Yusupov's All-In

Ivanchuk needed only a draw in the sixth and final classical game of their Candidates quarterfinal to win the match, but Yusupov equalised to force a rapid tiebreak, and it was in what is recorded as the ninth game of the match, the first rapid tiebreak game, that this position arose. Ivanchuk, with White, met Yusupov's unfamiliar King's Indian setup well and built up what looked like a completely winning material advantage, at one stage seemingly close to simply converting the point and the match.

Needing a win and nothing else, Yusupov kept throwing pieces at Ivanchuk's king rather than accept the loss, and a single inaccuracy let the attack break through. Over the following moves Ivanchuk gave back almost all of the material he had won, piece by piece, trying to survive; by the finish White's position had collapsed to the point that 39...Qg3 left no reasonable defence and Ivanchuk resigned.

The game is often held up as a study in the psychological weight of needing to win rather than merely wanting to: Yusupov's decision to keep attacking a position that most players would have written off as lost produced one of the most admired fighting comebacks of the era, and it remains the signature game of a memorable match between two of the period's most resourceful players.