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

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.

Master Class Vol. 18: Max Euwe

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.
Free video sample: Openings

But between April 9^th and 26^th, 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 82^nd. 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

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

Master Class Vol.17 - Boris Spassky

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

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