Let my stolen chess board go to an intelligent child who would become a famous chess player: Vassily Ivanchuk

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hello everyone,


Here is a very nice interview given to www.chess-news.ru by Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk. It's about the robbery that took place in Sao Paulo which you can read about at our previous post.

Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk and wife robbed in Sao Paulo

Ivanchuk spoke to Evgeny Surov of Chess-News. The interview took place via telephone and can also be listened to here (in Russian).


To begin with, how do you feel?In principle everything’s fine and I feel fine. There aren’t any problems and I’m fully able to continue the tournament. I hope everything goes ok. It was a small robbery, and by the way it was almost on hotel property, which was strange. My wife and I came out, sat in the car, put down our things… And then – two guys with pistols. They took our things and ran away. That was all it was, actually. There’s not really anything particular to say about it. Fortunately my laptop bag was between my feet and they simply didn’t notice it, clearly.


So you’ve still got your computer?Yes, I’ve still got my computer and also, fortunately, I’ve got my passport – it was in the inside pocket of my jacket. That enabled me to travel here, to Bilbao, and continue the tournament. Otherwise I’d have had to return to Ukraine, just as my wife had to. Her passport was stolen.

  
And what did you do next? Did you go to the police?It was at the hotel. We immediately went to reception and reception called the police, but it was already quite late. They suggested we could immediately go to the police, on the same day, but it was already late. We didn’t want to leave the hotel and we went to the police the next day and left a statement. They haven’t found anything yet, or at least they haven’t informed me about it.


There’s been no progress with the investigation?
No, but I’m not especially concerned. At the end of the day, there wasn’t anything particularly valuable there. The most valuable thing for me was my chess set, not in terms of money but in terms of some sort of… I’ve used that chess set for many, many years. I’ve even got a wish: perhaps that chess set can somehow fall into the hands of an intelligent child, and thanks to some sort of magical properties it’ll help that child to become a famous chess player.


Are you talking about a normal wooden chess set?Yes, a normal folding set – the board opens and closes and the wooden pieces are inside.


And today, as I understand it, you made it to Bilbao a few hours ago, and tomorrow you’re already going to play?Yes, that’s right. The game won’t be postponed. There’s no point. The organisers offered to postpone it, by the way, but I said: but why, if I’m already here? Why create problems and interfere with the natural course of the tournament? Nothing in particular that would get in the way of me playing has happened.

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