The Riga Railway Open in rapid chess took place in the last weekend of March. Many strong GM-s were participating, but the result of the winner Ivanchuk made headlines. At the end he managed to get 13 points out of 14. Reminds Fischer in his best days. In the closing ceremony Alexei Shirov mentioned that Ivanchuk instead of playing in candidates tournament which just finished in Khanty Mansisk preferred Riga. Vassily Ivanchuk was one of the World best players in last 25 years, but never won the World champion title. Most likely because of his bad nerves. This time he was not even among the candidates. However he put his anger and revenge onto his opponents in Riga. He won first 9 games and only in last day allowed two draws. Still in his second round encounter things might be different if this time local hero Normunds Miezes could controll his nerves in winning position.
Ivanchuk had some problems against Van Wely as well, but still luck was in his side. You may look some of his games on http://www.theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/latvian-railway-rapid-open-2014 especially the game against Malkhov the other rating favorite who took the second place. All results you may find here.
My tournament went in wrong way after this crucial game against Sergei Zhigalko from Belorussia.
Finally I also refused too many draw offers and finished with 50%. I had few nice games still. I manage to win against former women’s World champion Zhu Chen from China who lives now in Qatar.
There is World rapid and blitz championship in June in Dubai and most likely Ivanchuk is going to be one of the favorites, last year Kariakin won the event and he was successfull also in Khanty Mansisk where he took second place after Anand. Anyway good luck to Ivanchuk and it is interesting to follow his achievments.
Jaan Ehlvest
