Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov - New Canadian Star

New Canadian Star

Ivanov settled in Montreal, and won the 1981 Zonal Canadian Chess Championship held there, earning the International Master title, and qualified for the World Championship cycle the next year. He went on to win the Championship of Canada four times in all, including three straight years from 1985-87. He won the Canadian Open Chess Championship three times, in 1981, 1984, and 1985. For the 1981 Meran World Championship match, he seconded challenger Viktor Korchnoi.

At the 1982 Toluca Interzonal, Ivanov narrowly missed advancing as a Candidate, finishing in fourth place. Later that year, he represented Canada on top board at the Lucerne Chess Olympiad, and defeated top Grandmasters Jan Timman and Anthony Miles. He also played for Canada in the 1988 Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki. Although he was clearly a player of grandmaster strength, he did not actually receive the title until the last year of his life, 2005. This delay was caused mainly by bookkeeping issues, and by the Soviet federation refusing to recognize his earlier achievements after he defected.

While remaining a Canadian citizen, Ivanov moved for most of the year to the United States, and participated in the Grand Prix tournaments called the "Church's Chicken Circuit" in the early 1980s, to be able to compete more often. He traveled around the USA mostly by bus, playing in small and medium-sized chess tournaments nearly every weekend, which he very often won, as well as many major American events. He won nine first prizes, usually $10,000, for most Grand Prix points in a year, and was one of the most active players in the country. Ivanov resided in Utah with his wife Elizabeth, a retired teacher who was at one time a distinguished chess player herself. He won the Utah Open and the Utah Championship titles every time he competed, and personally trained many of Utah's top chess players, including virtuoso and prodigy Kayden William Troff, who is one of the strongest for his age in the country, and is top in Utah in many categories. Ivanov was finally awarded the Grandmaster title in 2005.

Ivanov was diagnosed with cancer in March 2005. The Professional Players' Health and Benefit Fund of the United States Chess Federation had been giving him financial support for his chemotherapy treatments. In August 2005, three months before his death, he tied for eighth place at the U.S. Open Chess Championship in Phoenix, Arizona against some of the best players in the country.

Ivanov died on November 17, 2005 in St. George, Utah. He played in the Utah Open on October 29, 2005, only three weeks before his death, finishing in a tie for first place.