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Vassily Ivanchuk: 100 Selected Games
“Chuky, you’re a genius.” Leading grandmasters have been heard to whisper these words, impressed with yet another brilliancy of Vassily Ivanchuk. The Ukrainian wizard, immensely popular with pros and amateurs alike, has been a member of the world elite for more than twenty years and is one of the most active players on the international circuit.
Ivanchuk has finished first in all major tournaments in the world, at times with astonishing supremacy and always with deeply creative chess. He has won the Junior World Championship, the Blitz World Championship and reached the number two spot in the world rankings. Four times he was a member of the team that won the Chess Olympiad, once also claiming the individual gold medal on first board.
The question why Ivanchuk, with his phenomenal talent and uncompromising passion for the game, has never become World Champion is something of a mystery. The inability to handle stress has been suggested and he himself has pointed at periods of ‘black moods’ or ‘psychological crises’. Still, despite occasional erratic results, he has always maintained his position among the very best.
For this book Correspondence Grandmaster and chess author Nikolay Kalinichenko has selected 100 of Vassily Ivanchuk’s best and most instructive games, explaining his moves and plans for club players. The result is a fascinating and rewarding journey to ‘Planet Ivanchuk’, the extraterrestrial location where the sphinx from Lvov is said to receive his best brainwaves.
Ivanchuk has finished first in all major tournaments in the world, at times with astonishing supremacy and always with deeply creative chess. He has won the Junior World Championship, the Blitz World Championship and reached the number two spot in the world rankings. Four times he was a member of the team that won the Chess Olympiad, once also claiming the individual gold medal on first board.
The question why Ivanchuk, with his phenomenal talent and uncompromising passion for the game, has never become World Champion is something of a mystery. The inability to handle stress has been suggested and he himself has pointed at periods of ‘black moods’ or ‘psychological crises’. Still, despite occasional erratic results, he has always maintained his position among the very best.
For this book Correspondence Grandmaster and chess author Nikolay Kalinichenko has selected 100 of Vassily Ivanchuk’s best and most instructive games, explaining his moves and plans for club players. The result is a fascinating and rewarding journey to ‘Planet Ivanchuk’, the extraterrestrial location where the sphinx from Lvov is said to receive his best brainwaves.
- GenresChess
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 10, 2013
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August 27, 2015How much wood can Ivanchuk chuck if Ivanchuk can chuck wood?
October 25, 2021
This book is further proof that Vassily Ivanchuk is a chess genius. Nikolay Kainichenko confirms this by doing a fine job of presenting a nice assortment of the 100 games assembled for this collection.
It should be noted that Kainichenko’s analysis is often quite brief and at times devotes more space to related games, than the actual game at hand. He provides some decent points, but clearly with 100 games presented, he kept his analysis towards a minimalistic offering. Not bad, but I prefer analysis that is more verbose and teaches the reader what is really going on in the position.
Not surprisingly, the games are outstanding! Ivanchuk has the rare ability to choose totally obscure moves in a position, that even after seeing them made, they don’t seem to “make sense”, until several moves later when the concept becomes revealed. This makes each game a treat, as you never know what he’s going to do at the board. It’s astonishing to watch him totally dominate many of the world’s top players, so easily!
Perhaps the greatest player to never win a World Championship.
It should be noted that Kainichenko’s analysis is often quite brief and at times devotes more space to related games, than the actual game at hand. He provides some decent points, but clearly with 100 games presented, he kept his analysis towards a minimalistic offering. Not bad, but I prefer analysis that is more verbose and teaches the reader what is really going on in the position.
Not surprisingly, the games are outstanding! Ivanchuk has the rare ability to choose totally obscure moves in a position, that even after seeing them made, they don’t seem to “make sense”, until several moves later when the concept becomes revealed. This makes each game a treat, as you never know what he’s going to do at the board. It’s astonishing to watch him totally dominate many of the world’s top players, so easily!
Perhaps the greatest player to never win a World Championship.
July 31, 2015
Ivanchuk has of course played many amazing games, so I was happy to find out about this collection. Kalinichenko's analysis can be a little dry though. Some of the earlier games have more analysis diagrams than diagrams from the actual game; a bit annoying.
Update: great games, dry analysis. I'm not sure what the target audience is. Kalinichenko often includes short introductions early in the openings, so one would guess he's expecting fairly inexperienced readers. But there's almost no contextual information on Ivanchuk's opponents, or the events that the games come from.
Update: great games, dry analysis. I'm not sure what the target audience is. Kalinichenko often includes short introductions early in the openings, so one would guess he's expecting fairly inexperienced readers. But there's almost no contextual information on Ivanchuk's opponents, or the events that the games come from.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews