Grandmaster Igor Ivanov, 1947–2005

Dennis Monokroussos writes:

Grandmaster Igor Ivanov passed away about a week ago, and while he will not soon be forgotten by the people who knew him, I fear his chess may not enjoy the same fate. There are so many great players that it's impossible to study them all, but Ivanov's active positional style produced model games worthy of especially the amateur's attention.

In this week's show, we'll look at a game that started as one of those model efforts, before taking a sharp turn to the realm of fantasy. Facing IM Vitaly Zaltsman's Tarrasch Defense, Ivanov rapidly built up a large positional advantage. Rather than cash it in by normal means, however, Ivanov produced a fantastic sacrificial idea. Sacrificing a pair of exchanges and then a queen for a rook, Ivanov's compensation came in the form of three pawns picked up along the way - deadly, rapacious, and connected passed pawns. Despite the heavy material disadvantage (bishop, knight and seven pawns as material compensation for a queen, rook and four pawns) and some (mutually) inaccurate play (thanks to time trouble, I'm sure), Ivanov was able to reel in the full point.

If I have succeeded in whetting your appetite, I hope you'll join me this Monday night at 9 p.m. ET as we pay tribute to this outstanding figure in American chess.

A picture of Igor Ivanov taken at the 2005 National Open in June 2005

There is an autobiographical note on Ivanov on the "One Good Move" blog. There he writes: "I was born in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) 08 January 1947. At age 5 my mother taught me to play chess and it was not long until I could beat my mother. My first book was a chess book and even at a very young age, I could remember my games. By age 8 I was an accomplished player, attending the chess palace daily where I was singled out as one of the most promising young players. At 14 I was left an orphan and placed in an internat where my chess and music talent (piano and cello) earned me special privileges and my own room. I ran the school chess club during my 3 years there and then began studying mathematics at the university of Leningrad, but I gave up the study of mathematics to pursue a career as chess professional. In 1979, playing in the Soviet Team Championships, I defeated Karpov, then World Champion. I was part of a Soviet team which went to Cuba, on the way back to Russia, during a refueling stop at Gander, I made a dash for freedom (with the KGB close on my heels). I became a Candian citizen and won both the Canadian Open and Canadian Closed. Several times I represented Canada in International Tournaments. I am 9 times Grand Prix Champion winning many prestigious tournaments as an active tournament player. I am now semi-retired, live in the mountains of southern Utah with my wife Elizabeth, a retired teacher. I teach chess, run a chess camp every summer, give piano recitals, take care of Petruska and Sasha (two very spoiled cats) and am an avid gardner and reader.

Note: you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos here:

Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures. The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and two ducats. That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).

Dennis Monokroussos is 39, lives in South Bend, IN, and is an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

He is fairly inactive as a player right now, spending most of his non-philosophy time being a husband and teaching chess. At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S., but quit for about eight years starting in his early 20s. His highest rating was 2434 USCF, but he has now fallen to the low-mid 2300s – "too much blitz, too little tournament chess", he says.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for seven years now, giving lessons to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.

When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame (or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database), which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess software.

Here are the exact times for different locations in the world. Since Europe has switched from Summer to Regular time please double-check at World Time and Date for your time zone.

If your own city or time zone is not listed you can find it at World Time and Date