2^nd Annual Igor Ivanov Memorial

By Petro Grechanei

I came up with the idea to write about 2^nd Annual Igor Ivanov Memorial because it was the first tournament that had strong IMs and an FM from other States. So it was a memorable tournament for many others and me.

I arrived to Saint George Friday afternoon, even all rounds were scheduled to play on Saturday. I arrived in a company of my friend Scott, who also was excited to participate in the tournament. We checked in into the hotel four or five blocks away from St. George Chess center. After that we went to chess center to register. I was amazed to see a full time chess center there. Even Salt Lake City doesn’t have a center like that. I also would like to mention that Saint George Chess Center was named “Chess Center of the Year” in 2006. Coincidently, when we came in we met Alan Crooks, who was the tournament director and a true chess promoter, and his guest – IM John W. Donaldson. I’d like to say a few words about John Donaldson. He was chosen by team members to be a Capitan of the US Olympic Chess Team during this year’s Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy. He is an author of quite a few chess books that were published in the United States. After we got acquainted with Alan and John, John asked me where I was from, probably recognizing my Russian accent while I was introducing myself. When he learned that I was from Ukraine he mentioned that there are quite a few strong GMs from Ukraine he had met with, including in the US Olympic team.

After my brief encounter with John Donaldson and Alan Crooks I went inside the room where the tournament will take place next morning. There were about seven or eight people playing chess. None of them were free to play, so I convinced Scott to play with me. Around seven o’clock or near that IM John Donaldson started a lecture on one of Igor Ivanov’s best games that turned his life around. It was a game from People’s of Soviet Union Tournament in 1979. Igor was white against Anatoliy Karpov.

It was very interesting lecture even though I had already seen and analyzed it to some extend. It was all for Friday before the tournament starting on Saturday.

Next morning rounds started around nine o’clock. I would like to mention also that another member of University of Utah Chess Club participated in this event. It was Enrique Arce-Larreta. He also attended a lecture by IM John Donaldson on Friday night (that’s when I found out that he will also take part in the competition.) His performance was very successful and I would say impressive, coz he managed to collect 4 points out of 5 and took 1^st place in the U2000 section.

It was Swiss system, so during my first round I got paired against very strong FM Emory Tate. Of course, I lost my first game, but during 2^nd round I had an extra pawn, but made a big blunder and lost in won for me position. As a result, I had zero points at the end of 2^nd round, and we only had three more rounds to go. Luckily for me, I managed to win the rest of my games and ended up with 3 points out of 5. It was a pretty good result for me, because it was my first OTB tournament where titled players played.

I managed to tie for a 1^st place in U1500 section along two other players from Salt Lake City. I was surprised to find out that the winners of all sections have to be knighted and their pictures will be in the Hall of Fame at the Saint George Chess Center. It was a very enjoyable moment for me to be Knighted and have my picture taken for the Hall of Fame. We were also given a T-Shirt made specially for 2^nd Igor Ivanov Memorial, which makes it even more memorable.

In the little room next to the hall where all the games took place, there was a stand devoted to Igor Ivanov. It had numerous chess magazines with him on a front cover, articles from newspapers and magazines (both Russian and English), Igor’s trophies, pictures.

I should say that I really enjoyed the tournament; how it was organized (I’ve sent e-mails to Alan saying thank you to him and all the staff that did their best to run the tournament as smoothly as possible); I really enjoyed meeting John Donaldson in person; I was very excited to see real masters like John Donaldson, Emory Tate, and Enrico playing over the board games. Following are a few pictures from the tournament that I have taken.