RARELY has a single game affected a player’s life as did a 42-move Sicilian Defense won by Igor Ivanov in 1979.
At age 32, Igor had achieved modest success in his native Leningrad but was to old to be considered a future grandmaster.
But his opponent was the seemingly invincible world champion Anatoly Karpov and the upset earned Ivanov the rare permission to play abroad, in a 1980 event in Cuba.
Igor always recalled how he considered defecting on the way to Havana. But, he said, in that case he’d never get to see Cuba. So he defected in Canada on the plane ride home.
Igor settled in Montreal and then Utah, and won dozens of tournaments. But he rarely got invited to the elite events that would make him a GM.
He was the rare chess star who was modest and softspoken, with a special fondness for playing the cello as well as the accelerated Dragon, for vodka as well as listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Early this year Igor Ivanov was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He decided to spend his final months playing the game he loved.
FIDE took a new look at old results, and awarded him the GM title. It was Grandmaster Igor Ivanov who played in the Western States Open six weeks ago, shortly before his death at age 58.