Ivanchuk Rolling in Havana

Like a fine Cuban cigar, Vassily Ivanchuk just keeps rolling along at the Capablanca Memorial. The Ukrainian top-tenner has a tradition of putting up big scores in Latin America. In 2005 it was 9.5/12 at this event, two and a half points ahead of the pack. Last year it was a much stronger event with other strong internationals, including Bareev. Ivanchuk still took first with 6.5/10. After that he headed right to Mexico to add another Carlos Torre Memorial KO victory to his collection. His Morelia performances have been less impressive, but overall better than when they arrive in Linares. (Overall +1 in Morelia, -3 in Linares.)

This year's Capablanca Memorial has expanded the field to 10, moving away from the often tedious double round-robin. Those have a certain majesty at the elite level, but when you have an unbalanced field it can get pretty ugly. The top Cuban players, Dominguez and Bruzon, are joined by a few countrymen as well as Gashimov (AZE), Miton of Poland, and Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark. Bruzon and Nielsen were favorites but are both struggling so far. The Dane, who has been coaching Magnus Carlsen of late, is at 2.5/6 and Bruzon is at the bottom with just two points. Ivanchuk is in the clear lead by a point and a half with 5/6. Gashimov and Dominguez are =2-3 with 3.5. Three of Ivanchuk's wins have come with black, including a boggling game with Nielsen to start the event. In the last round he won a nice endgame against Miton.

Just to get in an Argentina shout-out, the first of these Capablanca Memorial events was won by Don Miguel Najdorf in 1962. (Despite his losing his first two games, his only losses!) The event was very strong over the next decade and winners included Smyslov, Korchnoi, and Larsen. In 1965, Bobby Fischer famously played the 21-round marathon by teletype machine from the Marshall Chess Club when the US State Department denied Fischer permission to travel to Cuba. Even though his sessions took many hours more than regular games, often ending at past two in the morning, Fischer still came =2-4. This commitment made Fischer very popular in Cuba from what I was told. When I went there in the early 90's chess fans still wanted to talk about it. Fischer went to Cuba the next year for the Olympiad. He had even been there before, in 1956, and given a simul in Havana. Thank goodness US policy toward Cuba has gotten so much more intelligent in the last 30 years and that the embargo got rid of that Castro guy.