BOBBY Fischer created “Fischerandom,” his version of chess, with the idea of invigorating the game. Now Vasily Ivanchuk is trying to popularize his own idea, “Kiss the Queen.”
The Ukrainian grandmaster thought it up as a New Year’s present to the chess world. In his rules, a player can check (“kiss”) the queen just as he can check a king. Such an attack cannot be ignored.
For example, after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Qxd4 Nc6, the best move, under normal rules, is 5 Bb5, allowing the queen to remain on the excellent d4 square. But under “kiss” rules, 5 Bb5 is illegal because it allows 5 . . . Nxb4!.
Ivanchuk, who was briefly the world’s highest-rated player last year, is known for going his own way. In December he fell out of his chair while thinking about a move during a tournament in China. Also, the world chess federation, FIDE, threatened to ban him from future events because he refused to take an anti-doping test.
Last week the federation dropped the threat after Ivanchuk agreed to comply with the rules. “If they say I have to go through a doping control . . . it’s obligatory that I’ll do it,” he said.