Vassily Ivanchuk wins World Blitz Championship in Dramatic Fashion

Going into the very last round, World #1 Vishy Anand and World #2 Vassily Ivanchuk were tied with for first place with 24.5/37. It came down to 1 dramatic game, with Anand taking the white pieces. Anand seemed to achieve a winning position quite easily in a Sicilian Kan with 5. Bd3, but in blitz “winning positions” and actually winning the position are 2 very different things.. The following position was the turning point of the game:

Here Anand could have finished the game off with 29. h7+! Kh8 [29… Kg7? 30. Nde6+! wins since the rook on e8 is overloaded since it must guard the h8 square.] 30. Rf1 exd4 31. Rxf6 and black can basically resign here since he has trouble protecting f7. Instead Anand played 29. Ndf3? and after 29… Nh5! 30. Rg1 Kh8, black is no longer in danger and the rook on h4 was simply out of play. Anand could have held this position but I have a feeling that he might have seen the win he missed a move too late.. If that’s the case, I know from experience that it’s very hard psychologically to recover even when you still have an OK position.

I was somewhat upset to see that American GM Hikaru Nakamura wasn’t in this event. I’m not sure he’d win the whole thing, but I’d bet that he’d place in the top 5. I’ve seen him ruthlessly beat up on guys like Kamsky, Carlsen, and Grischuk on ICC, and all these guys finished near the top in this tournament.

The National Chess Congress started today in Philadelphia, and my fellow Manchesterite NM Hal Terrie is playing in this event.. Hal is making a comeback to competitive chess, and I wish him the best of luck. You can view the games live at Monroi. He is currently trying to hold an ending a pawn down against IM Bryan Smith, and I think he has good chances to hold it since all his pieces are very active.. I’ll try to do a little coverage of this event sometime this weekend. Peace!