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[Roger de Coverly]

Ivanov's form has returned.
http://chess-results.com/tnr91883.aspx? ... 821&snr=11

Seems as if he only does well against IMs (and GMs).

[Chris Rice]

After averaging 1950 at Plovdiv Boris Ivanov has just won the Pamplona tournament with 8/9 which is staggering enough in itself but I'll list here who he beat. There are a number of GMs out there getting heartily sick of this farce. In Round 8 Alexei Barsov as White played 1 d4 against him. After the reply 1...d5 they agreed a draw with Barsov apparently stating that he knows the guy is cheating, he just doesn't know how and he wants nothing to do with it. The current theory is that Ivanov has something implanted under the skin. Bogdan Lalic is calling for a boycott on all tournaments where Ivanov is playing. There are also reports that Ivanov has a couple of cracking young women following him about. Also if you take Plovdiv out of the picture its understood that he has won 3600 Euros in his last 4 tournaments.

Rd 1 Ivanov (2303) 1-0 Roldan Marques (1618)
Rd 2 Zudair Garcia (1800) 0-1 Ivanov
Rd 3 Ivanov 0.5-0.5 Strikovic (2500)
Rd 4 Ivanov 1-0 De La Villa Garcia (2472)
Rd 5 Korneev (2609) 0-1 Ivanov
Rd 6 Ivanov 1-0 Andres Gonzalez (2542)
Rd 7 Fedorchuk (2526) 0-1 Ivanov
Rd 8 Barsov (2526) 0.5-0.5 Ivanov
Rd 9 Ivanov 1-0 Komlejenovic (2394)

http://www.chesspamplona.com/Ikastola13/english.htm

[Sean Hewitt]

The current theory is that Ivanov has something implanted under the skin.

That's some theory. I don't know if it would even be possible to get such a system to work but you'd think such technology would cost far more than he has won in prize money.

If we assume the cheating premise is correct, the key question for me is what happened at the Bulgarian Open that seemed to prevent it. Something was different there compared with Croatia and Pamplona?

I certainly wouldn't have him on live boards, and I think I'd make him play in a private room with an arbiter present. Without knowing his MO though, and without him being caught, it's difficult.

[John McKenna]

Make him play not just in a separate room but in a Faraday cage -
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

As for not doing his thing in Bulgaria - just a case of not fouling his own nest?

[MartinCarpenter]

A skin implant would cost much more to develop than you'd ever get back. You also need to get the data out to the computer where ever that is etc.

In a few decades it might be fairly standard stuff (wearable computing certainly seems likely to be) and then we'll have horrible problems. For now its just terribly hard to know what to make of any of this.

Having routine statistical screening for cheating as per online games (but with a higher standard of proof) would probably help a lot.

[Roger de Coverly]

Having routine statistical screening for cheating as per online games (but with a higher standard of proof) would probably help a lot.

You would just get false accusations, for example anyone who won with a computer prepared variation.

As suggested, not playing on boards transmitting the moves to the world is a start. Monitoring the footwear of suspected players is another.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Has anyone considered the alternative, that he is a strong GM-level player deliberately playing weakly in other tournaments? Or does the correlation with computer choices make that unlikely? I agree that it is farcical that this is still going on.

[Leonard Barden]

Also if you take Plovdiv out of the picture its understood that he has won 3600 Euros in his last 4 tournaments.

There is a mystery here because immediately before his 2700 performance in Zadar 2012 Ivanov played in an under-2300 tournament in Benidorm, Spain (the first time in his entire career of over 80 tournaments that he had competed outside Eastern Europe/Greece) whose conditions were tailor made for him.
Live transmission of the top games, a country where he was then unknown, under 2300 when he was still a 2250, and a whopping €2500 first prize (much more than in the Zadar GM event).
But he didn't win! He was fourth on tie break, earning only €500. I have played over most of his games there and the games where he dropped points looked normal. A few days after Benidorm ended he began his GM slaughter in Zadar....

Yet in Pamplona (2nd visit to Spain) where he won this week it was actually a rapid tournament (20 mins+ 5 secs) and there is no indication on the website that there were any live games!

All this makes the logistics of his whole operation the more startling and hard to understand.

[Sean Hewitt]

Yet in Pamplona (2nd visit to Spain) where he won this week it was actually a rapid tournament (20 mins+ 5 secs) and there is no indication on the website that there were any live games!

That revelation is truly remarkable. I'd like to see this guy playing, I really would.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Yet in Pamplona (2nd visit to Spain) where he won this week it was actually a rapid tournament (20 mins+ 5 secs) and there is no indication on the website that there were any live games!

That revelation is truly remarkable. I'd like to see this guy playing, I really would.

You should invite him to an e2e4 event, Sean. Preferably one in which I'm going for an IA norm.

[Richard Bates]

Maybe it's two different people...?

[Geoff Chandler]

Has anyone checked him out to see if he has a spiders web tattoo.
I was reading a book recently about how you use one of these things to
transmit and receive moves from a satellite orbiting the earth.

http://www.redhotpawn.com/blog/blogread ... postid=131

Roger's suggestion about looking at footwear should be heeded.

looky here:

http://www.unventions.co.uk/2010/03/chess-shoes.html

I'm not too sure what they are and how they work but it all looks dodgy to me.
(I wish I had thought of them)

OK let's get to the bottom of this:

He's is really a very strong player who has been sandbagging for years.

The whole thing is one huge prank and these games and events never happened.
(The real Boris Ivanov is a film director, this all a publicity stunt.)

Or maybe he has a spiders web tattoo....

[Clive Blackburn]

Yet in Pamplona (2nd visit to Spain) where he won this week it was actually a rapid tournament (20 mins+ 5 secs) and there is no indication on the website that there were any live games!

I don't really see how he could cheat at that time limit with no live transmission, however advanced the technology that he is using.

Once it got towards the end of the game, it would be virtually impossible to send the opponent's move, receive the reply and then make that move on the board quickly enough, even if the chess engine was generating its moves instantly.

[Roger de Coverly]

I don't really see how he could cheat at that time limit with no live transmission, however advanced the technology that he is using.

More old fashioned methods of cheating cannot be ruled out. There's the suggestion of a sandbagger along with the suggestion of an impersonator.

In principle impersonation should be difficult at chess tournaments as the chess world is small enough that the chances of running into someone who knows who you are claiming to be is reasonably high.

The computer move matchers don't seem to be following this saga any more. Whilst it's never proof, it does enhance suspicions if a style of play is engine like.

[James Coleman]

Is it possible that in fact he isn't actually cheating at all?

Logically of course it does seem that he has to be, and the hugely inconsistent results are indeed hard to explain - nevertheless the possibility at least that most of his later opponents are playing differently (worse) in light of the initial hype cannot be totally discounted.