Beliavsky-Ivanchuk, Linares 1993 QGD Exchange Variation

In my last article, http://www.chess.com/article/view/karpov-beliavsky-tilburg-1986, Alexander Beliavsky played the black side of the Exchange Variation against Anatoly Karpov. This time, Beliavsky plays the white side against another top player, Vassily Ivanchuk. While Beliavsky was two years younger than Karpov, he was sixteen years older than Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk was born March 18, 1969 in Kopychynsti, Ukraine. He became a grandmaster and top ten rated player in 1988. He has won many tournaments since then and is still among the world’s elite players.

Beliavsky-Ivanchuk was played at Linares 1993. Fourteen players with an average ELO of 2676 (category 18) played thirteen rounds. The final standings are: Kasparov 10, Karpov 8.5, Anand 8.5, Shirov 8, Kramnik 7.5, Salov 6.5, Ivanchuk, 6.5, Beliavsky 6, Kamsky 5.5, Bareev 5.5, Jussupow 5, Timman 5, Gelfand 4.5, Ljubojevic 4. Only Kasparov, who had seven wins,  was undefeated.

The opening was the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Beliavsky selected the Exchange Variation. The game references show Beliavsky played on both sides of the variation. Some other relevant and entertaining games are shown. There is original analysis and there are the notes of  others, mainly from Beliavsky.