Ukrainian becomes youngest world chess champion (02/03/02)

Ukrainian becomes youngest world chess champion

by Dr. Orest Popovych

HOWELL, N.J. - Ruslan Ponomaryov, 18, of Kramatorsk on January 23 became the new chess champion of the world, after defeating his countryman, Vasyl Ivanchuk of Lviv, by a score of 4 1/2:2 1/2 in the final match of the world championship, staged by the International Chess Federation FIDE in Moscow.

The winner went undefeated, posting a record of two wins and five draws. Mr. Ponomaryov is the first Ukrainian and the youngest player ever to capture the world title.

Immediately following his victory, the 16th world champion was congratulated in person by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and, via telephone, by Ukraine's president Leonid Kuchma. President Kuchma issued a decree bestowing upon Ruslan Ponomaryov the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, fifth degree. Vasyl Ivanchuk has been honored with the presidential Order of Merit ("Za Zasluhy"), second degree. Mr. Ponomaryov and Mr. Ivanchuk have received cash prizes of $400,000 and $200,000, respectively.

The world championship match between Ukraine's top two grandmasters, which had been described as an event of epic significance for Ukrainian chess, was not as lopsided as the score would suggest. In two of the games Mr. Ivanchuk had achieved technically won positions, only to blunder them away later on.

Commentators have attributed this to time pressure and a case of nerves, a problem that has plagued the 32-year-old Mr. Ivanchuk sporadically throughout his career. In contrast, his young opponent was a model of confidence and coolness under pressure. No doubt, his decisive win in game one had a great psychological impact on the rest of the match.

Nevertheless, it is hard to reconcile this result with Mr. Ivanchuk's enormous advantage in experience over his opponent. Mr. Ivanchuk, born on March 18, 1969, in Berezhany, western Ukraine, has been Ukraine's premiere chess player since the late 1980s. He won a string of powerful international tournaments, among them New York (1988), Linares, Spain (1989, 1991, 1995), Wijk aan Zee, Holland (1996) and Lviv (2000), and has been the perennial top board of Ukraine in international team competition.

Mr. Ponomaryov was born on October 11, 1983,in the city of Horlivka in the Donbas region of Ukraine. He learned chess moves at age 7 and since the age of 12 has been living under the guidance of a full-time chess coach. In the under-18 age category he won the European championship at age 12 and the world championship at 13.

At 14 he became the youngest player ever to be awarded the title of grandmaster. In 1998, Mr. Ponomaryov made his debut on the Ukrainian olympic Team, and soon thereafter won the Ukrainian Zonal tournament - the first step towards the World Championship.

In the year 2001, Mr. Ponomaryov tied for 1-2 places in the European men's championship and then played a key role in garnering the first-ever gold medal for Ukraine in the World Team Championship. The gold medal was decided only in the last-round match against Russia, in which the four-man Ukrainian team prevailed by a score of 2 1/2:1 1/2, thanks to the lone victory by Mr. Ponomaryov.

For the first time in history Ukraine possesses both the team and the individual world chess championships - and both of them have Ruslan Ponomaryov written all over them.

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