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2 February 2016

Ideal Person Striving to Play Ideal ChessIvan Bukavshin, in memoriam, by Arnold Epstein.

January 20 is the ninth day since Ivan Bukavshin is no longer with us.

It is not going to be soon that his family and friends will wake up to the terrible news: a twenty year-old guy who has never had any health complains, towards whom everyone would have deep feelingsof affection, and for whom, as everyone seemed to believe, a radiant future was in store, is no longerwith us. Moreover, the pain of this loss is unlikely to subside for good anytime soon. Indeed, noperson capable of compassion will ever forget his feelings at the moment of getting to know the fatalnews about the Togliatti grandmaster.

When they found Vanya, not even a brief thought would linger in my mind about the possibility of hisdeparture. As for me, I kept believing that it was some sort of a story with a sad beginning, but whichwould have a happy ending a week later, as was confided by one of Bukavshins coaches JakovGeller.

Alas, it is only fairy tales that would unavoidably feature happy endings.

When such events occur, you start perceiving each trifle and each minor detail in a special way. Forexample, last year Ivans coaches were not especially willing that he continued participating, as it'stermed in the chess slang, in the "children's" tournaments - that is, in the junior events, but to getfocused on the adult competitions instead. But he insisted that he should go to Loo, where the U20Junior Russian Championship was to take place, and went on to win it. "I have to slam the door",explained Ivan jokingly.

Yuri Yakovich shares his memories:

I would not even want to go with Vanya to this tournament as I believed him to have outgrown the

Ivan Bukavshin (1995-2016)

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level of junior competitions. However, he started off poorly and I decided to fly to Loo. I had to remindhim that his commitment to come to this place obliged him to assume a winning attitude. And, as sofrequently used to be the case with Vanya in recent years, he geared up as the tournamentprogressed, winning decisive games and becoming champion. Previously, he featured an unpleasantsystemic problem in the form of his uncertain play in the last rounds. In order to address the problem,Vanya would play for a whole year up to the point of "lone kings." Not only would he not offer drawshimself, but he would also turn down peace proposals offered by his opponents, even if not beingparticularly excited about his own current position. We would not pay attention to the fact that thisparticular approach was to the detriment of certain individual game results. I remember our longwalks prior to last rounds, the conversations we had about the last tournament rounds being nodifferent from the previous ones and that one just needed to demonstrate good chess withoutdeliberating on the final standings. All this allowed him developing the right kind of competitivearrogance, the lack of which would make it difficult for a humble, kind and well-mannered boy todisplay his mastery skills in the crucial moments. Therefore, when in March 2015 after a bitter defeatVanya found himself in a must-win situation in the last round of the European Mens ChessChampionship so as to be able to qualify into the World Cup, I had little doubt about the final result. As for the Men's Russian Chess Championship, he went on to win brilliantly, it being one of the mostdifficult knock-out system tournaments.

And below is a fragment of his interview, given by Ivan prior to leaving for the World Cup in Baku,which happened to be just a few months ago.

I am eternally grateful to my parents, and the older I get, the more I come to realize and appreciateas to what mom and dad have done for me. They abandoned everything, sacrificed a lot to offer anopportunity of fulfilling my potential in chess. It was after our moving in Tolyatti that I have crystallizedas a chess player to the degree of 99%. It is Gulnara Ravilevna Salakhova who has fully undertakenthe burden of all organizational aspects. Here, during the classes of the grandmaster school sessionswith Yuri Rafaelovich Yakovich, and, alas, with the late Andrei Vasilyevich Kharlov, as well as throughcontinuous collaboration with Jakov Vladimirovich Geller that the chess culture, and perhaps even auniversal human one in general, has become an integral part of my inner being.

He said it as if delivering a farewell speech, and did it in his own clear, concise and comprehensivestyle, as though it were a game analysis that has finally come to an end.

...The Bukavshins moved from the Rostov-on-Don in Togliatti in 2007, when Ivan was twelve years ofage.

After completion of the Russian Childrens Championship in Dagomys Vanyas mother approachedme to ask about my opinion about them moving in Togliatti and whether Vanya would be able to haveregular chess classes and coach training during competitions, as recalled by Gulnara Salakhova. Ofcourse, we did everything to help them in terms of seeking employment and an apartment to rent.Nevertheless, Vanyas parents still had a hard time to go through since his father had had a good jobwith Rostselmash factory, whereas in Togliatti they needed to stay in the dormitory first, moving intoan apartment only later. Only a couple of years ago did the Bukavshins finally become proprietors oftheir own large apartment in the most "chess-friendly" district of the city. And they agreed to gothrough all this for the sake of their sons future, being the decision that cannot but inspire respect, inmy opinion!

Togliatti, with all due sympathy for the "Russian Detroit", can by no means be put on the same parwith the Rostov-on-Don. Nonetheless, it was here that Ivan Bukavshin became a truly happy person.Because in Togliatti he found himself immersed in that genuine chess environment in which alone arising star can turn into a mature player. Excellent coaches, talented peers steering at full speed onparallel courses, as well as organizers, shielding their pets from all daily routine problems - that'swhat the Tolyatti Specialized Children and Youth Sports Chess School of the Olympic Reserve is allabout. Had this article been devoted to a different topic, it would be worthy of an ample narrative of itsown.

Ivan Bukavshin and Yuri Yakovich in Loo

The financial aspect of the transfer from Rostov to Togliatti was irrelevant for Ivan Bukavshin at all.The golden rain had stopped pouring on the athletes of the automotive city well before his becominga native of the city situated on the banks of the Volga River. And chess players have never belongedto the ranks of privileged athletes anyway.

However, this aspect of life has never been of utmost importance for Ivan. Thus, for example, it wasalmost impossible to persuade him into buying a new pair of jeans unless the ones he was wearingwere not fit for use any longer. "I do have only a single pair of buttocks, dont I?" he would attempt toput off with a jest. He tried not to divert his attention from the main goal.

After moving in Togliatti his level of mastery started increasing as quickly as mushrooms wouldspring up after the rain. By the moment of Vanyas parents venturing into taking that important step intheir lives, his rating would freeze near the point of 2250, even though, by all accounts, he wascapable of a lot more than that. However, already as soon as 2008 he took the "gold" of the JuniorEuropean and Russian Championships, whereas at sixteen he became a grandmaster already. Itwas, according to Yuri Yakovich, almost a vertical takeoff.

The story of Bukavshin conquering this level is extremely instructive. It narrates not only about theskill component, but also about the system of human values, which helped Ivan hone his skills. Hereis what Jakov Geller has to say:

It so coincided that Ivan became the starting point of my coaching career. When he arrived, we justfound each other. Chess was my life, my profession, and then such a man was going to become mystudent... we could go on training all day round with him. At that time I had no idea how to go aboutworking with children, but had a great desire to do something positive for him... During our first jointtournament Dima Frolyanov, after having spent some time with Ivan, joked that Vanya would make agrandmaster norm ahead of me. That is exactly what happened. Four years later, in one of the"Moscow Open" tournaments, he had to score a point and a half in the last two games for his firstgrandmaster norm. And, as luck would have it, we were paired together. We would alwaysexperience difficulties playing serious games against each other, so our classical encounters wouldusually end in draws. However, if we decided to fix a draw, he would have to win as Black against astrong grandmaster in the final round. It is hard to put into words the essence of making the firstgrandmaster norm for a young man living by chess, but he approached me, saying, "JakovVladimirovich, I do not want to play with you, there will be yet other occasions to make my norms!"However, already back then he would take eight out of ten games from me in blitz. I replied, ofcourse, that he absolutely needed to make the norm and that we should not refrain from playingseriously. I added that at least he would know that he did everything that there was in his powers todo. He went on to win that game honestly and deservedly in spite of all my attempts to fight back, andended up making the norm. The second and third grandmaster norms were covered by Ivan withinthe period of six months, closing the grandmaster norm issue even a couple of rounds ahead of theend of those tournaments.

Trainers and students of the Tolyatti Specialized Children and Youth Sports Chess School ofthe Olympic Reserve Dmitry Frolyanov, Sanan Sjugirov, Gulnara Salakhova, Ivan Bukavshin,Yuri Yakovich, Alexandr Predke, Jakov Geller, and Alexey Mokshanov

Ivan has always been a model of correctness over the board. An extremely unnerving atmosphere,usually created by loving parents, would unavoidably reign children's tournaments in all types ofsports. In chess, however, it comes to the forefront in particularly acute forms: firstly, due to thespecifics of the game, and, secondly, because unlike any other game it features fierce gruelingcompetition that requires adopting a must-win attitude. Despite all this, Ivan has never tried tointimidate his opponents by his physical dimensions, which in children's sports can turn into nothingshort of a strong argument indeed. Moreover, he never allowed himself to get away with taking anyliberties against his opponents, acting in an invariably respectful manner throughout the game. Andhe would never fail to find courage to stop the clock in recognition of his defeat, extending his hand tooffer handshakes to a winner despite experiencing extremely painful feelings about his defeat, asbefits an athlete who loses rarely and aspires to achieve much in chess.

Jakov Geller brings forth his memories:

It happened during one of the tournaments when the guys entered my room and asked, "JakovVladimirovich, what is going happen if a hotel wall goes down?" I replied, "What do you mean by ahotel wall going down? It means that the wall is of poor quality". Then I stopped short of speaking,"Why are you asking?" It turned out that Vanya lost his game that day, entered his room and, being ina fit of temper, punched the wall with his fist that it went on through deep inside... But it was not theonly damage, as it turned out. They decided to seal the hole in the damaged wall with a magazinepage, soiling a table when doing the sealing job and spoiling a towel when trying to wipe the glue offthe table. In short, we got fined, which amounted to more than prize money for that tournament. Allthe same, we felt dispirited only briefly, whereas afterwards we could never stop laughing wheneverthis episode would come back to our memories... People who lack competitive spirit are most unlikelyto get it right. But take my word for it: this is exactly the type of character that a person shouldpossess unless he intends to remain in the background.

"A dormitory boy will never make it to the champion," such was a sentence that was passed uponBukavshin by one of the Moscow specialists. And he proved wrong. Bukavshin did have achampions character. How could we forget, for instance, the 2009 World Youth Chess Olympiad inTurkey. It happened to be perhaps the worst event attended by our players in terms of itsorganizational aspects. They accommodated out team in out-of-the-way hotel rooms, served poormeals, all this being coupled with the fact that we had no reserve player either. Board one playerBukavshin got food poisoning. The last five rounds he was constantly feeling sick at the stomach. Hewas taken to the Turkish hospital, but the doctors failed to be of real help to him. Yet, Ivan still endedup ranking first on his board and made a significant contribution to the overall victory of the nationalteam. The whole story finished when one hour after returning to Russia he was taken to the hospitalin an ambulance and stayed there for treatment for two weeks!

The previous year confirmed: he had all required qualities to gain a foothold in the elite chess. Ivanbecame the Russian Champion among the 20-year-olds, shared 1st-3rd places in the Higher Leagueof the Russian Mens Championship, qualified for the Superfinal of the Russian Championship, madehis debut in the Mens World Cup, won the Russian Mens Cup, and took 3rd place in the AeroflotOpen. He was perfectly well aware that a players progress in chess comes in leaps and bounds(Ivan mentioned it himself in one of his interviews), and worked patiently to approach the moment ofhis next takeoff. The transition from youth to adult sports is always a painful process, but he gainedsuch a momentum that helped him clear this hurdle with a large margin.

Ivan Bukavshin and Jakov Geller

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At the same time he was free of even a hint of star disease or any overestimation of his value for thatmatter. Yuri Yakovich narrates:

Vanya would be the soul of any company. Being a grandmaster and a winner of the Russian Cup, hewould never turn down a 10-year-old childs request to play a few blitz games. And it was not only inchess that he used to keep the kids company the same was also true for football, table tennis, and"mafia" activities. Children would cling to him and he was an interesting person for adults to be aroundwith... He was an ideal person who strived to play ideal chess - such is a testimonial about him byJakov Geller.

Ivan Bukavshin, unlike many young grandmasters, would refrain from focusing on chess alone.Although he also spent a lot of time working on chess, he wanted to be a versatile man as well.Shortly after moving in Togliatti, Ivan insisted on his transfer to a stronger school, which he went on tograduate successfully from. He used to read a lot, wanted to deeply study psychology and enjoyedgoing in for various sports.

And, by the way, the last event that happened in his life was a game of table tennis with SananSjugirov. Long time ago, when the eight-year old Vanya became the Boys champion of the SouthernFederal Okrug, the ten- year old Sanan, who used to be a noted chess authority by that time already,the U10 Junior World Champion awarded Ivan with the medal that was the first in his life. And healso happened to be the last one to communicate with Ivan Bukavshin...

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