The Igor Ivanov connection
A Very Talented Guy
Igor Ivanov may be long dead but he is definitely not forgotten! Anyone who was fortunate enough to have come across Igor would have, no doubt, come away with life-long memories.
Born in Leningrad in January 1947, Igor defected to Canada in 1980, where he resided in Montreal (my home town) for a number of years before heading south and marrying a lovely lady. Igor died on November 17, 2005 (which curiously, is Harmony Zhu’s birthday! Do you believe in reincarnation?!)
Igor was also a gifted amateur pianiste
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Anyway, Canadian IA Serge Archambault wrote to me yesterday about one of Igor’s star pupils, Kayden Troff. (I had written years ago about this child prodigy from Utah here on this blog.)
”He was awarded the IM title in 2013. The kid, now 15, is playing at the TataSteel tournament (Challenger’s group). Even though he is one of the lowest rating (2457 on a group average of 2575) in the group (12th/14), he still shows very impressive results. Today he was playing against the lowest rated player in the group and won his first game (if you have a chance, look at the game) !! Nothing is done yet but I expect him to go for a GM norm in the event. He took time to go play in Hungary in recent months and I see it as being a very good thing for him.”–Serge Archambault
You can follow Kayden’s progresso in the tournament HERE. Also, Kayden has a BLOG . Take a look at it!