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Spassky on Ivanov and other stories
September 29, 2015
There is an entertaining article by Jeremy Silman at:
http://www.chess.com/article/view/cr...ndmaster-tales
The tales include “tea in your honey” with Rosendo Balinas, “alcohol” with Igor Ivanov and “the curse of faulty glasses” with Walter Browne.
Included is a Tribute to Igor Ivanov by Boris Spassky from which I quote three paragraphs:
Igor Ivanov and I shared a similar fate. Neither of us could not adapt to the socialist paradise. Both of us received our living strength from Imperial Russia, which had over 1,000 years of culture. Igor was lucky and received a good musical education from his mother who died when he was only 14 years old. She dreamed to see him as a good pianist and cellist, but his passion was to become a professional chess player. Fortunately, Igor was very talented at chess.
_______
Igor’s professional life in the West was difficult. He played many tournaments with small prizes and really needed the grandmaster’s title to get the invitations for the big events. The country where he started his new chess life, Canada, is not for chess. Both its chess leaders in the early 1980s -- Kevin Spraggett and Igor Ivanov -- had to move to another area: Kevin to Europe and Igor to the USA. In his new homeland, he won nine Grand Prix titles, which was a great accomplishment.
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Igor left this world courageously: no complaints, no regrets, just hiding his pain. Before saying good-bye, we pretended we would meet again, but our eyes were very sad: we knew that in this life we had met each other for the last time. Igor left us on November 17, 2005.
I will have warm feelings for Igor forever.
______
Jeremy Silman (born in Del Rio, Texas, August 28, 1954) is an American IM. He has won the US Open, the American Open, and the National Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team. Silman has authored over 35 books, mostly on chess but also on casino gambling, and served as a chess consultant on the 2001 Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
September 29, 2015
There is an entertaining article by Jeremy Silman at:
http://www.chess.com/article/view/cr...ndmaster-tales
The tales include “tea in your honey” with Rosendo Balinas, “alcohol” with Igor Ivanov and “the curse of faulty glasses” with Walter Browne.
Included is a Tribute to Igor Ivanov by Boris Spassky from which I quote three paragraphs:
Igor Ivanov and I shared a similar fate. Neither of us could not adapt to the socialist paradise. Both of us received our living strength from Imperial Russia, which had over 1,000 years of culture. Igor was lucky and received a good musical education from his mother who died when he was only 14 years old. She dreamed to see him as a good pianist and cellist, but his passion was to become a professional chess player. Fortunately, Igor was very talented at chess.
_______
Igor’s professional life in the West was difficult. He played many tournaments with small prizes and really needed the grandmaster’s title to get the invitations for the big events. The country where he started his new chess life, Canada, is not for chess. Both its chess leaders in the early 1980s -- Kevin Spraggett and Igor Ivanov -- had to move to another area: Kevin to Europe and Igor to the USA. In his new homeland, he won nine Grand Prix titles, which was a great accomplishment.
_______
Igor left this world courageously: no complaints, no regrets, just hiding his pain. Before saying good-bye, we pretended we would meet again, but our eyes were very sad: we knew that in this life we had met each other for the last time. Igor left us on November 17, 2005.
I will have warm feelings for Igor forever.
______
Jeremy Silman (born in Del Rio, Texas, August 28, 1954) is an American IM. He has won the US Open, the American Open, and the National Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team. Silman has authored over 35 books, mostly on chess but also on casino gambling, and served as a chess consultant on the 2001 Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.