3/23/2013 – In the last weeks of 2012 he wowed the chess world with a 2700 performance. Two months later the new Bulgarian star FM Borislav Ivanov finished 88th in the Plovdiv, this time with a performance of 1970. Then came another enviable achievement, a clear win at the Villava rapid (again with a 2700 performance). What is going on? Alex Karaivanov speculates, with new video analysis by Valeri Lilov.
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A Game of Chicken: Ivanov in Plovdiv and Villava
By Alex Karaivanov
With a stellar rating performance of 2697 at the famous International
Open in Zadar, Croatia, the Bulgarian chess player Borislav Ivanov,
wowed the chess world with his sharp, computer-like style of play during
the last weeks of 2012. Many chess media outlets were fascinated by the
unprecedented
success of the young chess dilettante over a horde of legendary grandmasters
like Ivan Šaric and Zdenko Kožul.
Two months later, the new Bulgarian chess prodigy scored
a mediocre performance of just 1942 at the Georgi
Tringov Memorial Open tournament in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, finishing 88th
and not even getting the chance to meet a titled opponent, with the only
exception of a 1969-rated junior FIDE master to whom Ivanov lost badly in
the second round. Despite this exceptionally weak performance for someone
who just convincingly beat four GMs with an average FIDE rating of 2597,
a few weeks ago, Borislav Ivanov would go on to produce his next enviable
achievement, namely his most recent 2696 rating performance at the March
16-17 rapid chess tournament, XXIII Memorial Paz De Ziganda J.L. Gorostidi
Oroigarria, held in Villava, Spain:
Rk.
Title
Name
Gr
FED
Rtg
Pts.
1
Ivanov Borislav
BUL
2303
8.0
2
IM
Cruz Filemon
Cat
PER
2414
7.0
3
GM
Barsov Alexei
Val
UZB
2526
7.0
4
GM
Larino Nieto David
Gal
ESP
2508
7.0
5
GM
Fedorchuk Sergey
Ext
UKR
2643
6.5
6
GM
Komljenovic Davorin
Val
CRO
2394
6.5
7
IM
Ibarra Jerez Jose Carlos
And
ESP
2544
6.5
8
GM
Djuric Stefan
Cat
SRB
2471
6.5
9
GM
Korneev Oleg
Can
ESP
2609
6.0
10
GM
Strikovic Aleksa
Gal
SRB
2500
6.0
11
GM
Ubilava Elizbar
Cnt
ESP
2495
6.0
12
IM
Kovacevic Slobodan
Val
SRB
2331
6.0
13
GM
De La Villa Jesus Mari
Nav
ESP
2472
6.0
14
IM
Reinaldo Castineira Roi
Gal
ESP
2468
6.0
15
IM
Garbisu de Goni Unai
Nav
ESP
2452
6.0
16
GM
Hoffman Alejandro
Gal
ARG
2453
6.0
17
GM
Cifuentes Roberto
Eus
ESP
2472
6.0
18
GM
Shchekachec Andrei
FRA
2520
6.0
The story of Ivanov began in Zadar, where the organizers’ strip search
before the start of the eighth round provided no evidence for any form of
the cheating Ivanov had been accused of by his opponents in previous rounds.
In fact, the search gave Ivanov the courage to beat Šaric with the
exact same tactical prowess he demonstrated against other titled players
in earlier rounds. Still, it is quite important to note that Ivanov lost
quickly his eighth game, right after the search was performed. On the other
hand, though, according to FM
Valeri Lilov’s analysis of Ivanov’s games, this is the only
game where his moves didn’t match the top choices by the strongest
chess program, Houdini, whose moves correlated more than 90% of the times
with Ivanov’s in all other rounds of the tournament, including the
game against Šaric. In the end, Borislav Ivanov placed fourth and covered
his first GM norm, while boosting his FIDE rating to a solid FM level.
The headline reads: "Genius or crook? Check
Bulgarian chess player stripped to see whether he is using cheating chip!"
And the intro paragraph: "Ivanov is 25 years old and has a job as a programmer.
Everybody is watching him, but he is not doing anything that raises suspicion
that he might be receiving signals during the game." You can read the full
article (in Croatian) here.
In the days following the Zadar events, the case was picked up first by
the Croatian media, but it quickly spread as far as the U.S. where both
New York Times and Washington Post published a column on the Ivanov dilemma:
chess genius or chess cheat? It wasn’t long before Ivanov came forward
and defended his success as the result of his hard work in a number of interviews
both for the national and foreign newspapers and TV programs. Ivanov was
also featured on an Oprah-style talk show on the Bulgarian TV channel where
the host offered him to submit to the lie detector.
In another interview
on the private TV7 channel (video) the Executive Director of the Bulgarian
Chess Federation, Nikolay Velchev, publicly endorsed Ivanov’s performance
in Zadar, comparing him to Bobby Fischer due to his identical nickname.
The case was repeatedly picked up by the media for the following weeks
and everyone expected Ivanov’s next tournament where he would have
possibly demonstrated his smooth and superior style of play consistently,
regardless of any tournament regulations aiming at preventing computer cheating.
After the initial media reports on his Zadar performance, Ivanov had quickly
signed up for the upcoming Georgi Tringov Memorial to be held in his native
Bulgaria. However, as the event was fast approaching, a number of local
grandmasters expressed their intention to boycott the tournament, unless
the organizers take specific precautions against a possible cheating scheme
at the event.
The most prominent opinion was that of the second-best Bulgarian player,
GM Ivan Cheparinov, who stated that if paired with Ivanov, he would offer
him a draw to avoid a dramatic loss later on. The organizers were quick
in their actions and announced that as part of the tournament rules, players
will be subject to unexpected searches before and during tournament games.
Ivanov was aware of that beforehand and started his tournament with a win
over a 1696-rated opponent. Nevertheless, as soon as the second round was
over, Ivanov lost dramatically to a 1969-rated Greek teenager, FM Ioannidis
Evgenios. After this game, Ivanov went on to draw 1985-, 2069-, and lose
to 1983- and 2094-rated players, while winning only agaubst sub-1850 opponents.
All of that earned Ivanov an overall tournament performance of just 1942,
exactly 400 points lower than his expected strength of 2342 FIDE at the
time.
This tournament was quickly concluded and another important event was on
the way for Ivanov. On the very next day, he entered the Semi-Final of the
Bulgarian Individual Chess Championship. Here, he performed way better and
scored 5.5, only a point shy of the winner.
Nonetheless, according to FM Valeri Lilov’s analysis of Ivanov’s
latest classical chess games, it was evident that Ivanov employed three
completely distinctive styles of play, depending on the situation and opponent
he was paired with. In a final video by Lilov, the FIDE Master dissects
Ivanov’s games for you. In his video, Lilov suggests that Ivanov had
an intricate strategy of trying to win as many rating points as possible
while throwing sand in the eyes of his suspecting opponents and the tournament
organizers, who saw him losing badly in the Georgi Tringov Memorial which
was held at the same site.
According to Lilov, Ivanov did use the computer engine Houdini 3.0 in eight
of his games. FM Valeri Lilov did an impartial game analysis comparing Ivanov’s
moves to those of several popular chess engines, only to find out that his
moves correlated to the first line of Houdini 3.0 at a rate of over 90%.
However, Lilov suggests that not all of these eight games were played with
the same engine settings and that was for a reason. In fact, the games against
Valkov, Enchev, Kukov, Galunova, and Dimitrov were played with a high rate
of exchanges and simplifications with the ultimate objective of achieving
a draw, a setting available on the modern Houdini 3.0 program! Thus, Ivanov
hoped to demonstrate that his play is not faultless and his results are
nothing but human, Valeri states. On the other hand, however, Ivanov was
also able to use the full power of Houdini 3.0 on the Semi-Final by beating
Kirchev, Bratanov, and Marholev when he played with extreme accuracy and
tactical ferocity, which we have already seen in Ivanov’s Zadar games.
Yet, how about Ivanov’s game against GM Popchev, Valeri asks. Why
did he lose to the only GM he was paired against in this tournament? The
truth is, as Valeri later explains, that in this single game, Ivanov decided
to employ his real, third style of play for this tournament, which is: playing
by himself and losing to the GM, crushing any suspicions on his style of
play at a time when a sudden strip search was most likely to be conducted
on him. FM Valeri Lilov’s analysis of his games from this and other
key tournaments played in 2012 is very revealing and demonstrates the difference
between Ivanov’s superior style of play mostly seen in Zadar and his
‘other self’ when playing at a Class A player level, e.g. the
game against GM Popchev. Valeri does give more insight on a possible cheating
scheme that Ivanov may be using, but unless caught, we cannot conclude that
this theory is correct given the current definition of chess cheating stipulated
by FIDE.
It is hard to believe that Ivanov has played his best at all tournaments
without outside help. Some of his games have mysteriously followed Houdini’s
best move suggestions consistently until some of the strongest grandmasters
have been beaten in classical miniatures thanks to some extraordinary tactical
blows only computers are able to calculate! Thus, today we also report on
the latest event Ivanov dared to join and win convincingly, beating and
placing ahead of the Ukrainian GM Sergey Fedorchuk (2643). Ivanov also beat
GM Oleg Korneev in the same rapid chess tournament that finished this past
Sunday, March 17th, in Villava, Spain. His phenomenal score of eight points
out of nine games, a whole point ahead of IM Filemon Cruz, who placed second
in the event, and Ivanov’s astronomical tournament performance of
2696 created another “Zadar” in a matter of days!
Ivanov is sure to continue his splendid chess career and collect larger
prizes than the 1,200 € he took at Villava last week. There have been
many speculations as for how he is doing it. Some claim that he cheated
and even had an assistant, while others believe he is playing all by himself.
However, the lack of live coverage and the rapid chess time control at Villava
suggest that Ivanov relies entirely on himself and only the current FIDE
regulations are not enough to catch an alleged cheater, neither to demonstrate
his possible innocence in case of a thorough, unexpected search once a winning
position has been achieved against a 2600+ opponent. Can Ivanov’s
erratic play be a proof by itself or we still need the much needed physical
evidence that FIDE requires to implicated a regular chess player in computer
cheating?
Cheating suspicion at the Zadar Open in Croatia
04.01.2013 – In this event, with 16 GMs
and a host of other strong players, one participant stood out especially:
the 25-year-old untitled Bulgarian Borislav Ivanov scored 6.0/9 points,
with a rating performance of 2697. In the January FIDE list Ivanov
has gained 115 points over his previous 2277 rating, gained in over
400 games over three years. A certain suspicion once again raises
its ugly head.
Cheating scandal in Croatia – feedback and analysis
08.01.2013 – Recently we reported that
the incredibly brilliant play by a 25-year-old untitled Bulgarian
player at the Zadar Open in Croatia had raised suspicion that he might
have been using illicit electronic assistance during his games. A
number of readers criticised us – for linking to the mainstream Croatian
media reports?! One of them, an expert in the field, actually analysed
all the games in question.
Cheating scandal – Borislav Ivanov speaks out 17.01.2013 – Recently a 25-year-old untitled
Bulgarian player scored 6.0/9 points in a strong GM tournament, with
a 2697 performance. His opponents complained, he was searched, and
no electronic equipment was found. Still, the case put chess on the
front pages of the mainstream media, and led to intense discussions
on the Internet. Now Ivanov has given the Russian news portal WhyChess
an
exclusive interview.
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