Express train

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.

Vladimir Sveshnikov-Ivanchuk: Latvian Railway Open, Riga 2014; Scotch Game

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Nxc6 Qf6 6 Qf3 bxc6 7 Nc3 Qxf3 8 gxf3 I had long considered this position to be at least equal, if not slightly favourable to black. The reason is that the f4-square seems to me to be a source of potential weakness and that White’s doubled pawns are more rigid than their black counterparts. The game Kalton-Keene, Dulwich 1963 continued 8 … Ne7 9 Be3 Bb4 10 Bd4 f6 11 a3 Bd6 12 0-0-0 Be5 and Black is already seeking to take over the central dark squares. 8 … d6 9 Rg1 g6 10 Be3 Bxe3 I like the retreat 10 … Bb6 encouraging White to straighten out the black pawn structure after 11 Bxb6 axb6. There is, however, nothing at all wrong with the text. 11 fxe3 f5 12 0-0-0 Nf6 13 exf5 Bxf5 (see diagram 1) 14 e4 Once again this converts f4 into a vaguely weak point.