‘Chuky, you’re a genius.’ Leading grandmasters have been heard to whisper these words, impressed with yet another brilliancy of the Ukrainian wizard.
Vassily Ivanchuk is one of the greatest players of modern time. He has finished first in all major tournaments in the world, at times with astonishing supremacy and always with deeply creative chess. He is adored by chess lovers, admired (and feared!) by fellow grandmasters.
For this book, correspondence grandmaster and chess author Nikolay Kalinichenko has selected over 100 of Ivanchuk’s best and most instructive games, explaining his moves and plans for club players.
Ivanchuk is known for his unusually broad opening repertoire. He literally plays almost anything. Whenever a new opening appears in a game, Kalinichenko presents a brief introduction to this opening, thereby providing a panoramic view of modern opening theory.
The result is a fascinating and rewarding journey to ‘Planet Ivanchuk’, the extraterrestrial location where the sphinx from Lvov is said to receive his best brainwaves.
Raymond Keene, The Sunday Times:
"The games and analysis are of extraordinary quality and will reward those who wish to improve their chess or simply relish great games."
David R.Sands, The Washington Times:
"An eye-opening measure of Ivanchuk’s greatness."
Uwe Bekemann, German Correspondence Chess Federation:
"The games are annotated in a very entertaining way (..) always understandable for the beginner as well."
Martin Rieger, SchachWelt:
"Ivanchuk's style is quite technical, he is always trying to find the truth at te board. That is why his games are so instructive for beginers as well as professionals. This book presents his best games with extensive annotations and shines light on his creations from different angles."
Garry Kasparov:
"Ivanchuk continues the line of great players who never became world champion, such as Keres and Korchnoi. However, in some respects, he has even surpassed them: Ivanchuk has finished ahead of myself and Karpov in tournaments, whereas his great predecessors practically never achieved such a success, where they finished in front of the entire elite of their day."
Heinz Daubler, Der neue Tag:
"This fantastic selection of games with brilliant ideas in all stages of the game will delight ambitious chess players and improve their level of play."
Dr Mario Ziegler, Rochade Europa Magazine:
"The book begins with a portrait of Ivanchuk which not only throws light on the beginnings of his career, but also deals, in an interesting way that was new to me, with his well-known form swings (..) Kalinichenko's work is an homage to the greatest lover of our game which is long overdue."
Dennis Monokroussos, The Chess Mind:
"[Ivanchuk's] best games are exceptional and distinctive, and this book will give you a good taste of his greatness as a player. There are wins over Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Carlsen, Aronian, Topalov, Caruana, Karjakin and pretty much every other great player of the past 20 years - generally multiple wins. Kalinichenko's analysis is competent and instructive."
B.H.Wilders, Nederlands Dagblad:
"It is difficult to choose from this treasure trove, and for anyone who likes to replay games this is fantastic material."
Marshtower Chess Reviews:
'The games are fascinating and very well analysed (..) Ivanchuk has the ability to tie up the greatest players in knots. '
Richard Vedder, schakers.info:
"Almost all the games selected here are little juwels (..) Do you see
yourself as a real lover of the game? Then you cannot afford to miss this book!"
Paul Kane, Manchester Chess Federation:
"Kalinichenko presents a vivid portrait of this brilliant player, still active and creative in his mid-‘40s, and does a good job of making his inspirational games accessible to a wide audience."
British Chess Magazine:
"The first major work on this most enigmatic of champions."
Hans Bohm, De Telegraaf:
"If you select the most beautiful games of the sometimes brilliant Ivanchuk, you get loads of intuitive sacrifices and masterly positional play."
Max Euwe Center, Amsterdam:
"The author explains the plans and the moves in such a way that also the avarage club player can follow the games."
John D. Warth, Chess Club of Southern Indiana:
"Ivanchuk’s success has always been built on his endless creativity, tenacity, and innovation (..) YES! These are fascinating games."
