Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk and wife robbed in Sao Paulo
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
We've just got the information that Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk and his wife were robbed in Sao Paulo before they were leaving for Bilbao, Spain to continue with the second part of the Grand Slam Chess Masters. The full story is there on www.chessvibes.com.
This is pathetic news. If only the world would understand. Why do we have people who have to create problems, do negative things and harm others. It's part ridiculous and very upsetting too for all of us.
Just outside their hotel in Sao Paulo, Vassily Ivanchuk and his wife were robbed yesterday. "The robbers were armed with a gun", Leontxo Garcia told Chess Vibes on phone, "and took two suitcases." The Spanish journalist had contact via email with Ivanchuk, who is leading the Grand Slam Masters Final at halft-time.
Earlier today, in his daily column for El País, Garcia wrote:
What had been a great success for the Masters Final in Sao Paulo on Sunday, was marred by an unfortunate event. Ivanchuk and his wife were robbed at gunpoint when, twenty meters from the hotel, they were about to enter a taxi that would take them to the airport.
Somehow the stolen bags included the passport of Ivanchuk's wife, and so the couple suddenly had problems leaving Brazil. Communicating with Leontxo Garcia, the super grandmaster's first reaction was that he didn't want to continue his tournament if his wife couldn't be with him from Thursday on. On that day play resumes in Bilbao.
On the phone, Garcia told Chess Vibes:
Now the situation is under control. The authorities issued a 'salvoconducto' [emergency travelling pass - CV]. They will fly together to Munich, from where his wife will return home and apply for a new passport. Ivanchuk will arrive in Bilbao on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Ivanchuk is scheduled to play White against Hikaru Nakamura. The American grandmaster tweeted today:
Quite disappointed to hear the news from São Paulo about Ivanchuk being robbed. Hopefully we can postpone the game till the 9th.
It's possible that the robbers somehow knew who they were dealing with; maybe they thought that the tournament was over, and Ivanchuk had collected his prize money. It seems more likely that the robbery was a case of extremely bad luck. Garcia:
They have been very unlucky. The area is one of the best and safest of Sau Paulo, with a, for Brazilian standards, high level of security. I have been walking around at nights and haven't seen any signs of danger during the whole week.
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Labels: chess grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, robbery, Sao Paulo
For the love of chess... - Interview with Vassily Ivanchuk
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everybody,
We found this nice two-part interview with the talented and one of the strongest Grandmasters in the world - Vassily Ivanchuk at Chess In Translation. He talks about all the beautiful aspects of a chess life and life otherwise. Here are some excerpts:
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In one interview you compared chess to love. Doesn’t your wife get offended by such comparisons, and by the fact that almost all your thoughts are about chess? (Translator’s note: in a recent interview GM Mikhail Golubev asked, “I’ve got a question from a fan. How can you find and not lose a taste for playing chess?” Ivanchuk replied: “You know, a taste for chess is a kind of love… and who can answer the question of how to find, or not lose, that love? I don’t know.”
VI: Oksana’s got used to it, no doubt. It’s not our first year together, after all. Initially, of course, it was hit and miss, but such is the life of a chess player. At least between tournaments we try to lead a rich and varied life. Grandmaster Vladimir Malakhov once responded to a similar question by saying, “Yes, I often travel to tournaments, but when I get back home I’m completely at my wife’s disposal”. I don’t know about being completely at her disposal, but I try. I devote a lot of time between tournaments to domestic matters. I don’t have to be begged to do something. I try to assist my wife at home, offering to help. You’d better ask Oksana whether that works out or not. My wife doesn’t see me as a grandmaster, but as a normal man. Does she understand chess? She has some idea: she knows how the pieces move, the surnames of famous chess players and she reads the chess magazines I subscribe to. So she knows about everything that’s going on. Of course, my wife supports me and follows my performances. She’s very glad when I win, but at the same time she understands that it’s impossible to win all the time. Therefore she’s philosophical about my defeats.
 FLAWED GAMES ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
You’ve had so many victories. Is there one among them which you recall more often than the others?
VI: In general, I’ve always believed that my greatest, and therefore also my most memorable victories, still lie ahead. But it’s true that I really do have a lot of favourite games. But you know how it is? After any game you play people start analysing it “to shreds”. Immediately after a won game it can strike you as truly beautiful and almost perfect. But then it turns out that at certain points there were mistakes, minor inaccuracies.
Have I played flawless games? Of course. But flawed games are usually the most beautiful and are dearer to me. If an opponent doesn’t put up much resistance then it’s much easier to play a flawless game. You remember games where, despite being positionally lost, you nevertheless managed to escape with a draw. One such example is the game against Gata Kamsky at the tournament in Armenia in 2009. I was saved from a loss by the 50-move rule, which states that if not a single piece has been taken over the course of those moves then the game is declared a draw. Kamsky almost gained the chance to take my piece, but only on the 51st move. So I put up as much resistance as I could: I calculated whether he’d be able to carry out the capture, and how long I could avoid it.(smiles) As for losses… They’re painful for me. Fortunately time heals wounds, and your memory washes away the feeling of losing.
 Oksana and Vassily Ivanchuk
Here is the game:
You can read the full interview here.
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see her personal blog at Labels: chess blog, chess grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk
Ivanchuk, Lahno win best chess players in Ukraine 2010 prize
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
According to www.chess-news.ru updates, none other than Vassily Ivanchuk and Kateryna Lahno have been announced as the Best Chess Players in Ukraine for 2010. Congratulations to both.
Vassily Ivanchuk and Kateryna Lahno became winners of the prize according to Gazeta.ua.Winners were determined by individual voting which included 48 Ukrainian grandmasters. Each of them named the top five among men and women. For 1-ranked nominee got 10 points for 2 nd - 7, for the third - 5, for 4 th - 3, 5 th - 1 point.
MEN (total 11 nominees)
1. Vassily Ivanchuk (Lviv, 2779) - 314
2. Pavel Eljanov (Kharkov, 2736) - 183
3. Ruslan Ponomariov (Kiev, 2737) - 181
4. Zahar Efimenko (Mukachevo, 2708) - 165
5. Anton Korobov (Kharkov, 2647) - 35 ...
WOMEN (14 nominees)
1. Kateryna Lahno (Donetsk, 2531) - 284
2. Maria Muzychuk (Stry, 2476) - 171
3. Inna Gaponenko (Kherson, 2435) - 157
4. Natalia Zhukova (Odessa, 2443) - 102
5. Tatjana Vasilevich (Evpatoria, 2418) - 65
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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www.chessqueen.com Labels: chess blog, chess grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, kateryna lahno
I can still become world chess champion, says Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk
Chess blog for latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
 Vassily Ivanchuk - the rock solid chess grandmaster - has said he is confident he can still become world chess champion. Trust us, we couldn't agree more. What with his super win at the just-concluded Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2011 with a 2968 performance that has taken the Ukrainian grandmaster to 5th place in live chess ratings.
We found a nice compilation of articles and links at www.chessvibes.com which talks of an interview by Danilo Mokrik for Zaxid.net with the Grandmaster. Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk also confessed that he is addicted to online checkers.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
You talked about your unsatisfied ambitions. The main one is probably becoming World Champion in classical chess?
Not exactly becoming World Champion in classical chess… That’s only one tournament. Of course, I’d like to succeed in it, but somehow I feel that over the course of my chess career that desire itself has put some pressure on me, preventing me from concentrating on other tournaments, and causing anxiety.
I still think I can become World Champion, but only on the condition that I look at that championship and the qualifying for it as normal tournaments – nothing special. Then I’ll be able to prepare.
I know myself – if a tournament is very important, then that’s it, I can’t prepare for it – neither at the computer nor at the chessboard. When the tension drops a little then the desire to play chess returns and new ideas appear. Why is it like that? I don’t know.
In the last qualifying cycle for the World Championship you played in the 2009 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk and lost in the last-32 to the young and not-so-well-known Philippine player Wesley So. Was that also the result of emotional pressure?
 Well, I was already really tired there. Before that I’d played in the Tal Memorial in Moscow and also in the blitz, so you could say I wasn’t as fresh as I could be. I really did feel under emotional pressure. But specifically during that match with So there were some non-chess goings on. As far as I recall, after 12-13 moves in the first game I liked the position and thought I had a certain advantage – but at that moment I suddenly became unwell. I had heartburn and went to the medical point, asking them to give me some sort of activated carbon to bring me back to my senses. It took about 15 minutes, and I returned and went for play where I wasn’t taking any risks – I had a draw and, it seems, there should also have been a win. But my opponent made some only moves to hold on, and found moves that you wouldn’t expect to be there, but they were.  I then had a choice – to go for a draw or to play more sharply. And I decided to take a risk, which I’d say was actually justified from a chess point of view, because objectively my chances of winning were in no way worse than my opponent’s. But I was already quite significantly behind on time at that point and, perhaps, given that the match consisted of only two games, I should have had the common sense to take a draw – especially with the less than ideal way I was feeling that day. I probably paid too little attention to my condition.
As for the second game, it wasn’t entirely clear who was outplaying who. At first I was a little worse, but I converted that worse position into a big advantage and then – almost into a win. And I can’t understand why I didn’t win – there was time… By all logic I should have won, but I didn’t. The game ended in a draw, and that was the end of the match for me.
After that match you made an emotional declaration, that you later withdrew, that you were quitting chess…
You know how it is with journalists… I didn’t say that. Of course, they didn’t understand me correctly. I said something like I was tired and I wanted to rest. That was then highly embellished, and all of these “sensational news reports” appeared. Something like that had never even entered my head. I was just a little shocked.
But in general, over the course of your whole career, have you ever had a strong desire to quit chess and do something else?
There were times when I was very upset, I felt overwhelmed, or an enormous fatigue. But quitting completely… Even if I did do that, why would I want to shout about it to the whole world?
Well, Kasparov did…
That’s a matter for him. I think that if at some moment I seriously decided not to play, then I simply wouldn’t arrange to take part in any tournaments for a certain period of time – for example, half a year. After that time I’d consider what I wanted to do next. Why should I declare something that I’m going to do in 6 months, or a year, whether I’ll play or not?
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