Ivanchuk Playing At 3052 Elo!

Grand Master Vassily Ivanchuk from Lvov, Ukraine is on a dream spell at Sofia capital of Bulgaria. After seven rounds in the Category 20 MTel Masters Tournament he is on six points with two draws and five wins to lead the six player double all-play-all event.

The event is played on a five hour format with the same 'no draw offer rule' in force. Players are forbidden from making draw offers to opponents. They can offer to the arbiter if there is a 3-time repetition though. The organiser of the event is Silvio Danailov, manager of Veselin Topalov.

Starting with a lucky win against Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, Ivanchuk is on a dream run. His wins include that over top seed Topalov. Veselin Topalov is playing at an amazing 2895 but is clearly overshadowed by Ivanchuk's splendid show.

Ivanchuk had at best played for the World Title in 2002 when he lost to compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov at Moscow.

Standings after round seven: 1 V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 6/7, 2 V. Topalov (Bul) 5, 3-4 T. Radjabov (Aze), Ivan Cheparinov (Bul) 3.5 each, 5 Levon Aronian (Arm) 2, 6 Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) 1.