Ivanchuk Champions the Kings Chess Tournament
Ukrainian chess grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk has championed the Kings chess tournament held between June 14th and June 25th in Bazna, Romania. Ivanchuk's unsurprising victory was already achieved by the end of the 7th round due to a 6-2 score. By the end of the final 10th round, Ivanchuk scored 7 points, while his closest competitor, Israeli GM Boris Gelfand finished with 6 points.
Bazna Kings chess tournament has brought together a strong gathering of chess players with an average of 2729 rating points including Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaidjan who is ranked no. 5 in the world, Gata Kamsky of the US, Alexei Shirov of Spain, and the top chess player in Romania Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who won the European Chess Championship back in 2005, as well as Ivanchuk and Gelfand. Organized by the Chess Club Society of Bucharest, the chess tournament was held in the double round robin format, in which each player played all of the competitors twice.
Vassily Ivnachuk win of the Kings chess tournament was followed by a row of disappointing performances, starting with Corus chess tournament held earlier this year in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, where he shared the last position with a score of 5.5/13 points, and continuing with his 5th M-Tel Masters in Sophia where he finished last, winning only in the last round against Dominguez Perez Leinier of Cuba.
Ivanchuk is currently ranked at number 12 in FIDE top chess players' listing, a drop from number 3 in the previous trimester. Some attribute this downfall to the Ukrainian chess genius capricious nature, while others ascribe to exhaustion, the outcome or the side effect of playing too many tournaments. For comparison sake, while his colleagues at the top of FIDE's listing played an average of 15-20 chess tournaments since the beginning of 2009, Ivanchuk had already played 37.
Bazna Kings chess tournament has brought together a strong gathering of chess players with an average of 2729 rating points including Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaidjan who is ranked no. 5 in the world, Gata Kamsky of the US, Alexei Shirov of Spain, and the top chess player in Romania Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who won the European Chess Championship back in 2005, as well as Ivanchuk and Gelfand. Organized by the Chess Club Society of Bucharest, the chess tournament was held in the double round robin format, in which each player played all of the competitors twice.
Vassily Ivnachuk win of the Kings chess tournament was followed by a row of disappointing performances, starting with Corus chess tournament held earlier this year in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, where he shared the last position with a score of 5.5/13 points, and continuing with his 5th M-Tel Masters in Sophia where he finished last, winning only in the last round against Dominguez Perez Leinier of Cuba.
Ivanchuk is currently ranked at number 12 in FIDE top chess players' listing, a drop from number 3 in the previous trimester. Some attribute this downfall to the Ukrainian chess genius capricious nature, while others ascribe to exhaustion, the outcome or the side effect of playing too many tournaments. For comparison sake, while his colleagues at the top of FIDE's listing played an average of 15-20 chess tournaments since the beginning of 2009, Ivanchuk had already played 37.