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You know the story: Bulgarian Borislav Ivanov, a 25-year old, untitled computer programmer played at the Zadar Open in Croatia last December and scored 6/9, with a rating performance of 2697. He gained 115 points over his previous 2277 rating, gained in over 400 games over three years.
He was suspected of using illicit electronic assistance, so he was “stripped searched” and they found nothing.
He trains against chess engines: “Of course I practiced a lot with the computer, and after beating Rybka and Houdini by 10-0 each, I was absolutely sure that no-one was gonna stop me winning.”
http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/...peaks-out.aspx
Two months after his Zadar performance he played at a 1970 level at Plovdiv.
Then he had a 2696 rating performance at the March 16-17 rapid chess tourney at Villava, Spain, winning it.
GM Kiril Gorgiev on that tournament: “My game against Borislav Ivanov was played at ten minutes plus five second increment. He played very fast, which came as a big surprise to me. He spent between five and seven seconds per move, and never took more time on any of his moves during the game. For the whole game he was supporting his chin with his two hands. He was making his moves quickly and vigorously, displaying a high level of self-confidence at all times.”
http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/...ce-050613.aspx
I get the fact that there is a correlation between his moves and Houdini’s in classical chess. I can think of ways, in classical chess, that the computer moves could be transmitted to him. But in rapid chess? I would think that is impossible.
If it is done, then it is like a magic illusion – now you see it, now you don’t type of thing. That is what interests me – a magic trick that has fooled everyone. How is it done?
Eric Tohni at the ChessBase site: We know his device isn't on his upper body, as he variously wears a T-shirt or jacket, and the latter is the first item he offers to remove. We know it's fast enough to work in rapid. We know that it didn't work when the broadcast went down in Zardar. He doesn't go to the bathroom and appears to make constant visual contact with the board, as though he's thinking. Unless he does something with his feet, I don't see how he can be inputting moves into a computer. This means he must have an accomplice, or more likely two. He probably has one person in the hall operating a clicker that relays the opponents move and one person manning a computer who sends the next move to Ivanov's clicker. That's the only way fast enough for rapid chess. All the people crowing around Ivanov looking for "clues" to how he does it just make it easier by giving the first relayer cover.
Peter Jameson This article alleging that Ivanov is a cheat provides no real evidence. How does he cheat even in rapid games watched by a horde of observers?
Danny Purvis WWMGD? (What would Martin Gardner do?) There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Hire a professional magician. That's how psychic research was cleaned up years ago.
Roger de Coverly at English Chess Forum: The combined evidence is that most of his moves match those of computer engines. But in the absence of a demonstrated method of consulting these engines during play, you can only fall back on the explanation that the consultations took place before play and that he's found a training method and positional eye that matches the top engines in many positions. The family of engines from Rybka onwards have supplemented brute force calculation with sophisticated positional fine tuning, so if you knew or reverse engineered what that was, your move choices would match many of those of the engines because you were essentially doing the same calculation.
If he is cheating, then he has to have a method of communicating the board position or the latest move played to either an engine on his person or in the hands of third party accomplice(s). He also has to receive back the move recommended. Using the evidence of the rapid play tournament, all this has to be done at ten seconds a move.
+++++++
I am not interested in what measures should be put in place the next time Ivanov plays or whether he should be banned from tournaments or that there is a chess engine correlation with his moves – just whether you can cheat in this way at rapid chess. I think he may be a genuine genius!
He was suspected of using illicit electronic assistance, so he was “stripped searched” and they found nothing.
He trains against chess engines: “Of course I practiced a lot with the computer, and after beating Rybka and Houdini by 10-0 each, I was absolutely sure that no-one was gonna stop me winning.”
http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/...peaks-out.aspx
Two months after his Zadar performance he played at a 1970 level at Plovdiv.
Then he had a 2696 rating performance at the March 16-17 rapid chess tourney at Villava, Spain, winning it.
GM Kiril Gorgiev on that tournament: “My game against Borislav Ivanov was played at ten minutes plus five second increment. He played very fast, which came as a big surprise to me. He spent between five and seven seconds per move, and never took more time on any of his moves during the game. For the whole game he was supporting his chin with his two hands. He was making his moves quickly and vigorously, displaying a high level of self-confidence at all times.”
http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/...ce-050613.aspx
I get the fact that there is a correlation between his moves and Houdini’s in classical chess. I can think of ways, in classical chess, that the computer moves could be transmitted to him. But in rapid chess? I would think that is impossible.
If it is done, then it is like a magic illusion – now you see it, now you don’t type of thing. That is what interests me – a magic trick that has fooled everyone. How is it done?
Eric Tohni at the ChessBase site: We know his device isn't on his upper body, as he variously wears a T-shirt or jacket, and the latter is the first item he offers to remove. We know it's fast enough to work in rapid. We know that it didn't work when the broadcast went down in Zardar. He doesn't go to the bathroom and appears to make constant visual contact with the board, as though he's thinking. Unless he does something with his feet, I don't see how he can be inputting moves into a computer. This means he must have an accomplice, or more likely two. He probably has one person in the hall operating a clicker that relays the opponents move and one person manning a computer who sends the next move to Ivanov's clicker. That's the only way fast enough for rapid chess. All the people crowing around Ivanov looking for "clues" to how he does it just make it easier by giving the first relayer cover.
Peter Jameson This article alleging that Ivanov is a cheat provides no real evidence. How does he cheat even in rapid games watched by a horde of observers?
Danny Purvis WWMGD? (What would Martin Gardner do?) There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Hire a professional magician. That's how psychic research was cleaned up years ago.
Roger de Coverly at English Chess Forum: The combined evidence is that most of his moves match those of computer engines. But in the absence of a demonstrated method of consulting these engines during play, you can only fall back on the explanation that the consultations took place before play and that he's found a training method and positional eye that matches the top engines in many positions. The family of engines from Rybka onwards have supplemented brute force calculation with sophisticated positional fine tuning, so if you knew or reverse engineered what that was, your move choices would match many of those of the engines because you were essentially doing the same calculation.
If he is cheating, then he has to have a method of communicating the board position or the latest move played to either an engine on his person or in the hands of third party accomplice(s). He also has to receive back the move recommended. Using the evidence of the rapid play tournament, all this has to be done at ten seconds a move.
+++++++
I am not interested in what measures should be put in place the next time Ivanov plays or whether he should be banned from tournaments or that there is a chess engine correlation with his moves – just whether you can cheat in this way at rapid chess. I think he may be a genuine genius!
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