Final Chess Masters Bilbao 2008

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VASSILY IVANCHUK (ELO 2787)
Berezhany (Ukraine), 18.03.1969

An adorable absent-minded wise man VASSILY IVANCHUK

His sensational victory in the Mtel Masters, Sofia 2008 gave him the right to be in the Bilbao Final Masters. But even without this feat, Vassili Ivanchuk deserves a place among the top-class chess players: at almost 40, he is the oldest luminary though he is nevertheless at the peak of his career. Chess lover to the core, tireless worker of encyclopaedic knowledge he is a genius absent-minded wise man of whom everybody - even his most bitter rivals- speaks very fondly.

“My secret is I don't know how I managed to win those five first games one after the other. I certainly did have a little bit of what it is called the luck of the champions. But the key is I wasn’t aware of what I was achieving; otherwise I would have never managed to do it. I believe I am at the best of my career. I don’t feel a bit old to stay in the elite; particularly if I compare myself to Víktor Korchnói, who is at his 77 years old still in the front line!”. So modestly explained Ivanchuk his win in Sofia –undefeated, with eight of ten possible points-, one of the best results in chess history.

The product of his talent, work, experience and, above all, his infinite love for chess will most probably allow Ivanchuk to start his fifth decade among the world’s top ten chess players. Why then has he never been absolute world chess champion? Because of the tremendous outburst of his nervous system. But the older you get, the more balanced you are, and that explains his current sweet moment. There is however an important tinge: Ivanchuk loves chess so much that he hardly takes a rest between tournaments and he participantespates in as many as he can: he is going to play more than 200 games between 1st August and 30th September 2008, among which, around 125 slow ones. How can he keep up with that wicked activity? Maybe because concentration and self-absorption are his natural state, which on the other hand often causes him being absent-minded. As was the case in Sofia, where he came out of the glass case to go to the toilet in the opposite direction, till one of the chess referees showed him the right way. Or like in his recent win in the Ciudad de León Tournament, where very excited after having won the game, he jumped down the stage risking his safety instead of coming down the stairs.

There are a lot of funny anecdotes about Ivanchuk, but not as many as his genius games, genuine artistic, scientific and sports outbursts of an immense and well developed talent. It is very unlikely that Ivanchuk does not produce more immortal works in Bilbao.