Alexander Ivanov (born May 1, 1956) is a Soviet-born American

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster. Born in Omsk, present-day Russia, he moved to the United States in 1988. FIDE awarded him his Grandmaster title in 1991. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, fellow chess player and Woman International Master Esther Epstein. Ivanov has competed in four FIDE World Championships (

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2002 and 2004) and four

FIDE World Cup The FIDE World Cup refers to three different events over the years. Since 2000, it has been a major chess event organized by FIDE, the International Chess Federation. Since 2005, it has been a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, form ...

s ( 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011). Ivanov played twice on the Soviet team in the World U26 Team Championship, winning the team Silver medal in 1978 and an individual Gold and team Gold in 1980. He then played for the US team in the 2002 Chess Olympiad. In an USCF tournament in early 2021, despite joining late and missing the first round, Ivanov tied third place with grandmaster Gadir Guseinov. Besides chess, Ivanov has also been known to have a keen interest in programming.

Stats

ELO Classic: 2464 ELO Rapid: 1739 ELO Blitz: 2497

Most played openings with white pieces

# Robatsch (Modern) Defense # Ruy Lopez, closed, 9.h3 # Queen's Indian, 4.g3 # Queen's Indian Defense

Most played openings with black pieces

# Sicilian, Najdorf, Fianchetto Variation # Sicilian, Scheveningen Variation # Caro-Kann Defense # Sicilian Defense

Notable victories

In 2011, Ivanov defeated

Varuzhan Akobian Varuzhan Akobian ( hy, Վարուժան Հակոբյան, born 19 November 1983 in Yerevan, Soviet Union) is an Armenian-born American chess Grandmaster. Originally from Armenia, he now resides in St. Louis. He played on the bronze-medal-winni ...

and

Daniel Naroditsky Daniel Naroditsky (born ), also known as Danya, is an American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator. He published his first chess book at age 14. Chess career Born in San Mateo, California, Naroditsky learned chess at age six from ...

in the US Championship. In 1988, Ivanov won against IBM’s Deep Thought in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Notable placings

Ivanov won first at the 1980 Young Masters Championship of the USSR. He also tied for first with Anatoly Karpov and Boris Gulko at a 1982 Moscow tournament that featured 51 grandmasters. In addition, he shared first place in the 1989 National Open and World Open events. He was joint US champion in 1995 (with

Nick de Firmian Nicholas Ernest de Firmian (born July 26, 1957) is an American chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1985. He is a three-time U.S. chess champion, winning in 1987 (with Joel Benjamin), 1995, and 1998. He also tied for ...

and Patrick Wolff), and Pan American champion in 1998. In 2007 he tied for first place with Julio Granda,

, Darcy Lima and Eduardo Iturrizaga in the American Continental Championship in Cali. He also won the 135th Annual New York State Championship in 2013, winning $1,500.

References

External links

* * * * * 1956 births Living people Chess grandmasters Soviet chess players American chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Omsk {{Russia-chess-bio-stub