Was Ivanchuk just trolling the whole time at the Candidates?

Ivanchuk is one of the top 10 players of the last 25 years, but Kramnik and Anand have consistently been better than him. Even when Ivanchuk has been at his best he has had a hard time against those two. I understand the romantic appeal of rooting of the inconsistent "genius", but Ivanchuk's best is not better than Anand or Kramnik at their best.  

Ivanchuk has also lost 5 of his last 7 games with Aronian and the other 2 were draws . 

Gefand said in an interview two years ago:

Who plays better, Ivanchuk in good form or Carlsen?

It seems to me it’s Ivanchuk in good form.

On a good day, Ivanchuk is just insanely good.

On a bad day, Ivanchuk is just insane.

i admit that after the Budapest Gambit game in the Candidates, it did cross my mind that Chuky was just trolling Magnus 

but still the second highest player of the tournament couldnt play so well against it. i dont think playing the budapest is such a bad choice then as everyone points out.

of course i quickly dismissed my thought as invalid, but it was very funny nevertheless

Magnus was pissed at the Budapest, maybe his behaviour was a bit out of line with some comments about his opponents' games

In general Ivanchuk has had more trouble with Carlsen than with Kramnik lately, after losing to him in the Candidates Carlsen still has 8-3 in wins while Ivanchuk has been a difficult opponent to Kramnik. Over the last decade Ivanchuk is 2-0 and missed wins in time trouble in a couple of other games (for example Wijk 2010). Also Kramnik's latest win against Ivanchuk, a dozen years ago, came from a lost position when Ivanchuk got into his usual time trouble and blundered away both win and draw:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1302447

Ivanchuk has been playing this same way since the late 1980's and early 1990's., even defeating Kasparov in the 1991 Linares, which Chucky won as well-- long before the chess engines were strong enough to be a help at the top.  He is certainly no cheat.  He is a genius who understands that if he tries to play mechanically, he looses his muse.

The guy is strange, but very entertaining, and a good sort overall.  The best all recognize he is a genius, but he hasn't a "steady'' button.  He is almost guaranteed to go `on tilt' sometime in any long tournament.

Chucky is one of my favorite GMs, but he belongs to the "old generation" of players who no longer have a chance to become the WCC. The same goes for Leko, Ponomariov, Morozevich, Bacrot and Shirov. If there is anyone who can beat Magnus in a match, it's either Caruana, Nakamura, Kramnik or Aronian. 

Ivanchuk is player of all season, he wants to play all kind of chess position, hence he play different kind of openings.

Ivanchuk has the greatest variability in playing strength perhaps of any player ever.  On his good days he's virtually invincible and on his bad days he is awful.  It's a shame he never found real consistency because he has the talent to become WC easily.

Just to say that Ponomariov was born in 1983, and Kramnik in 1975.

But sure, I also think that Kramnik has the better chance of those 2 players to become WC again (since Ponomariov was already WC from 2002 to 2004).

<op> An excellent description of exactly the Ivanchuk attitude during the candidate. I concur!

We need Ivanchuk to troll the shit out of the next candidates.

Agreed. Hope he qualifies and scores 2-0 against Fabiano Caruana.

Caruana is going to be leading at the last round by +2,  but Ivanchuk who is in last place crushes Caruana. Second place wins his game and wins on tiebreak. No Caruana-Carlsen 2016.

I think you mean +1?

Yes, for some crazy reason I thought you lost a point for losing