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.
Experts examine the games of Max Euwe. Let them show you which openings Euwe chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, which tactical abilities he had or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame. Max Euwe became the fifth World Chess Champion after beating Alexander Alekhine in the 1935 World Championship match. A maths teacher by profession, Euwe remained an amateur throughout his life, but was still the best chess player in the Netherlands, and one of the world's best players. Euwe holds the record for the most Dutch national championships, with twelve. After winning the World Championship, Euwe was also the world's best player for a while. He lost the title again in 1937 in the rematch against Alexander Alekhine.
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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 at the 2024 Chess Olympiad | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
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1.d4 In order to play so much chess in such a short time, Ivanchuk had perforce to rely to some extent on his superb technique. In this his 17th game in 12 days(!) he squeezed well but did allow an interesting resource which would have saved the day for Black.Nf62.c4e63.Nc3d54.Bg5dxc45.e4c56.Nf3cxd47.Qxd4A very sensible approach to this enormously complicated position and the circumstances.Qxd48.Nxd4a69.Bxc4b510.Be2Bb711.f3Nfd712.Nb3Nc613.Rc1Be714.Be30-015.Kf2
White has an appreciable advantage due to the weakness of c5 and the bulwark on f3 and e4 which stymies Black's b7-bishop. Of course a computer can defend this but it's far from fun for a human being.15...Rfd816.Rhd1Rac817.a4bxa417...b418.Nb1Bf619.Rc2Ncb820.Rxc8Rxc821.Na5Ba822.Nc418.Nxa4Kf819.Nbc5Nxc520.Rxd8+Nxd821.Nxc5Bxc522.Bxc5+Ke823.Bd123.b423.Rc3e524.Ke3Ne623...Bc623...e524.Ba4+24.Bb324...Bc625.Bb624.Bd6Bd725.Rxc8Bxc8
Endings with two bishops against a bishop and knight are normally deeply unpleasant for the latter if there is play on both sides of the board, and this is pretty vile even though Black has a good post for the bishop on b5.26.Ke3Bd727.f4Bb528.Kd4Nb729.Bb4Bc630.g4Bb531.h4Bc632.g5Bb533.Ke5Nd834.Kd6Nc635.Bc3g636.h5Kf837.Bf337.h6Ke838.Bc2Kf839.f5exf540.exf5Ne741.Bg7+Ke842.fxg6Nxg642...fxg643.Bf6Nf5+44.Bxf5gxf545.g643.Bf537...Ne738.Ke538.h638...Kg739.h6+Kg840.Kf6Nc841.f5exf542.exf5Bc442...Nd643.fxg6hxg644.Be5Nf545.Bd5Be846.Bc343.Bb443.fxg6fxg643...Nb644.Ke5Bb345.Kd445.fxg6fxg646.Kd445...Bc2?
45...gxf546.Be2f647.Bd3fxg548.Bxf5Bf7gave real chances and indeed apparently should be defensible.46.f6?When playing so much chess in such a short time you're bound to make some inaccuracies, and this is a blunder because if Black can just get control of the a2 to f7 diagonal and give up the knight for the b-pawn then he would draw due to stalemate!Bb347.Kc3Be647...Bd548.Be2Be649.Bxa649.Bd1?Nd5+49...Na4+50.Kc2Nxb251.Kxb2gets to the desired position. Black simply waits with the bishop on its diagonal and White can do nothing better than to exchange it. Then when White plays Ke7 he replies Kh8 and because of the total blockage of the kingside Kxf7 is stalemate.48.Kd448.Kc2!Nc449.b3Ne3+50.Kb2Nd548...a5?48...Nc449.b3Na550.Bxa5Bxb3=was another way.48...Na449.Bxa5Nc450.b4Now Black is unable to give up the knight for the pawn.Na351.Kc5Bb352.Bc6Be653.Bc7Ba254.Bf4Be655.Bc1Nb156.Kd41–0
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Jonathan SpeelmanJonathan 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.
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