Vassily Ivanchuk Robbed!

Vassily Ivanchuk is currently leading the standings at the half-way point of the Grand Slam Masters tournament in São Paulo, but as he left the hotel with his wife Oksana to take a taxi to the airport, they were robbed at gunpoint.

This shocking incident was bad enough in itself, but was compounded by the fact that one of the items that the thief took was Oksana's passport.

As a result the couple will have to split up, with Vassily flying to Bilbao for the second half of the tournament while his wife flies home to Ukraine to obtain a replacement passport to allow her to travel again.

Happier times...Vassily Ivanchuk and his wife Oksana

At first Vassily had reportedly talked of quitting the tournament if his wife was unable to travel to Bilbao with him, but it now seems that he will be arriving on Wednesday afternoon in Bilbao in time for the sixth round on Thursday, when he is due to play Hikaru Nakmaura.

Hopefully Vassily and his wife will recover fully from this unpleasant incident, and Vassily will be able to continue his great form in the tournament.

Picture taken January 2009 by Mikhail Golubev for Chessbase.