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Goodbye Igor

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:17:22 -0500

I played Igor many times in Tournaments in Arizona. I guess I was lucky to draw him several times. The closet I ever came to winning was a tournament where Igor came to my hometown and I put him up for the night, we stayed up playing blitz and drinking all night. The sunday morning round came and we were both alot worse for wear. I being many years Igor's junior held up a little more
and I won a piece for nebulous compensation for Igor. I had been in this spot with hime before and he ended up drawing easily. He lived his life doing what he loved playing chess,I was shocked when I heard the news. I have not played chess in several years now. I like many

Slight of hand

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 16:05:03 -0600

I found myself leaving my games at the major So. Cal Tourney's just to observe the fascinating play of Igor. He was always very accessable, friendly to all players no matter their skill level. More than any other player I've known, he played chess for the shear love of the game. Chess obviously gave him great pleasure, witnessed by his magical laugh when discussing his knowledge of the game.

I got to know Igor for a brief period of time in Salt Lake City, 1993. I had known his wife Elizabeth from So. Cal. and found myself chatting with them both at the Utah Open. I was privileged to be paired with Igor in the Blitz Tourney. Had him on the ropes playing a Morra, but naturally his exceptional speed skills won out the game.

Missing An Opportunity To Befriend a Legend

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 11:00:43 -0600

I had the opportunity to play this legend in Colorado Springs in the mid-90s. It was a weekend swiss tournament with a top prize of probably $400. I did not know who he was then. But before the round, someone told me that I was paired against a very strong International Master. It was a classic example of trading one advantage for an even bigger advantage. The game was lost even with equal pieces on the board. I wish I had taken the time to engage his mind off the board.

Andy Hortillosa
2000 Denver Co-Champion

Rubik's Cube

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 14:56:46 -0600

I recall first seeing Igor at the 1985 Canadian Championships in Edmonton. Igor simultaneously played in the Open and Closed tournament sections. I do not recall if he had won both, but I think he won one section. There was a 5x5x5 Rubik's cube positioned beside the board he was playing on in the Open Section. Igor was trying to solve it while his opponents were thinking. I will always link Igor Ivanov with that tournament and that Rubik's cube.

Igor when I knew him

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:56:22 -0600

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."

Igor in Moab

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 11:53:54 -0600

Igor played in several small tournaments in Moab, across Southern Utah from St. George, and won all but one. With a must-win situation as black against IM Odendahl in 1995, he overextended his attack and lost. Of course the game was brilliant on both sides and subsequently published in the Moab Times Independent as the "match of the titans," the most monumental chess game in the history of Southern Utah to that date.

I claim partial responsibility for Igor's loss that day, having kept him up to about 3am the night before arguing about politics and religion. At the time Igor was a confirmed atheist. My other guest was Doug Taffinder, a born-again Christian, chess master and student of Igor's who had held him to a fascinating draw that Saturday afternoon, creating the must-win situation for Igor on Sunday. Seeing the two of them go at it about religion was as interesting and complex as watching a great chess game. With an academic background in comparative religion, I ventured into the fray, taking a middle road, sometimes moderating and mediating, and sometimes being attacked equally from both sides. MORE...

A Student from Florida

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 18:51:24 -0600

Hi Igor it is me James Beltran. My Mom and I flew from florida to see you one week before you passed away. In that short time we played seven matches. Of course you won all of them, however I don't think I ever came as close as I did to beat you before. Since I moved to florida I been trying to teach myself(it was easier when you taught me). I won a chess tournament in July in Orlando and when I showed you my games which I was so proud of, you made me look like a fool. But that is okay you learn by making mistakes. Now at age 14 I am starting a chess club at my school that is the same age you were when you run your first chess club. I even got a student to teach on my own. I will do my best to teach my student and all the kids at the club everything you tought me, which was alot. I miss ever day.

Igor's Visit to Atlanta

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 09:21:44 -0600

Hi,

My name is David Cole, and I was asked to host Igor Ivanov at my apartment when I was living in the Atlanta metro area back in the mid 1990's. Igor decided to attend a tournament at the Atlanta Chess Center, and Thad Rogers asked for a volunteer to accommodate Igor for the weekend. I volunteered, and I made the unfortunate mistake of engaging Igor in a conversation regarding politics. I should have known better, and Igor rightly lambasted me. However, driving him to Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, I apologized for my choice in conversation, and he quickly forgave me, as I knew Igor to be a man that did not hold grudges. I had forgotten that he endured far worse politics than I, as I was constantly frustrated trying to bring national tournaments to Atlanta, and before that, St. Louis where I also used to live. Igor was even nice enough to play some speed chess against me in my apartment, and we did a demonstration for a friend of mine that stopped by my apartment. Igor, may you rest in peace as you are in a better place now.

Good Bye to my Friend Igor

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:16:39 -0600

I met GM Igor Ivanov when I first came to work as a chess coach for the Chess Emporium in Phoenix six years ago. There he would play every Friday night as part of the US Chess Grand Prix tournament circuit along with several of his scholastic students from the Shelby school in which he taught chess to against masters and beginners alike. He scored victory after victory racking up enough points to claim the title of US Grand Prix tournament champion an unpresidented nine times.
There Igor and I became friends as he always called me by my last name only. He loved chess and would spend many hours showing me many beautiful games he had played against other GM's and IM's around the world.

Washington Times (click for full story)

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 11:58:20 -0600

November 26, 2005
Chess loses a fighter
By David R. Sands

Russian-born U.S. grandmaster Igor Ivanov, one of the best players on the North American scene in the 1980s and 1990s, died of cancer earlier this month at his Utah home at the age of 59.

Ivanov will be remembered as a fine sportsman and coach as well as one of the hardest-working players in the game in his prime. In the late 1980s and mid-1990s, he regularly won the season-ending U.S. Chess Federation Grand Prix award, an honor based on an accumulation of good results from big events such as the U.S. Open and the World Open down to weekend Swisses in small towns where first prize for a grueling three days of work might be a couple hundred bucks.

LosAngeles Times: Chess (click for full story)

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 12:14:46 -0600

November 27, 2005
Legendary champion Ivanov dies
By Jack Peters, International Master

Perennial Grand Prix champion Igor Ivanov died Nov. 17 at his home in Utah. He was 58.

Ivanov was the premier chess master on the American circuit in the 1980s and 1990s. He would compete in three or four weekend tournaments every month, usually with great success. He won the Grand Prix, an annual points competition that rewards habitual prizewinners, eight times in nine years, beginning in 1982.

Ivanov played in few international events and neglected to earn the grandmaster title that he surely deserved in the 1980s. His most notable international achievement was a tie for fourth place, a half-point behind former world champion Boris Spassky, in the 1982 Interzonal in Mexico. In recognition of his tremendous skill, the World Chess Federation recently awarded Ivanov the GM title based on results long ago.

Dear Igor, (click for full story)

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 11:42:52 -0600

November 20, 2005

I am saddened to say good-bye to you. When my mom told me that you had passed away, I was shocked and lots of thoughts jammed in my mind…

I cannot believe that our last tournament together on October 29 was the last time I met you. As in other tournaments we played in, you once again used my Bird system even though you had told me many times that opening is pathetic. It just showed how kind you were to me.

Igor, I am sorry and really regret that I didn’t come on ICC to play you on Wednesdays. I will never have that opportunity again. When I took lessons with you, you knew the thing I liked most was playing ping-pong with you all day long and shared a cool watermelon after the ping-pong matches, definitely no chess.

To Igor, My Friend and Chess Mentor: (click for full story)

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 11:35:51 -0600

Feelings of grief and relief overcame me when I heard of your passing—grief for Elizabeth’s loss, for my sense of loss, for the chess community’s loss of a legend—but relief that you no longer had to endure whatever pain you felt in your final months of life. I have hope and faith that you are now in a much better place.

Though it had been nine years since we last spoke, we interacted in my imagination and memories far more regularly. The sight of a chessboard, a now daily occurrence as I walk past the chess players at Harvard Square, will remind me of you, as will many conversations about growing up. When people learn that I played chess competitively, I always liked to brag that I had private lessons from a Russian International Master. Indeed, even in my admissions essay to Harvard Law School, I mentioned you by name and recounted how I prepared with you for my first foray into the Denker Tournament of High School Champions. You have been a part of my life since the day we met, and you will continue to be so.

A respectful memory

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 21:26:00 -0600

It was in the 80's when I lived in Montreal/Canada and played frequently in the Swiss tournaments at the Specialist Chess Club. Soon after I heard about his staying in Canada, I saw him played in the first section of the Swiss tournaments. Since that time, it was no longer Jean Herbert or Kevin Spraghett who carried the first prize all the time any more, but this new chess player from the USSR.

He sat respectfully at the board, he was a true gentleman of the game and of life.
Some years later he disappeared from the Montreal chess life. Later on I heard he settled down in the US, and suddently he died.

Go to stevekusaba.blogspot.com

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 01:05:38 -0600

My story about Igor is at http://stevekusaba.blogspot.com/