In era of teen prodigies, Vasly Ivanchuk, winner of Menorca Open, has an undying passion for chess even at 56

Indian Express

29-04-2025

In an era smitten with teenage chess prodigies, spare a thought for Vasyl Ivanchuk. The Ukrainian grandmaster, 56 years of age, emerged as the winner of the 4th Menorca Open chess tournament on Sunday. In doing so, he overcame a field of 185 players (including 45 grandmasters) to claim his first title since 2019, a feat which also propels him into the top 100 spots after many years.
If that wasn't remarkable by itself, consider this: in the past 19 days, the quinquagenarian grandmaster has played 27 classical games (playing two classical games on some days) and has remained undefeated. He ended second at the Reykjavik Open, and had soldiered through the Semana Santa San Vicente del Raspeig Costa Blanca in Alicante before winning at Menorca, where his score of eight points from nine games saw him finish ahead of GMs like Nihal Sarin, Murali Karthikeyan, Sam Shankland, Pranav Anand, reigning world junior champion Pranav Venkatesh and Pranesh M.
'At 56 years old, he is still incredibly active! He does not pick and choose tournaments to benefit his rating. He plays in open tournaments and faces dangerous players who are young enough to be his kids or grandkids!' Susan Polgar had written on X while the GM was duking it out in the Reykjavik Open.
To truly admire Vasyl Ivanchuk, you need to hear the stories that make the rounds of the chess circuit.
Particularly one from chess promoter, journalist and photographer David Llada where he speaks of Ivanchuk walking around with a portable chess set with him after his games get over at tournaments to analyse chess in his hotel lobby with someone — anyone — who fancies it. You need to turn back the clock to earlier this year, when Ivanchuk was at an event in Djerba, playing against 17-year-old grandmaster, Marc Maurizzi, and lost, but only because he refused to call the arbiter and claim a draw by threefold repetition when it occurred on the board.
He always carries this portable set with him, just in case he doesn't find a proper one. pic.twitter.com/BzTN0b6QY1
— David Llada ♞ (@davidllada) March 23, 2025
Watch Ivanchuk during games and he can come across as a tortured poet, his facade a mask of deep agony and a hand always planted on his face as he thinks of his next move. No surprises then, that chess influencers love making videos of him with captions like 'chess is brutal'.
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To truly appreciate the brutality of chess, you need to be introduced to Vasyl Ivanchuk beyond this heady month of April. You need to stand next to Ivanchuk at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship in December 2024 after that ill-fated round 11 loss in the World Blitz event to Daniel Naroditsky, where he was winning and then ended up losing on time. Age humbles everyone, but its hardest cuts are saved for the egos of elite athletes. You need to bear witness to the sight of the gut-wrenching sobbing from Ivanchuk after that loss to Naroditsky, where the Ukrainian — who has been a world rapid and a world blitz champion one time each — weeps into his hands like he has lost a close family member.
The haunting final moments of the Round 11 clash between Vassily Ivanchuk and Daniel Naroditsky in World Blitz 2024. Caïssa is a cruel goddess indeed… pic.twitter.com/dch96y76QY
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) December 31, 2024
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It's a haunting reminder of how much chess matters to some players. Particularly like Ivanchuk who would refuse a draw even in a losing position or walk around with chess sets to analyse the sport with any bystander.
For Indian chess fans of a certain vintage, the name Ivanchuk would sound familiar. He was, after all, a rival to Viswanathan Anand since their own teenage prodigy days.
It was a one-sided rivalry too as Anand once noted on the Conversations with Tyler Podcast. Anand recounted how their miniature wooden armies first battled at the World Cadet Championship (Under-16) in 1984.
'He was a tricky opponent all my life,' Anand said. Even though the five-time world champion did not really think of Ivanchuk as a rival, the Ukrainian looked at their battles with the seriousness of a blood feud.
'For many years, he would ignore the rest of the tournament. He almost couldn't concentrate against the others. Then when he came against me, you knew he'd been waiting the whole week for this one game. It was annoying to have such a mark on your back. There's this one guy who is just thinking of you all the time, while you're thinking of all your opponents,' Anand lamented on the podcast.
Just like Anand experienced in his youth, players like Nihal Sarin were also handed defeats by Ivanchuk at Menorca.
Over the course of his long career, Anand confronted many mercurial opponents like the glowering Garry Kasparov or the antsy Vladimir Kramnik, who tried to intimidate or distract him with their antics off the board. But Anand learnt to keep his eyes and his mind trained on the 64 squares against every opponent. Barring Ivanchuk.
'With him, it's always psychology, watching his face — things like that — which mattered more than the actual moves. Ivanchuk's level can vary enormously…He's even more vulnerable, I think, psychologically than many others. If he's not in the right frame of mind, his level can plummet. Equally, he can suddenly motivate himself to do great things. The hardest problem, even, is that he looks totally distracted during the game,' said Anand.
For all his love for the sport, Ivanchuk never played in the World Chess Championship (even though he won the 2007 World Blitz Championship, and the 2016 World Rapid Championship). Neither did he rise to become the World No 1.
Those things might rankle a player of Ivanchuk's calibre. But for the moment, all that matters is that there's an open tournament happening somewhere around the world where there are players to be beaten and games to be analysed.