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The tense battle of Vasily Ivanchuk and Emil Sutovsky (Israel) finished with the victory of the Ukrainian chess player.

Vasily Ivanchuk shared with the journalists what helped him to win in today’s game at the press conference.

— Vasily, the match turned out to be very difficult for you. You lost in the 1^st classical game playing white. What did you feel after the defeat? — I realized that I still had another chance in the second game. I had to make a big effort in order to win. I hoped that the fortune would be on my side. Luckily, it was the case.

— The opponent might have influenced it somehow, who was developing the position and was playing rather recklessly? — Yes, Emil did play actively. It was not easy for me to defend being under his strong attack. I think that we both made many mistakes. However, I managed to win.

— Tell us about today’s tie breaks please — Let’s start from the 1^st game where I had Black. The opponent took the initiative and broke up the line «h», however, it was only to my advantage. Soon I put my rook on h8 and got a very strong attack. I hope that the way that I chose to realize this was not the fastest, but it was enough to win. The fight in the second game was also tense and everything depended on one precise move. When we entered the endgame with Black’s exchange up, I realized that the passed pawn and the better pieces coordination would assure my victory.

— It has become a tradition that the World Cup is not an easy competition for you. Do you feel yourself more confident after qualifying to the 4^th round? — I cannot give an example of any chess player for whom this tournament is an easy one. One reason for that is strong participants’ composition. Moreover, the format of the competition is very tense. I am very pleased to have qualified to the next stage. However, I am not intended to relax because I have a very hard struggle ahead of me.

— There is still another participant from Lvov who is playing in the World Cup — 18-year-old Yaroslav Zherebukh. Can you tell us anything about this young chess player? — I do not know him well enough. I saw some of his games and I came to the conclusion that if he works enough at chess, he has a serious chess future ahead of him...