How could he possibly be cheating?
The show goes on: Ivanov in Kustendil
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Never seen such a fat face in someone with such anorexic looking arms.
[COMMENT DELETED]
With a player like Carlsen you can see that he is less influenced by computers than other players who are less successful. I think it is one of the advantages of our generation – one of the reasons our generation is still doing well – is that we learnt to play on a good basis, and then learnt how to use computers in our favour, while a lot of young players only know how to use computers and don't have a good basis. Instead of thinking they are used to press a button and see what the computer says. So like any invention it can be used in a good or a bad way. One of the secrets of success now-a-days it to use computers in your favour and not let computers rule your thinking ability."
Borislav Ivanov is an FM who in the past months has been crushing GM hundreds of points stronger than himself. Bulgarian GMs, who suspect computer cheating, are now boycotting tournaments in which he appears, or chosing not to play their games against him. Ivanov has called them antisocial buttheads in newspaper interviews. Alex Karaivanov reports, with new video analysis by Valeri Lilov.
The show goes on: Ivanov in Kustendil
By Alex Karaivanov
The case of FM Borislav Ivanov, who mysteriously beat a number of highly ranked chess players at several European international tournaments, remains unsolved. Was he cheating or is he a pure genius whom no one wants to accept? Ivanov’s play has repeatedly demonstrated an unprecedentedly high move correlation with that of the strongest chess engine, Houdini. His sharp computer style is easy to recognize for all experienced masters and professional players, who recently signed petitions to FIDE demanding an anti-cheating commission to be formed by FIDE and ACP to deal with the growing problem of computer cheating in chess tournaments.
Meanwhile, Borislav Ivanov continued to beat everyone who dared to sit at the same table with him. He convincingly won the top prizes at tournaments in Sofia (Bulgaria), Zadar (Croatia), and Villava (Spain) earlier this year. His immaculate play continued to dominate local and international competitions, against a backdrop of speculations and suspicions which have received extensive coverage by the mainstream media both in Bulgaria and abroad.
Now, once again, the newly fledged FIDE master crushed the opposition at the 2nd “Bogomil Andonov” Memorial with a convincing result of 7.5 out of 9.0, and took the first prize at this rapid chess tournament held in Kustendil, Bulgaria. Once again he proved his new brand of computer style play against a plethora of famous Bulgarian GMs and IMs, one of whom, GM Kiril Georgiev (2657), had just become the new Bulgarian Chess Champion for 2013.
“Bogomil Andonov” Memorial – final rankings after 9 rounds
Borislav Ivanov (left) playing at the “Bogomil Andonov” Memorial in Kustendil, Bulgaria
The young FM plays quickly and with a great deal of confidence
Playing GM Kiril Georgiev: Ivanov defeated the 2013 Bulgarian Champion convincingly
A lot of special interest for the spectacular games played by the Bulgarian FM
Borislav Ivanov being awarded the cup and money prize after winning the
“Bogomil Andonov” Memorial convincingly with 7.5 out of 9.0
A couple of weeks later, Ivanov scored another phenomenal performance at the 1st Cup “Old Capital” International Open, where he was controversially thrown out of the final standings and denied the first prize, despite his clear win with 8.0 out of 9.0 in a crushing style of play. A small last-minute change in tournament regulations allowed organizers to disqualify any player with more than two wins achieved by forfeit. Not surprisingly, Ivanov did not qualify for a prize after three opponents failed to appear at the board. The final no-show in the last round was IM Sasho Nikolov, who refused to play Ivanov for the second time in this event (see Valeri Lilov's video below for a full explanation), giving up his immaculate tournament performance in order to help disqualify the alleged cheater. Here is a list of all participants and here the final standings (without Ivanov).
Borislav Ivanov was quick to reach for the mainstream media, as he usually does, by giving two interviews on the case with his denied award which were broadcast on the national TV channels, BTV and TV7.
The “James Bond of chess” is how the Bulgarian TV7 channel described Borislav
Ivanov, who gave interviews and spoke about his opponents’ bias against him
Yet, it was his unseen penchant for bold words and love for short-lived fame that led to Ivanov’s official ban from tournament participation on the territory of Bulgaria for the next four months. The Bulgarian Chess Federation has taken clear stand on Ivanov’s appalling comments on chess players in general and penalized him for slander of Bulgarian chess thanks to his numerous explicit comments given during various interviews published in the local and international press.
One stark example of Ivanov’s chaotic rant against chess players as a whole appeared in a PressaDaily.bg news article titled: “Life between chess and chalga: the miracle from Blagoevgrad believes that other chess players are buttheads.”
Borislav Ivanov in Pressadaily.bg, a Bulgarian newspaper.
The title in Bulgarian reads “Life between chess and chalga”
Excerpts:
In addition to blocking Ivanov’s participation in a number of major international open tournaments to be held near Varna, Bulgaria this summer, the Bulgarian Chess Federation included a second clause directed at the suspected cheater, which reads in part: “Due to experts’ common standpoint derived from their analyses of Borislav Ivanov’s games from chess tournaments in the past 9 (nine) months and in connection with the suspicions and accusations of cheating on numerous international tournaments, […] we recommend to Borislav Ivanov to provide his permission for conducting extensive tests on him through various technical equipment, which will be both in his favor for the purposes of clearing his name and in favor of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, which will do everything possible in the future to resolve the problem on a national and international level in case it is proven with scientific means that Ivanov does not use any unfair means during his games.
Analysis of Ivanov's games by Valeri Lilov
Maximize the video player (square icon on the bottom right) to follow Lilov's analysis properly.
Two important points that Valeri makes are: people are constantly demanding that accusers should provide concrete proof of cheating, e.g. show that the player has a concealed electronic device on his body. But strip searches that could discover tiny receivers would require a warrant by a judge and need to be pre-announce, which clearly defeats the purpose. And secondly: a lot can be deduced by looking at the moves of the games. Here's a good example:
Black (Ivanov) to move
It is clear that Black is winning, especially since he has 1...Rc1, stopping the white pawn on c6, followed by ...Bd5 to attack it again. What no human player in extreme time trouble would play is the computer move 1...Bc4!?!? You try to work out, in a few seconds, if this move is sound or not. Lilov explains its intricacies in the video.
FM Valeri Lilov’s extensive analysis of Ivanov’s games have played central role in the international investigation of Ivanov’s alleged cheating scheme. Many sources have refered back to Lilov’s YouTube video annotation of the alleged cheater’s latest games in Kustendil and Veliko Tarnovo.
– To be continued –
About the author
Alex Karaivanov is the manager of FM Valeri Lilov and has managed his coaching career for the past six years. He is the CEO and co-founder of Tiger Lilov’s Chess School and the president of Shanghai Chess Club: Pudong Branch. He is also involved in producing Valeri Lilov's ChessBase DVDs.