Ivanchuk Wins the Menorca Open

Old dogs still bite.

It wasn’t that many years ago that Vasyl Ivanchuk was one of the world’s top players, a perennial candidate (and Candidate) for the World Championship title. He’s older now (56 - er, not that that’s old) and had even dropped out of the world’s top 100, but he’s back with a bang. In three tournaments this month he has gone undefeated in 27 games, gained 40 rating points to make it back to 82nd on the rating list (up 75 spots!) with a 2644 rating (once it’s rounded up in two days).

The highlight of the month is his most recent tournament win, the Menorca Open in which his 8/9 gave him clear first. The signature win came in round 5 against the top seed, Nihal Sarin (2687 at the time of the tournament, now 2693 after the round-up) when both players were 4-0. He had a bit of luck in the last round, as he defeated Pranesh, but it’s rare that wins a tournament without a bit of extra help from at least one opponent.

Congrats to GM Ivanchuk! Maybe he’ll never get all the way back to the 2700s, but it’s still nice to see him back in form, both for nostalgic reasons and to remind those of us who are no longer spring chickens that we can still cluck every now and again. Here, with my comments, are the two wins mentioned above.