Bulgaria - Summer of Chess

[Andy McCulloch]

Perhaps you should get in touch with your pal Silvio then.

According to ECF he entered, but has since been excluded from, the Politiken Cup event

[andyburnett]

If he is cheating, I have a few ideas how he is doing it. Would love a chance to see if I was right!

Would any of your ideas be new to the many discussions on Ivanov, Andy? Almost everything outside of alien intervention and the supernatural has been proposed already!

[Graham Kerr]

If he is cheating, I have a few ideas how he is doing it. Would love a chance to see if I was right!

Would any of your ideas be new to the many discussions on Ivanov, Andy? Almost everything outside of alien intervention and the supernatural has been proposed already!

Even those have already been suggested!

[Graham Kerr]

Update:-
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.chess-news.ru/en/node/12664">http://www.chess-news.ru/en/node/12664</a><!-- m -->

[Graham Kerr]

He's back...
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4011396/the-shoe-assistant--ivanov-forfeits-at-blagoevgrad-031013.aspx">http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/Pos ... 31013.aspx</a><!-- m -->

[WBuchanan]

He's gone, according to this (scroll down to the bottom)

Ivanov ends his chess career
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4011396/the-shoe-assistant--ivanov-forfeits-at-blagoevgrad-031013.aspx">http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/Pos ... 31013.aspx</a><!-- m -->

[WBuchanan]

These Chessbase 'analyses' are grating on me, big time. Here is Ivanov–Rombaldoni

[pos]Q2r3k/3PN1pp/8/p7/P1P2PbP/1P4P1/8/3Rr1K1 w - - 4 1[/pos]

This arose by a tactic where W played Qa8! and Black, a 2486-rated player, probably a GM, had to give up his own queen with Qd1+ Rxd1 and then Re1+ reachind the diagram position.

Ivanov played Rxe1 and after Rxa8 Nc6 Black managed to take the d-pawn Bxd7 - a feat in itself - but was still 3 pawns down, so soon lost.

But instead of Ivanov's Rxe1, it struck me that after Kf2! Black is dead as a doorknob. Re2+, Kf1.

Now Houdini (also apparently present in Ivanov's shoe, remember) tells me that this is correct.

Not only that, but it tells me that Kg2 also wins too, W then plays the K to f1 to escape the checks.
Even Kh2 wins in the same way, after a onefold repetition - but all 3 moves come up before Ivanov's actual move.

Chessbase are very keen to tell us about how Ivanov's extremely sharp style corresponds to the computer moves - but when, in a game that they featured, he played the fourth best move (by a very long way) in a position with pieces hanging, pawns about to queen and back rank mates on, it passes without comment from them.

Not only that, but Houdini also says that in the game even after Rxe1 Rxa8 W can keep his passed pawn by playing f5. This cuts off the B and Black would just resign as the pawn queens.

But it's far more eyecatching to make up a picture of a device in a shoe and tell us how easy it would be to make it work. Chessbase have presented a one-sided case throughout.

PS I've just noticed that even eithout the move f5, Ng6+ seems to force immediate resignation too. So that's another 3rd best by a mile choice.
PPS Oh and Nc8 instead Bxd7 Nb6 wins the B. So Nc6 was fourth best too.
PPPS (sorry!) make that fifth best, W can play Nf5 too.

[Graham Kerr]

He's gone, according to this (scroll down to the bottom)

Ivanov ends his chess career
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4011396/the-shoe-assistant--ivanov-forfeits-at-blagoevgrad-031013.aspx">http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/Pos ... 31013.aspx</a><!-- m -->

I was just about to post the same link... can't face the embarrassment of showing off his smelly feet perhaps?

[Graham Kerr]

These Chessbase 'analyses' are grating on me, big time. Here is Ivanov–Rombaldoni

[pos]Q2r3k/3PN1pp/8/p7/P1P2PbP/1P4P1/8/3Rr1K1 w - - 4 1[/pos]

This arose by a tactic where W played Qa8! and Black, a 2486-rated player, probably a GM, had to give up his own queen with Qd1+ Rxd1 and then Re1+ reachind the diagram position.

Ivanov played Rxe1 and after Rxa8 Nc6 Black managed to take the d-pawn Bxd7 - a feat in itself - but was still 3 pawns down, so soon lost.

But instead of Ivanov's Rxe1, it struck me that after Kf2! Black is dead as a doorknob.

Now Houdini (also apparently present in Ivanov's shoe, remember) tells me that this is correct.

Not only that, but it tells me that both Kg2! and Kh2! also win immediately too. White gets a new queen or mates.

Chessbase are very keen to tell us about how Ivanov's extremely sharp style corresponds to the computer moves - but when, in a game that they featured, he played the fourth best move (by a very long way) in a position with pieces hanging, pawns about to queen and back rank mates on, it passes without comment from them.

Not only that, but Houdini also says that in the game even after Rxe1 Rxa8 W can keep his passed pawn by playing f5. This cuts off the B and Black would just resign as the pawn queens.

But it's far more eyecatching to make up a picture of a device in a shoe and tell us how easy it would be.

I agree that the Chessbase articles are heavily weighted

[WBuchanan]

"can't face the embarrassment of showing off his smelly feet perhaps?"

Lol , but I don't know how I would react to a demand for a search. I think if there were grounds for widespread suspicion I would accede to it, but if it was a sudden whim on the part of an opponent or the arbiter I probably wouldn't. If I got a lot of abuse first, I might have reacted the same way as Ivanov =o

I think what people may be forgetting is that the right to search Ivanov only exists in their own mind. In reality chess is a game, and an enforced search is, objectively, a much more serious issue than that. The new FIDE proposals appear to give arbiters greater powers than the police, and not just over competitors. It's a tense and emotional situation, but I fear the chess world might be about to lose its collective marbles, and introduce cures that are worse than the disease - but hopefully sanity will prevail.