Chess Cheating - Episode 4: A New Hope
It’s been a rough month for Bulgarian professional players taking part in major chess events held in my home country. The newly-fledged FIDE master Borislav Ivanov has taken on every GM and IM ‘daring’ to enter a chess tournament here in Bulgaria, and in his notorious and pure Houdini 3.0 style of play, he has beaten a number of titled compatriots, as well as visiting professional players representing other countries, that even Bulgaria’s third best player, GM Kiril Georgiev, rated 2657, was literally demolished in a dramatic 10m+5s blitz game several weeks ago!
In the meantime, there have been great efforts on the part of Bulgarian leading grandmasters and tournament organizers to curtail the trail of destruction Borislav Ivanov is leaving on the image and reputation of Bulgarian chess. With the Zadar cheating scandal having traveled the globe in less than a month earlier this year, speculations on why FIDE and the Bulgarian Chess Federation are doing little on the issue have escalated. Still, Ivanov was due to strike again last week, when he nearly grabbed the 1000 EUR first prize at yet another major international open in my country, only for a last-minute rule update and the selfless act of two Bulgarian chess masters to spoil his plans. The first “Old Capital” Open tournament started with 100 participants on Labor Day, but the final standings featured only 99. The first prize was ironically taken away from FM Ivanov, who was banned from the final standings due to his failure to comply to a small rule requiring no more than two unplayed games for him to qualify for the prizes. Unfortunately, Borislav had earned three points from forfeits after three of his opponents chose to boycott his play at the tournament and pay the high prize of losing a point and failing their immaculate participation, as well. Here is my latest report on the biggest chess cheating scandal happening this year:
If you want to follow this case from the very beginning, please check out my previous three videos with earlier reports and extensive game analysis.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr0J8SPENjM&hd=1
