Vassily Ivanchuk

Vassily Ivanchuk, born 18 March 1969, is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster.

Vassily Ivanchuk
Full name	Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk
Country	Ukraine
Born	18 March 1969 Kopychyntsi
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2753 (#16 in the April 2014 FIDE world rankings)
Peak rating	2787 (October 2007)

Chucky, as he is affectionately known, has been a leading player in the world since 1988, at times reaching the second spot on the FIDE list, but has never won the World Chess Championship. Ivanchuk has often had erratic results. Since 2007 his world ranking has ranged from twelfth to second, before dropping to 30th in July 2009.

He was the 2007–2008 World Blitz Chess champion. He won Amber blindfold and rapid chess championship in 1992 and 2010.

Character

GM Ivanchuk

Chucky has been described by Viswanathan Anand as the most eccentric player in the chess world. Anand gave his view on Ivanchuk like this:

"He's someone who is very intelligent ... but you never know which mood he is going to be in. Some days he will treat you like his long-lost brother. The next day he ignores you completely.

The players have a word for him. They say he lives on 'Planet Ivanchuk'. (Laughs) ... I have seen him totally drunk and singing Ukrainian poetry and then the next day I have seen him give an impressive talk.

For a while he was trying to learn Turkish. Don’t ask me why ... Every day is a surprise with him".

When he plays, Ivanchuk rarely looks at the board. Instead he stares at the ceiling and at the walls with a blank stare (although this is not uncommon with top players who calculate without looking at the board). His playing style is unpredictable and highly original, making him a threat to any chess player, although it sometimes also leads to quick losses.

After a string of unsuccessful games culminated in his elimination at the early stages of the 2009 Chess World Cup, Ivanchuk announced, in a highly emotional interview, his retirement from professional chess. However, he soon recanted this decision.