on the seventh rank.} Kg8 (56... Qxd2 57. Rxf7+ Kg8 58. Rxf6 $18) (56... Kg7 57. Qxa2 $18) 57. Qxa2 $6 {Bukavshin must have thought that the game is over but here Black still had chances to resist.} (57. Rb8+ {was the computer way to win, quite difficult for humans to see when a rook is hanging on a2.} Kg7 (57... Kh7 58. Qb7 $1 Kg7 59. Qb4 $1 {transposes.}) 58. Qb4 {and there is simply no way to prevent the mate on f8.} Nd7 59. Qc3+ f6 (59... Nf6 60. Qc8 $18) 60. Qc7 $18) 57... Ne4 $2 (57... Nxg4 $3 {would have made White's task extremely difficult to convert the position.} 58. Rxf7 $1 {The only way to play for a win.} (58. hxg4 Qxg4+ 59. Kf1 Qd1+ 60. Kg2 Qg4+ 61. Kh1 Qh3+ 62. Kg1 Qg4+ $11 {White cannot escape the perpetual checks!}) 58... Nxe3+ $1 (58... Kxf7 59. Qxd5+ Ke7 60. hxg4 Qxg4+ 61. Kh2 Qh4+ 62. Kg1 Qg4+ 63. Qg2 Qd1+ 64. Nf1 $18 {and White is a piece up.}) 59. Kh1 $1 (59. Kg1 Kxf7 60. fxe3 Qxe3+ 61. Kg2 Qe2+ $11) (59. Kg3 Nf1+ 60. Kg2 Ne3+ {White has to find another way to win. }) (59. Kh2 Kxf7 $19) 59... Kxf7 60. fxe3 Ke6 61. e4 $16 {White has excellent chances to win this position.}) 58. Rxf7 $1 Nxd2 (58... Kxf7 59. Qxd5+ $18) 59. Qxd5 1-0
We contacted Vishy Anand, the five-time World Champion, who said that although he had never met Ivan, this was extremely sad news. India number two and World number 14 Pentala Harikrishna wrote to us, “Even though I did not have personal interaction with Bukavshin, I had heard a lot about him over the years as he grew into strong grandmaster. I was shocked to read the news about his sudden demise. Russia has lost a great talent who would have reached the world top. My deepest condolences to his family and closed ones. May his soul rest in peace.”
GM Vidit Gujrathi, who is almost as old as Ivan was and has the same rating as him, said, “I never met or played with Ivan, but I saw that he was improving at a very quick pace. It’s a highly unfortunate blow to the chess world. He was a great talent. I always kept a tab on his games and a recent idea that he played was really very interesting.
In this very famous position of the Catalan, which has been reached nearly 7,000 times, the most popular move is 7…a6, although some players have experimented with 7…b5!? But it was Bukavshin who came up with this bold concept of 7…b6, against Artemiev at the Russian Superfinal in August 2015. Artemiev did not want to take any risks and captured the pawn with 8.Qxc4. Bukavshin developed 8…Bb7 and had absolutely no problems. In December 2015 Aleksey Goganov decided to play the most critical line against 7…b6 and went 8.Ne5!? Bukavshin boldly sacrificed his rook with 8…Qxd4 and after 9.Bxa8 Qxe5, the game became complicated and Ivan managed to win! Goganov was so impressed with this novelty that after just four days he tried it himself, against Pavel Maletin with the black pieces, and made a draw. Ivan had complete faith in this system and played it against Peter Leko at the Nutcracker tournament, where he was able to hold the Hungarian to a draw. Chess literature and experts all over the world should seriously consider naming the variation starting with 7…b6 the Bukavshin Variation in the Catalan.
Princes at the Nutcracker event: Mikhail Antipov, Gregory Oparin, Vladislav Artemiev and Ivan Bukavshin
Here's a game of the founder in the Bukavshin variation of the Catalan:
Boris Gelfand analyzes with Ivan Bukavshin as Mark Dvoretsky (right) looks on
When Boris Gelfand was asked what he thought about the openings of the “Princes” at the Nutcracker tournament, the Israeli grandmaster replied: “Bukavshin’s opening preparation is at a good level, and it is clear that in the opening he is clearly superior to others.”
In the Aeroflot Open 2015, which is considered to be one of the strongest tournaments in the world, Ivan played in super solid style, finishing third behind Nepomniachtchi and Dubov. He remained unbeaten, scorings wins over strong grandmasters like Mohammed Al Sayed, Ernesto Inarkiev, Richard Rapport and B. Adhiban. Especially beautiful was his victory over Inarkiev.
Bukavshin-Inarkiev, Aeroflot 2015
Inarkiev, who just played Qd8-d5, thought that he was forcing White to play f3
or go back with his knight to f3, but Bukavshin had prepared a major surprise!
[Event "Aeroflot Open A 2015"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2015.03.30"] [Round "4.7"] [White "Bukavshin, Ivan"] [Black "Inarkiev, Ernesto"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D85"] [WhiteElo "2618"] [BlackElo "2706"] [Annotator "Alejandro Ramirez"] [PlyCount "83"] [EventDate "2015.03.27"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Nf3 c5 8. Be3 Nc6 9. Rc1 cxd4 10. cxd4 e6 {This move looks a little strange: it doesn't really hinder d5, and it costs Black an important tempo.} 11. Bc4 O-O 12. O-O Na5 13. Bd3 b6 14. h4 {Even though the rook is no longer on the h-file, it is natural to weaken the black king position.} Bb7 15. h5 f5 {This move is as ugly as it gets – definitely very weakening. Black wants his light squares, but life is not so easy.} 16. e5 gxh5 17. Ng5 Qd5 $2 {Missing White's brilliant reply.} (17... Qe8 18. Rc7 {with initiative.}) 18. Be4 $3 Qd7 (18... fxe4 19. Qxh5 h6 (19... Rfc8 20. Qxh7+ Kf8 21. Qg6 Kg8 {and White has a choice of brilliant wins to choose from.} 22. Qf7+ Kh8 23. Rxc8+ Rxc8 24. Kh2 { with Rh1 and Kg3 to follow, just to name one.}) 20. Rc7 {with the unstoppable idea of Qg6 and forced mate.}) 19. Bxb7 Nxb7 20. Qxh5 Bh8 21. f4 Rae8 22. Rf3 Re7 {Positionally Black is simply busted.} 23. Rg3 Rg7 24. Bf2 Qe8 25. Qh3 Nd8 26. Nxh7 Rxg3 27. Bxg3 Rf7 28. Ng5 Rd7 29. Rc8 $18 Bg7 30. Bf2 Qg6 31. Qb3 Bf8 32. Qa4 Qg7 33. Rc3 Rc7 34. Rg3 Rc1+ 35. Kh2 Qh6+ 36. Rh3 Qg7 37. Qe8 Qe7 38. Qh5 Bg7 39. Qg6 Kf8 40. Nh7+ Kg8 41. Nf6+ Kf8 42. Rh8+ 1-0
That moment when Inarkiev had had enough! (picture by Boris Dolmatovski)
B. Adhiban, rated 2646, faced Bukavshin in the seventh round of the Aeroflot Open 2015. Adhiban was trailing the leaders by half point and, having the white pieces, desperately wanted to win the game. Ivan essayed the Noteboom Variation as black and soon uncorked a completely new idea with 8…a5!? He played a nearly flawless game of chess to overwhelm his Indian opponent. As Adhiban said to us, “He played just so confidently. I was wondering if it was all his opening preparation. He beat me convincingly. I thought to myself after the game that his rating of 2618 was definitely lower than the level at which he played.” In spite of losing it, Adhiban annotated this game for CBM 166 which we now reproduce here:
[Event "Moscow Aeroflot op-A 14th"] [Site "Moscow"] [Date "2015.04.02"] [Round "7"] [White "Adhiban, Baskaran"] [Black "Bukavshin, Ivan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D31"] [WhiteElo "2646"] [BlackElo "2618"] [Annotator "Adhiban,B"] [PlyCount "90"] [EventDate "2015.03.27"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "RUS"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2015.05.11"] {This game was quite important, since I was sharing the second spot and was very optimistic of fighting for the first place. Little did I know that this game could also turn out to the opposite of my hopes!} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6 4. e4 {I really don't know what this variation is called! The Marshall's Slav Triangle Gambit System? :)} dxe4 5. Nxe4 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Qxd4 7. Bxb4 Qxe4+ 8. Be2 a5 $5 {A new idea! Na6,Nd7 and c5 are the normal moves for Black.} 9. Bc3 ( 9. Bf8 {doesn't work here.} Qxg2 10. Bf3 Qg5) (9. Bd6 $5 {was the other interesting try.}) 9... Ne7 10. Nf3 O-O 11. O-O f6 12. Re1 (12. Qd2 e5 13. Rfe1 Ng6 14. Bxa5 Nf4 15. Bf1 Qg6 16. Bb4 Re8 17. Qe3 Be6 18. Bc3 Nd7 19. Nd2 Bf5 20. Qg3 Nc5 21. Qxg6 Bxg6 22. b3 Red8 23. Re3 Bc2 24. Nf3 Rd1 25. Rxd1 Bxd1 26. g3 Nfe6 27. Be2 Bc2 28. b4 Ne4 29. c5 Nxc3 30. Rxc3 Rxa2 31. Bc4 Ra1+ 32. Kg2 Bf5 33. Re3 Kf8 34. Nh4 Nd4 35. Nxf5 Nxf5 36. Rb3 Nd4 37. Rb2 Rc1 38. Bd3 f5 39. Ra2 e4 40. Bf1 Rc2 41. Rxc2 Nxc2 42. b5 Ne1+ 43. Kg1 Nd3 44. bxc6 bxc6 45. f3 Nxc5 46. Kf2 Ke7 47. fxe4 Nxe4+ 48. Ke3 h5 49. Ba6 c5 50. Kf3 Kf6 51. Bb5 c4 52. Ke3 c3 53. Kd3 g5 54. Bc6 Ke5 55. h4 g4 56. Be8 Nxg3 57. Kxc3 f4 58. Kd3 f3 59. Ke3 Nf5+ {0-1 (59) Rahman,Z (2509)-Sethuraman,S (2635) Al Ain 2015}) 12... Qf4 {Taking her majesty out of the trouble and the nasty threats.} (12... e5 { I was mainly expecting this.} 13. Bd3 Qg4 14. Re4 Qd7 (14... Qe6 {allows} 15. Nxe5 fxe5 16. Rxe5 Qf7 17. Rxe7 $3 Qxe7 18. Qh5 {A clear domination by the two bishops!} g6 19. Bxg6 {[%cal Ga1e1] with an unstoppable attack!}) 15. Nxe5 $1 fxe5 16. Rxe5 Rf7 17. Qe2 c5 18. Rd1 $1 Qc7 19. Rxe7 Qxe7 (19... Rxe7 20. Qh5 $18) 20. Qh5 g6 21. Bxg6 Nc6 22. Re1 Qxe1+ 23. Bxe1 hxg6 24. Qxg6+ Kf8 25. f3 $16 {with an interesting imbalance, but the open position of the king and the possibility of combining an attack on the dark squares and advancing the pawns give White a considerable advantage.}) 13. Bd3 c5 $1 {Taking control of several important squares and preparing ...Nc6, my opponent was still playing fast! Maybe he was still in his prep?} 14. Qc2 h6 15. Re3 $5 Nf5 (15... Nbc6 { Here I had an interesting idea} 16. Ne5 $1 {The black queen is in trouble.} Nd4 (16... Nxe5 17. Bxe5 fxe5 18. Rf3 $16) 17. Bxd4 cxd4 18. Rd1 $1 $44 {looks spectacular with a huge mess.} (18. Re4 Qg5 19. Nf3 Qc5 $11)) 16. Bxf5 Qxf5 17. Qd1 $6 {Too ambitious.} ({It was high time to go into defensive mode.} 17. Qxf5 exf5 18. Rd1 {and White had decent chances of survival.}) (17. Qe2 Qh5 $1 { I wasn't sure how to continue here while Black's plan is quite clear (e5-Nc6).} (17... e5 18. Nxe5 fxe5 19. Rxe5 Qg4 20. f3 Qg6 21. Re7 Rf7 22. Re8+ Rf8 23. Re7 $11)) 17... e5 $1 {Preventing all sorts of tricks!} (17... Nc6 18. Nh4 $1 Qg5 19. Rg3 $1 {was my idea.} Qxh4 20. Rg4 {[%csl Rh4] winning the queen.}) 18. Qd5+ Qe6 19. Qxc5 b6 20. Qd5 Qxd5 21. cxd5 {I thought this must be easy to defend, but his f6-e5 pawns really restrict my pieces.} Rd8 {[%csl Rd5]} 22. Rd1 Ra7 $5 23. Nxe5 (23. d6 Nc6 $17) 23... fxe5 24. Bxe5 Nc6 $1 {I had understimated this resource - now I don't get the compensation I was hoping for. One of my friends even texted me: why on earth 23.Ne5? For which I had no answer.} 25. f4 Nxe5 26. fxe5 Be6 27. d6 Rc8 28. h4 {Preparing Rg3-g6, which seemed like the only way to dislodge the bishop.} Rf7 ({Also sufficient is} 28... Rc4) 29. Rd2 Rf4 30. Rc3 Rxc3 31. bxc3 Rf8 {The rest is easy, I am not able to create any fortress.} 32. a4 $6 {Only adds to the trouble.} (32. Rb2 Rb8 33. Kf2 {was more tenacious.}) 32... Rb8 33. Kf2 Kf7 34. Ke3 Ke8 35. Kd4 Rc8 36. Rb2 Rc4+ 37. Kd3 Rc6 38. g4 Bxg4 39. Rg2 h5 40. Kd4 Kd7 41. Rg1 (41. Rf2 Be6) 41... g6 42. Rg2 Bf5 43. Rg1 Rc5 44. Rg2 Ke6 45. Re2 Rd5+ 0-1
Top three talents of Russia were the top three places at Aeroflot 2015:
Daniil Dubov, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ivan Bukavshin
Another young Indian talent, S.P. Sethuraman (Elo 2639), wrote to us, “I played with Ivan in the World Youth Stars in 2010 at Krishi, Russia. He was accompanied by his coach Jakov Geller. Ever since that time then I have had a good impression of him as a player as well as a person. He was a hard-working and dedicated and had a diverse playing style thanks to which he could handle different types of positions with ease. He was a very creative player and had his own ideas. I was really inspired by his idea a5 in the Marshall Gambit against Adhiban at the Aeroflot. Later I used it in one my own games and won with it. [We have added Sethuraman’s game against Ziaur Rahman in the game above.] He was calm and composed over the board, and this is one of the reasons why it came as a huge surprise that his death was by a stroke. A huge loss to the chess world.”
Ivan Bukavshin is no longer with us and there is nothing that we can do about it. But he leaves behind him a wealth of beautiful games, combinations and ideas which will be studied by chess players and chess lovers all over the world for years to come.
Ivan is gone but his moves will live on. We leave you with a video of Ivan Bukavshin in a blitz game where he tricks the strong Georgian player Baadur Jobava. Look at the ease with which the Russian makes his moves.
Baadur Jobava wrote to us saying, " I can't say that I have been friends with him, but for sure I know that he was a positive guy. It is very sad that he is gone so soon. What to say, this is life...
Bukavshin-Iskusnyh, 2013
In his game against Iskusnyh, Bukavshin played the move Bb5 to c6. His opponent was in a complete zugwang. No pawns can move without being lost, the black king is trapped, the rook on a7 is tied down to the knight and the knight cannot move because Re8 is a mate. Iskusnyh could find nothing better than to resign the game.
In life the most fatal form of Zugzwang is death. Ivan, we will always miss you.
Sagar ShahSagar is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helps him understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He is the co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India, the biggest chess news portal in the country. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, and to date close to a billion views. ChessBase India is the sole distributor of ChessBase products in India and seven adjoining countries, where the software is available at a 60% discount. compared to International prices.
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