The Romanian Bazna tournament concluded with a result that would have been considered unlikely on recent form. Vassily Ivanchuk won ahead of a very strong field. He delivered an unbeaten 2875 performance that fetched 7 points from 10 games. Boris Gelfand was clear second on 6 and Alexey Shirov shared third spot with the top-seeded Teimour Radjabov on 5.5. Gelfand and Radjabov were both unbeaten as well.
Ivanchuk was just coming off last place at the MTel meet in Sofia while Shirov had just landed in last place at the Karpov in Poikovsky. Shirov’s return to form was useful but Ivanchuk’s was spectacular. The Ukrainian GM logged four wins without ever looking to be in trouble.
According to Hans Arild Runde, who created and maintains the live rating list, Ivanchuk is a rare creature. He is a 2750+ player, who is so inconsistently brilliant that his results often vary by +/- 50 points from average performance levels. There is no apparent reason for either the surges and slumps.
Ivanchuk was the world no:3 in January. Since then, he has shared first spot at Linares and won Bazna by a distance — both great results against very strong fields. However, he’s still managed to slide to no:12 because of his poor form in several other events.
One partial explanation lies in the playing style though nerves and other off-the-board factors have often been cited in Ivanchuk’s case. There’s often a very thin line between profitable creativity and unjustifiable risk-taking. Ivanchuk and Shirov (and also Morozevich) straddle that line.
They push hard to generate winning chances and in Ivanchuk’s case, often handle the clock badly as well. This sort of high-risk play requires nerves, energy and luck as well. It makes for high-quality entertainment but it also means blowouts. If things go badly, there is no bailout.
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The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (Ivanchuk Vs Shirov, Bazna 2009) is an interesting example of what can happen when two such risk-takers meet. In this game, Shirov made an unclear piece sacrifice. Ivanchuk defended well but not perfectly.
Now Shirov blunders with 67...Bh7? Obviously not 68. - Bxd5 69. h7 but at home, without the clock ticking, it’s easy to find 67...g3 with a draw after 68.Nxf4 Kg5 (68.Bxf4 Ke4; 68.Kf1 g2+) eliminates the h-pawn. Ivanchuk said he also missed this — they were in the seventh hour of play with a sudden death control.
The game continued 68.Ke2! g3 69.Kf3 e2 70.Kxe2 g2 71.Kf2 f3 72.Bb6 Ke6 73.Nc3 Kf7 74.Be3 Kg6 75.Nd5 Kf7 76.Kxf3 Bb1 77.Nc3 Bc2 78.Kxg2 Kg6 79.Kg3 Kh5 80.Nd5 Kg6 81.Kh4 Bb1 82.Bg5 Bc2 83.Nf6 Bf5 84.h7! (1-0). The forced 84.--Kg7 85.Bh6+ Kh8 86.Bf8 Bxh7 87.Kg5 leads to an unstoppable Kh6 and Bg7 mate.
