Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov was a Soviet-born Canadian-American chess Grandmaster. He was born on December 8, 1947 in Saint Petersburg, Russia and died on November 17, 2005 in Saint George, Utah.
Ivanov originally learned chess from his father and soon joined the Leningrad's Pioneer Palace where he was trained by chess master, Ilya Aronovich Kan. He struggled for many years due to his dependency on alcohol. He gained his International Master title in 1975, and after playing in an international tournament in Havana, Cuba along with other Russian players, he sought political asylum in Canada in 1980. He then received a $30,000 reward from the Canadian government for deserting his homeland.
Ivanov won the Canadian Open Chess Championship in 1981 and the Canadian Chess Championship in 1982 and 1985. He moved to the USA in 1986, where he played actively in local, regional and national competitions. He gained his Grandmaster title in 1991 and remained an active player even as his health declined. He represented Canada in five Chess Olympiads, and his most notable games were against several former world champions, including a victory against Garry Kasparov.
He died on November 17, 2005 due to cancer. After his death, some of his body parts, notably his brain, were donated to medical science. This decision was in line with Ivanov's wishes, to help study the effects of chess on the human brain.