I hadn't seen Igor in many years. When I met him, I was a 16 year old kid working at Labate's Chess Center in Anaheim, CA, where Igor was a regular. In addition to his obvious skill at chess, he was one of the nicest guys around, and had a great sense of humor. I remember him walking around the parking lot at Labate's during a tournament once, and someone came up to him and told him that it was his move. Igor said, "Yes, I know." Puzzled, the guy asked, "Well, what are you doing out here?" Igor said, "Analyzing." STILL puzzled, the guy said, "Well, why aren't you analyzing at the board?" Igor smiled and said, "Sometimes the pieces get in the way."

I also had the good forture to share first place in a weeknight tournament with Igor once, at 5-1. He destroyed me in our individual game, but picked up a loss earlier in the tournament. Going into the last round, he was white against senior master Dan Durham, and I had black against an A-player. We both won our games in attacking style (an easier feat for me, obviously, given the competition.) After Igor's game, which ended shortly after mine, I said, "That was kinda brutal, Igor." Igor smiled modestly and said, "Like you."

Igor would also stay late and play Siamese chess (bughouse) with us experts (read: hacks) and had great fun doing it. He traded chess lessons for Ms. Pac Man lessons when he lived with my friend Jason. It was more a tribute to Igor's skill as a student than any deficiencies as a teacher that Jason says now, "He got to be a monster at Ms. Pac Man. I gained maybe 50 points at chess." And if he wasn't in the middle of anything else, and someone wanted to see genius at work, he would show anyone interested some of his wonderful games against the world's best. "Have you seen my game with Karpov?" Free lessons for anyone with the time and interests.

There are a few better chess players than Igor Ivanov walking around, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better person.