The erratic Ukrainian grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk has scored an overwhelming victory in a rapidplay tournament sponsored by the Latvian railway. Leading scores were as follows: Ivanchuk 13 (out of 14); Malakhov 10; Fridman 9½; Bologan 9; Shirov (and many others) 8½. There is something symptomatic about the colossal scale of Ivanchuk’s victory in this event.
Rapid games do not count for ratings or titles, hence it is possible to play without experiencing the kind of pressure which causes Ivanchuk’s ups and downs in classical chess. Although Ivanchuk can defeat anybody, with his victims including Kasparov, Karpov, Anand, Carlsen and Kramnik, he regularly succumbs to nerves in championship events and fails to reproduce the form which he showed when performing for the Latvian Railway System.
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