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Jan Gustafsson vs Vassily Ivanchuk
Sparkassen Chess Meeting (2008)  ·  Queen's Gambit Declined: Vienna Variation (D39)  ·  1/2-1/2
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Kibitzer's Corner
Jul-02-08  Refused: Quite an interesting game, a pity nobody bothered to have a look at it.
Jul-03-08  Mateo: Quite a quiet game. Gustafsson played very solid chess avoiding complicated variations. After move 20, it was already drawish. Not exciting but well played on both sides.
Jul-03-08  Whack8888: Gustafsson seems to have his stuff together for this tournament. I think he is taking it very seriously, and this draw against Ivanchuk was well earned.
Jul-03-08  DukeAlba: <Gustafsson seems to have his stuff together for this tournament.>

I think the same. In my opinion, Gustafsson is the only player that is really managing his games well. He goes for the win against Naidistch and then holds off Mamedyarov as black(and Mamedyarov needed a win).

The matches against Ivanchuk and Kramnik are different. Not so much because Gustafsson didn't want to win, but because Ivanchuk and Kramnik are content as always with getting draws...

I find myself rooting for this guy and I can only hope he can win it.

Jul-03-08  percyblakeney: <Ivanchuk and Kramnik are content as always with getting draws...>

Always is a bit harsh, at least when it comes to Ivanchuk, who has won ten games with black just in 2008 (against players like Leko, Topalov, Radjabov, Shirov, Aronian, Morozevich, Ponomariov...).

Jul-03-08  DukeAlba: <Always is a bit harsh, at least when it comes to Ivanchuk>

You have a point, I admit, well not Ivanchuk. Although I can't say the same for Kramnik...

Jul-03-08  DukeAlba: Although Ivanchuk did play that horrible 19-move draw against Nepo...
Jul-04-08  Refused: <DukeAlba: Although Ivanchuk did play that horrible 19-move draw against Nepo...>

That's Ivanchuk. Well basically there often seem to be two Ivanchuks:

1. The ingenious chess player who can wipe out any given player, and he can do it in style.

2. The lackluster Ivanchuk, who plays terrible chess and is even capable to offer a draw after the first move (as white).

Funnily enough they sometimes appear in the same tournament.

A bit like Timman and the infamous "red wine" Timman

Jul-04-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  acirce: I don't get the complaints Ivanchuk receives about that game. It seems very much to me that he played the opening in an ambitious way. He just didn't get what he wanted; the final position is not exactly what you dream about.

And Nepo was happy with a draw as Black against a stronger player, of course.

Jul-04-08  Refused: My comment was not meant as a particular criticism of any of his games in this tournament, rather an attempt to summarize Ivanchuk's performances, with all the peaks (chess from planet Ivanchuk) and all the lows.

If we had the guy from planet Ivanchuk hailing in this tournament (which he might not take as serioulsy as some of the other players do), he'd be in the lead by now (yes, it's just an opinion).

Jul-04-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  acirce: It's a long time ago, but I was reminded about this:

<Leko shared third place with Vassily Ivanchuk, the man who drove the organizers to despair with his undisguised absence of any wish to play chess. With an indifferent stare Ivanchuk would gaze into the audience and mechanically make his moves when it was his turn. Early draw offers were most welcome, and only in case of less cooperative opponents would he rack his brains to punish them for their obstinacy. Chief organizer Jürgen Grastat got all worked up by Ivanchuk's passivity. While he praised the fighting spirit of all players he openly condemned one of his most expensive players for sabotaging his tournament and rejected any mitigating circumstances with a straightforward 'He didn't have any problems accepting his starting fee, either.'

Winner Vladimir Kramnik held a milder view of his colleague who is so talented that he can finish on plus one without playing: 'He told me he just didn't want to play chess, because he was bored with chess. For the moment. He just didn't play. But he has so much class that even when he is making draws, after having lost the first game, he won two games.'>

On Dortmund 1995 from the New In Chess report.

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