The game against Kasparov is my favorite. That final position with Kasparov's pieces all stuck on the back rank with the king in front of them is legendary. I also maintain that peak level Ivanchuk is factually the strongest player to ever play the game, but he never played at that level consistently enough.
If every player in history was playing their absolute best in a tournament together, Ivanchuk wins by a point. The problem with Ivanchuk is his off days look really bad. Terrible, frankly ridiculous.
@@Chukijay I think there's some truth in that, but he's also been a very emotional player and has gone through stretches where he really struggles to motivate himself.
There are 3 kinds of winning positions. 1.There are being up material. 2. Having something wrong with your opponents position that makes it vulnerable 3. Playing against Kasparovs pieces crying in the corner in 1991 While 2 and 3 may have things in common, i assure you they are two very different things.
I saved vacation time off for 3 years to go on a 4 1/2 week trip to Spain and Portugal in 1991. At a paper stand i bought the Spanish mag for Linares 91 and there leafing through to see how come Kasparov had lost. The point not mentioned in this lecture is that Kasparov acted like he had a God given privilege to win any Linares tournament and tended to win handily as a rule. I bought the mag because it was news K had lost.. how? And at the beach I read through Nc5! Sublime. JAQUE revista de ajedrez $304.. still have it with me. The mag has a commentary on this rd1 game titled: the story of young Lancelot and King Arthur. Finally Linares 91 was as per the mag dubbed the strongest tournament to date. Lovely piece of chess history. Thank you Ben for the homage to such a class act.
Thanks for the lecture, I've been wanted an Ivanchuk lecture for ages from GM Finegold for a while so thanks to the sponsor as well now I can stop asking for it via twitch chat hopefully we'll get more in the future. Yeah really great stuff Ivanchuk is my personal favourite player and for sure has to be one of the greatest of all time
@Oissev Onos Yeah sure but I assume after the pandemic he'll go back to teaching classes in person and then he'll just upload them for free like before... also fair enough the guy gotta make a living
that is exactly the point. People like to talk about ELO inflation and say "look, 30 years ago only few of the best were at 2700, now everyone is, and elite is close or above 2800." Yet Kasparov was 2800 at that time. He managed to get to 2850 at his peak. So if inflation is as strong as some people claim, Kasparov's rating would be somewhere above 2900 these days.
Probably because of his style. Ultra aggressive and best prepared. Aggressive players mow down opponents in tournaments and collect many points while players like Caruana or Giri would rather not, getting more draws, but in a match situation would be perfectly fine and equally strong. Karpov was superior to Kasparov but didn't have the nerves and stamina to win 1985 and then age kicked in etc... Kasparov however adapted very quickly when he saw Karpov was beating the crap out of his usual style of play. So that was impressive.
I don't think it's aggressiveness only. There were many players these days who were really aggressive, yet they didn't come close to Kasparov, because they won, but also lost often. On the other hand, you don't have to be aggressive in tournaments to win them. In fact, the real king of tournaments was Karpov who went and crushed almost everything. I'd say that the reason of Kasparov's huge lead in ratings was his versatility. He could play both styles very well: exceptionally strong in tactics and very solid positional player. It was simply that Karpov was so brilliant in positional play, therefore everyone says that Kasparov was weaker in that regard. But if you compare him with everyone else, but Karpov, you can see that he often outplayed his opponents also in positional play.
@@paulgoogol2652 Chess isn't about abstract shit like styles or philosophies, it's about moves. You make good moves you win, make bad moves you lose. Kasparov dominated for 20 years because he made extremely good moves.
@@paulgoogol2652 One thing I'll grant you is, Ben said that Karpov had a deeper understanding of chess, but Kasparov was still better because he was simply a monster at calculation and that made up for the difference.
Also how much wood would Ivanchuk chuck if Ivanchuk could chuck wood? Also beating Anand, Kasparov and Karpov in one tournament is freakingly impressive.
One of my favorite players ever, and one of my favorite tournaments ever. I remember the reports coming in, then studying every game in "New In Chess", then not understanding anything.
Two of my favorite Chuky moments both from Agadmator. One is when he mates Carlsen and jumps out of his chair because he was so surprised, and another one where Agad shows a pic of him watching another game at a tournament and describes it as "here Ivanchuk looks like he's examining the position, but it's Chuky so he could just be staring off into space."
For me, this is chuck's finest game. At a young age to absolutely take kasparov to school and pick him up as well before making him eat his greens and do his homework. Man made kasparov look like a kid. Legend status achieved
The first three games all feature the same strategical device by Ivanchuk: pushing a pawn into two pawns that can take it, in order to open a file or clear a square. Beautiful :)
Now, having finally watched the video, wanted to say a couple of things: 1) It's strange yet awesome that Ben's favourite game is the same like mine! Just look at the position at 17:10! 2) For the first time in a Ben's video I actually more or less know what's going on and what moves are winning (Ivanchuk is my favourite player and imo this is his strongest tournament ever) 3) I think you missed (because of time constrains obviously) the game vs Kamsky, whereby Ivanchuk crushed him on the c file. 4) Another idea would be to also do the Linares 1993 tournament (also won by Ivanchuk). 5) I see that Ben is teaching online some classes which are reasonbly priced - here in Europe it would probably be too late or early, but I plan on registrating and taking one for the team! Finally, as another good man once said, when Ivanchuk is feeling good, when Ivanchuk is in top form, even Stockfish doesn't wanna play a game against him.
Another great Ivanchuk game was against Wei Yi when Chuky walked his king up to d4 with every black piece aimed at it and somehow this was completely safe.
Thanks Ben. Great video. I miss following the Linares tournament. 1994 the famous one. By the way, the 2013 candidates was pretty amazing and very tense (Carlsen out of it till grinding down Radjabov), on checking both Kramnik and Carlsen had 0.5:1.5 against Ivanchuk.. shows what he could have done it not losing on time. Thanks.
Fun fact it was 1st tournament Kasparov lost since 1981 he was basically unbeaten for almost decade. And even here after loosing 1st game he managed to comeback and was very close to at least tie for 1st place!
Karpov is. Check out karpovs 1994 Linares Tournament. Karpov scored 11/13 and no losses. Performance rating -2985 26 years ago. I'm sure with inflation today that it would surely be 3100. If I remember that tournament had like 5 or 6 future world champions or world champion finalist in it from fide and pca, etc not even including a future women's world champion, polgar. 94 was the strongest Tournament to this day if you factor in rating inflation. Fourteen of the world's best players competed in a round robin format. They were: PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov (Elo rated #1 in the world), FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov (#2), Viswanathan Anand (#3), Alexey Shirov (#4), Vassily Ivanchuk (#5), Vladimir Kramnik (#6), Gata Kamsky (#7), Evgeny Bareev (#8), Boris Gelfand (#9), Alexander Beliavsky (#16), Veselin Topalov (#20) from Bulgaria, the best female player Judit Polgar (#22) from Hungary, Joel Lautier (#26) from France, and Miguel Illescas Cordoba (#68) from Spain. Of the the top 10 players, only Valery Salov (#10) was missing. When asked in advance about the strength of the tournament, Kasparov stated that the winner could consider himself the world champion of tournament chess. Karpov won with 11/13, probably the greatest single tournament performance of all time.
At 5:42, if you beat Kasparov in 1991 that means there was lots and lots of cheating involved. Or, as Jan Gustafsson famously said, "Ich don't think so." Also, very suspicious.
this is just sad....ben's channel is just as good as agad or gotham personality-wise...and has gm analysis and opinions and insights. only 35k views and 75k subscsribers....there is something rotten in denmark.
35:30 It must be stated that both Carlsen and Kramnik lost because they were both vying for first and went all out. It’s not like Svidler nor Ivanchuk did anything out of the ordinary.
Of course Kasparov had a massive opening prep, but he was One of the best players ever, even strategically, so for sure he went out of his Prep with ivanchuk s Plan, but still this doesnt explain why he found himself in such a bad situation in few moves
I love the stories that go along with the chess, adds a fun context and human element to the games
Yes, i agree with you i also enjoy the stories that go with the games and or tournaments.
Agree, and on top of that Ben is good at telling them
I went to sport university in Lviv with Vassily Ivanchuk
The game against Kasparov is my favorite. That final position with Kasparov's pieces all stuck on the back rank with the king in front of them is legendary.
I also maintain that peak level Ivanchuk is factually the strongest player to ever play the game, but he never played at that level consistently enough.
If every player in history was playing their absolute best in a tournament together, Ivanchuk wins by a point. The problem with Ivanchuk is his off days look really bad. Terrible, frankly ridiculous.
Absolutely. On a good day Ivanchuk is the best player on Planet Earth. On a bad day he is the best player on Planet Ivanchuk.
I wonder why there’s such a variance. I think his play style lends itself to that and also his competition
@@Chukijay He's also pretty temperamental from what I understand, and if his mood is off it really affects his play negatively.
@@Chukijay I think there's some truth in that, but he's also been a very emotional player and has gone through stretches where he really struggles to motivate himself.
There are 3 kinds of winning positions.
1.There are being up material.
2. Having something wrong with your opponents position that makes it vulnerable
3. Playing against Kasparovs pieces crying in the corner in 1991
While 2 and 3 may have things in common, i assure you they are two very different things.
I saved vacation time off for 3 years to go on a 4 1/2 week trip to Spain and Portugal in 1991. At a paper stand i bought the Spanish mag for Linares 91 and there leafing through to see how come Kasparov had lost. The point not mentioned in this lecture is that Kasparov acted like he had a God given privilege to win any Linares tournament and tended to win handily as a rule. I bought the mag because it was news K had lost.. how? And at the beach I read through Nc5! Sublime. JAQUE revista de ajedrez $304.. still have it with me. The mag has a commentary on this rd1 game titled: the story of young Lancelot and King Arthur. Finally Linares 91 was as per the mag dubbed the strongest tournament to date. Lovely piece of chess history. Thank you Ben for the homage to such a class act.
"Anand, like Ice T - he's gonna care now" Ben pulling a Rick and Morty joke outta nowhere
I'm so excited to see an Ivanchuk lecture!
Thanks for the lecture, I've been wanted an Ivanchuk lecture for ages from GM Finegold for a while so thanks to the sponsor as well now I can stop asking for it via twitch chat hopefully we'll get more in the future. Yeah really great stuff Ivanchuk is my personal favourite player and for sure has to be one of the greatest of all time
@Oissev Onos Yeah sure but I assume after the pandemic he'll go back to teaching classes in person and then he'll just upload them for free like before... also fair enough the guy gotta make a living
Holy shit Kasparov's rating is so freakin high compared to the others.. That is crazy. Even Karpov is rated 2725 in that table.
that is exactly the point. People like to talk about ELO inflation and say "look, 30 years ago only few of the best were at 2700, now everyone is, and elite is close or above 2800." Yet Kasparov was 2800 at that time. He managed to get to 2850 at his peak. So if inflation is as strong as some people claim, Kasparov's rating would be somewhere above 2900 these days.
Probably because of his style. Ultra aggressive and best prepared. Aggressive players mow down opponents in tournaments and collect many points while players like Caruana or Giri would rather not, getting more draws, but in a match situation would be perfectly fine and equally strong. Karpov was superior to Kasparov but didn't have the nerves and stamina to win 1985 and then age kicked in etc... Kasparov however adapted very quickly when he saw Karpov was beating the crap out of his usual style of play. So that was impressive.
I don't think it's aggressiveness only. There were many players these days who were really aggressive, yet they didn't come close to Kasparov, because they won, but also lost often. On the other hand, you don't have to be aggressive in tournaments to win them. In fact, the real king of tournaments was Karpov who went and crushed almost everything. I'd say that the reason of Kasparov's huge lead in ratings was his versatility. He could play both styles very well: exceptionally strong in tactics and very solid positional player. It was simply that Karpov was so brilliant in positional play, therefore everyone says that Kasparov was weaker in that regard. But if you compare him with everyone else, but Karpov, you can see that he often outplayed his opponents also in positional play.
@@paulgoogol2652 Chess isn't about abstract shit like styles or philosophies, it's about moves. You make good moves you win, make bad moves you lose. Kasparov dominated for 20 years because he made extremely good moves.
@@paulgoogol2652 One thing I'll grant you is, Ben said that Karpov had a deeper understanding of chess, but Kasparov was still better because he was simply a monster at calculation and that made up for the difference.
Finally a lecture on Ivanchuk! Many thanks from Ukraine!
Also how much wood would Ivanchuk chuck if Ivanchuk could chuck wood?
Also beating Anand, Kasparov and Karpov in one tournament is freakingly impressive.
One of my favorite players ever, and one of my favorite tournaments ever. I remember the reports coming in, then studying every game in "New In Chess", then not understanding anything.
Two of my favorite Chuky moments both from Agadmator. One is when he mates Carlsen and jumps out of his chair because he was so surprised, and another one where Agad shows a pic of him watching another game at a tournament and describes it as "here Ivanchuk looks like he's examining the position, but it's Chuky so he could just be staring off into space."
For me, this is chuck's finest game. At a young age to absolutely take kasparov to school and pick him up as well before making him eat his greens and do his homework. Man made kasparov look like a kid. Legend status achieved
No: "F3🚫" shirt Ben? You should make a: "C4 💣" and : 🔪F5!
Love your lectures so much ben! You are one of a kind. Please never stop posting them. You are dear to many of us in the chess community.
The first three games all feature the same strategical device by Ivanchuk: pushing a pawn into two pawns that can take it, in order to open a file or clear a square. Beautiful :)
That first game is a clinic in how to neutralise your opponent's pieces without removing them from the board.
I've watched a lot of ben's lectures but I had to subscribe because of this one
Now, having finally watched the video, wanted to say a couple of things:
1) It's strange yet awesome that Ben's favourite game is the same like mine! Just look at the position at 17:10!
2) For the first time in a Ben's video I actually more or less know what's going on and what moves are winning (Ivanchuk is my favourite player and imo this is his strongest tournament ever)
3) I think you missed (because of time constrains obviously) the game vs Kamsky, whereby Ivanchuk crushed him on the c file.
4) Another idea would be to also do the Linares 1993 tournament (also won by Ivanchuk).
5) I see that Ben is teaching online some classes which are reasonbly priced - here in Europe it would probably be too late or early, but I plan on registrating and taking one for the team!
Finally, as another good man once said, when Ivanchuk is feeling good, when Ivanchuk is in top form, even Stockfish doesn't wanna play a game against him.
Another great Ivanchuk game was against Wei Yi when Chuky walked his king up to d4 with every black piece aimed at it and somehow this was completely safe.
"Oh sssheeeet sorry"
" 'Xactly"
For those wondering, funny bit starts at 08:54
You have no idea, how long I've been waiting for this one!
As agadmator said: they worst bishop pair in history
I was missing these lectures hope youll never stop doing that
Thanks Ben. Great video. I miss following the Linares tournament. 1994 the famous one. By the way, the 2013 candidates was pretty amazing and very tense (Carlsen out of it till grinding down Radjabov), on checking both Kramnik and Carlsen had 0.5:1.5 against Ivanchuk.. shows what he could have done it not losing on time. Thanks.
Best chess lectures on youtube !
Thank you! Ivanchuck inspires me!
Yes, Ivanchuk video! This got me excited as soon as I read the title!!!!
Great video, it summarizes why I love Chucky so much: he manages to beat some of the best players.
OMG the first game was INSANITY!!! HOLY FUCK
Wow amazing topic for a lecture
the first game reminded me of Saruman vs Théoden, if Gandalf didn't show up and ruin it.
That was a typo Ljubojevic was older but not 50 yo he was 40 years of age cuz he was born in the 1950s
Second time in 2 days I see the Kasparov game already knowing it in advance. But remains just insane. For me true candidate of best game of all time
Fun fact it was 1st tournament Kasparov lost since 1981 he was basically unbeaten for almost decade. And even here after loosing 1st game he managed to comeback and was very close to at least tie for 1st place!
Great lecture Ben!
Thanks Ben
Can we get a lecture on Ben finegolds “great games of the past” ?
Ivamchuk used the well-known tactic beat the 4 best players in the world. Draw(most of) the rest of the games in this tournament 😅
Korchnoi hovered around 2700 in 1991 so yeah he was still kicking it back then.
"We have a special guest celebrity coming soon...it's either Brad Pitt or it's a pile of rags" LMAO
JUST SAID TO MY GIRLFRIEND: that's the best thing that could happen - Ben commenting on Ivanchuk's games!
1st round Bye's are overpowered.
My God i laughed so hard at the live incursion
i am screaming that move in youtube
Karpov is. Check out karpovs 1994 Linares Tournament. Karpov scored 11/13 and no losses. Performance rating -2985 26 years ago. I'm sure with inflation today that it would surely be 3100. If I remember that tournament had like 5 or 6 future world champions or world champion finalist in it from fide and pca, etc not even including a future women's world champion, polgar. 94 was the strongest Tournament to this day if you factor in rating inflation.
Fourteen of the world's best players competed in a round robin format. They were: PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov (Elo rated #1 in the world), FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov (#2), Viswanathan Anand (#3), Alexey Shirov (#4), Vassily Ivanchuk (#5), Vladimir Kramnik (#6), Gata Kamsky (#7), Evgeny Bareev (#8), Boris Gelfand (#9), Alexander Beliavsky (#16), Veselin Topalov (#20) from Bulgaria, the best female player Judit Polgar (#22) from Hungary, Joel Lautier (#26) from France, and Miguel Illescas Cordoba (#68) from Spain. Of the the top 10 players, only Valery Salov (#10) was missing. When asked in advance about the strength of the tournament, Kasparov stated that the winner could consider himself the world champion of tournament chess.
Karpov won with 11/13, probably the greatest single tournament performance of all time.
Yea thats my boy!
RAWR!
Korchnoi was 60 at the time of this tournament.
and probably still top class
Where can we donate for more insults?
Ben is showing off his very expensive Acer Predator laptop
At 5:42, if you beat Kasparov in 1991 that means there was lots and lots of cheating involved. Or, as Jan Gustafsson famously said, "Ich don't think so." Also, very suspicious.
Also, I can pronounce your name and the country you're from. And here's a short story: your wikipedia page. The truth hurts.
@@realdizzle87 hi hikaru
@@realdizzle87 haha
Ben Finegold on Chucky!!! My goodness, instaclick!
Why not just record the zoom call?
What about lecture about “ Dreev, Khalifman, Gelfand and Ivanchuk! Four in one !!” Lol
You're welcome from the people watching late on youtube
this is just sad....ben's channel is just as good as agad or gotham personality-wise...and has gm analysis and opinions and insights.
only 35k views and 75k subscsribers....there is something rotten in denmark.
35:30 It must be stated that both Carlsen and Kramnik lost because they were both vying for first and went all out. It’s not like Svidler nor Ivanchuk did anything out of the ordinary.
His first name is Vasyl!
i thought ivanchuk was winning anands knight at 32:26 with Qd7. wrong again!
Whre is Kamsky vs Chucky ? :|
After watching the video, I played a game on Lichess. It was depressing! 😞😒
Ljubojevic was 41 years of age in 1991 not 50.
Go Chucky. But stay there.
Of course Kasparov had a massive opening prep, but he was One of the best players ever, even strategically, so for sure he went out of his Prep with ivanchuk s Plan, but still this doesnt explain why he found himself in such a bad situation in few moves
I mean, for sure It counted, but the position Is a peculiar One and not so Easy to evalute and play...a typical ivanchuk position
Ljubo was 40, not 50
If Ivanchuk had won a tournament like that nowadays, he would have been accused of cheating
Ivanchuk best Spanish player of all times. The Ucranian flag is an insult. Imagine a pic of Wesley So with a Philippines' flag...
Big chucky yaay!
nc3 qa6 a3
We want Gotcha vs Bitch! Rawr!
Kasparov's bishops get participation trophies for this one.
One of the Best players never get champion
This goes to show how much shittier chess pros are when taken out of prep.
beating them va easily
Mainly and se forth but mostly frankly suspicious
First yay
28:47 why doesn't Anand play Bg3 with the idea of h3 and trapping the knight?
e4 is hanging
Knight h5. Agree?