Never Underestimate A Drunk Canadian Grandmaster! :)

Igor Vasilievich Ivanov vs Jeremy Silman
San Mateo Action (1989), San Mateo, CA USA
English Opening: King's English. Two Knights' Variation Smyslov System (A22)

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. Bg2 O-O 5. d3 Re8 6. Bd2 c6 7. Nf3 h6 8. O-O d5 9. Nd5 Nd5 10. cd5 Bd2 11. dc6 Ba5 12. Ne5 Nc6 13. Nc6 bc6 14. Bc6 Bh3 15. Qa4 Re2 16. Qd1 Bf1 17. Kf1 Re1 18. Qe1 Be1 19. Ba8 Bf2 20. Kf2 Qa8 21. Rd1 Qd5 22. d4 Qa2 23. Rd2 Qd5

Jeremy Silman:

Igor came to the board in a state of near coma. Unfortunately, he was an avid worshipper of the god Bacchus. Sitting (kind of) in his chair, his head and hands were lying on the table and he kept them there. Whenever I made a move he would slowly raise his hand, grab something, and after making the move his hand would crash back to the table.

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[scene]

Ivanov and I played in a tournament in Toronto in the mid 80s. He was very late for the final game. As the time passed, his opponent was looking calmer and happier. He must have been contemplating winning by forfeit. Ivanov strolled in accompanied by two beautiful young ladies, one on each arm. The ladies were dressed in stylish nightgowns. They each gave Igor a kiss, took his jacket, and sat behind him ( but in view of his opponent ). Ivanov won that game quickly. He was a character.

[ΧρήστοςΓιαννούλας]

Agadmator my friend, you probably have the best chess channel ever, not only because of your chess analysis, but for your character, it is clear that you are really a very good guy, with sense of humor and extremly good communicate skills!!continue your great work!!!

[akmalkrmv]

Was waiting for a win by a drunk GM, disappointed.

[BeerdyBruceLeeCentral]

He migh be Canadian on paper, but Russian at heart. The vodka is proof of that.

[kevinrichards]

I've played stoned chess against another stoned player. It's beautiful because you can just contemplative the harmony of the pieces without getting the angst about winning. You can visualise some variations for their own sake. The only problem is you tend to lose track of whose go it is.

[MrPhoenix]

He may have escaped Russia, but Russia couldn't escape from him!



I did play a game once while I was really drunk. Then my opponent/friend gave me check and said it was mate. After that I was sad the whole night. The next morning when I woke up the first thing that came to my mind was that wasn't a checkmate. Ever since we played a lot of games and he just can't beat me.

[coreyyanofsky]

When I was 18 or so, my parents were out of town and I hosted a party. I was wasted when I challenged a (sober) friend of mine to a game of chess. I was (and remain) an utter patzer and my friend, who had made a bit of a study of chess, was a much better player than me. One of his favorite tricks was to use openings involving threats of knight forks on the seventh rank; I would often miss the threat and blunder the exchange. Well, that night I spotted the threat coming and realized that the tempi I would gain by allowing it would let me set up a checkmate. I was too drunk to try to think through how my opponent could defend against my checkmate threat; all I could do was trust that he would be blinded by my drunkenness and the expectation that I would fall to his usual tricks and miss my threat entirely. Lucky for me, it worked.

[Marlborosfan]

Once I got defeated by a sober player. I was sober too. I just lose anyway.

[quazzydiscman]

Very true.... Never underestimate Eric Hansen

[alyoshakaramazov]

I remember playing with a Belarussian. He was drinking vodka and wanted me to drink vodka with him. I told him I didn't drink vodka, I said "I don't enjoy vodka." He said "you don't understand vodka."

[chesstrollington]

Getting drunk and playing chess is one of my guilty pleasures

[csci-eshawnolichwier]

Seriously loving the stories with these recent videos! Keep up the good work.

[evilchip]

There was a tournament at my University, that is located in a city with a lot of night life for Venezuelan standards.
One of my contenders came really drunk. He was slurring and stinking of alcohol. On contrary, I was only very hangover.
I was so used to play blitz games that I played fast and think during my contender's time. One person of the public even called and arbiter because I only used four minutes of 45 and on the other side were only 2 minutes left.
I won by time luckily because at the final moments I blundered my Queen.

[symonjefferson]

I play at the bar with friends on occasion. Drunk blunders fall like rain with us. (English side note, when someone has a hangover, they are in the state of being hungover. So you played a match against someone who was hungover.)
Example- "Look at John's face! He is so hungover that he might puke any moment!"
2-" I drink water so I don't get a hangover"

[spencerkemp]

I loove playing drunk, i just smile the whole game, even if i lose. I tend to blunder a lot. But i find that if i only have 2-3 beers my imagination becomes more active and leads to more interesting positions. I also tend to sacrifice more.

My friend and i play shot chess. After you capture a piece, you take a corresponding shot. Pawns are beer, bishops and knights are fireball, rooks are vodka, king and queens are 151. It makes sacrifices a lot more deadly as if you sac tour queen your opponent has to take a shot of 151.

[LJLMETAL]

From the description of the video, I thought that the Drunk Grandmaster won.

[jsberson]

Agadmator: Just thought I would correct some information on this video. Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov was untitled when he defected to Canada, as well as when he defeated Karpov in 1979. He earned the IM title in 1981, but he did not earn the GM title until August 2005. By that time, Igor was no longer living in Canada, and although he remained a Canadian citizen, he had long since moved to the US. Igor died in November 2005, just three months after gaining the GM title.

[Idk-tjcx]

Thanks for posting a video of a Canadian grand master!

[Reflexario]

Once I played a tiny game in a pub with a friend (who doesn't usually play chess). As we were both drunk we didn't want to think a lot about our moves, we both blundered our queens (i even did it a second time after queening a pawn...) it ended in a stalemate ^^

[Daniel-tmfg]

It looks like he still celebrates emergency landing.