<Q - As you also mention in your book: On a good day he could (and can) defeat anyone. What stopped him from winning the highest title?

‘Ivanchuk has a strong creative spirit; he is more of an artist than a conqueror, with all that this implies. There’s this most remarkable story about his game against Beliavsky in the Linares tournament of 1992. I heard the story from Felix Levin, a grandmaster who used to live in Lviv and who was Ivanchuk’s second in those years. At the time Ivanchuk knew the important theoretical sources like the Informant and the New In Chess Yearbooks by heart. Before the game with Beliavsky, he and Felix had analyzed a crucial idea that was overlooked in Informant 52 and found how White could get a big advantage in a variation of the Ruy Lopez. After the game had started, Felix, who was in the press room, was pleasantly surprised to see the position they had investigated appear on one of the monitors.

click for larger view

Here Ivanchuk thought for a long time and Felix Levin almost fell from his chair when after this long think, Vasyl simply captured the knight on b3. 14.axb3

The move Felix had expected to see was the novelty they had prepared: 14.Bg5! Nxa1 (14...gxf6 is met by 15.Re1+) 15.Re1+ Kd6 16.Bf4+ Kc6 17.d5+ Kc5 with a winning position for Black according to Patrick Wolff in Informant 52. However, as Ivanchuk had found, after 18.b4+! Kc4 19.Na3+ Kxc3 20.Ne4+ Kxb4 21.Rb1+ Kxa3 22.Nc3

click for larger view

it is White who wins as Black cannot stop the mating threat Bc1 mate. All this had been prepared by Ivanchuk, but to Levin’s utter amazement he decided differently and after 14...Kxf6 the position was equal and the game ended in a draw on move 62. After the game, a perplexed Felix asked: ‘Vasyl, what the hell happened, why didn’t you play the prepared 14.Bg5!!?’

And the answer was: ‘That was too easy. I felt like playing and defeating Beliavsky at the board. It wouldn't have been me, and I would have lost a day to play a game.’>

So is Ivanchuk saying it's no fun to win games with home analysis? He only wants to win with what he finds at the board?

I know he said the Qxg7 against Shirov was not preparation, that he found it at the board.

In any case, it's too bad a wonderful king chase and mate was never played.