Ivanchuk Wins In Benidorm

Olympiad controversy aside, Vassily Ivanchuk is answering his critics in the best way possible - on the chessboard.  The popular Ukrainian has won 1st prize in the 'stars' rapid double round-robin event at the Benidorm Chess Festival.

It was a somewhat lop-sided field, with the top half of the field out-ranking the bottom half by a large margin, and sure enough the results went to form:

There's no time for Chucky to rest on his laurels, for he now heads to Nanjing, China for the Pearl Spring Tournament (official site here), where he will take on altogether tougher opposition, including the world's current #1 ranked player, Veselin Topalov.

Here are three interesting games from the Benidorm event; two featuring Ivanchuk and one showing that even a 2400+ rated player can get caught out, not knowing how to checkmate with bishop and knight...