Nearly two months ago we told you it was coming, and in July it finally happened: The‑38‑year‑old super Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk has won three tournaments in the row and has achieved a superb hat trick, something that very few can say.

This final victory occurred in Montreal, where he won the 8th Montreal International Chess Tournament. Ivanchuk did not only win the tournament, he also did it in a real comfortable way. If in the two tournaments he won before Montreal he really had to fight every single point, this time he reached victory with a full‑point of advantage over the no. 2 player, the 34‑year‑old Dutch Grandmaster Sergey Tiviakow.

Ivanchuk’s victory was a happy surprise, but not the only surprise to occur in Montreal. The other was a shocker actually. Nigel Short, the 42‑year‑old British Grandmaster, former world champion candidate and one of the most brilliant players of his generation ended up last. He did not win a single game, in contrast with Ivanchuk who did not loose any. Each of Short’s games ended up in a draw or a defeat for him. Such a poor performance of a Grandmaster of Short’s level is extremely rare and it will long be remembered. Possibly only Alexander Shirov’s performance in the 2005 Paul Keres Memorial can be compared to this catastrophic result of Short’s play. In that tournament, Spanish Grandmaster Shirov achieved only half of nine possible points, but we also have to admit the Paul Keres Memorial is played under the rapid chess time control. In Montreal there was not rapid chess, so the time is not an excuse.

Today we present you the game that Ivanchuk and Short played against each other in Montreal. It happened in the 4th round of the tournament. Both players played a very nice Tarrasch Variation of the French opening. It was only after 34th movement when Ivanchuk took control of the situation and won the game.