GM Igor Ivanov dead at 58

From KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah:

Igor Ivanov, a Russian defector who became Utah's greatest chess player, has died in St. George of cancer. He was 58.

Despite his illness, Ivanov tied for first place in the Utah Open tournament just three weeks ago. He was Utah's only grandmaster, the highest rank in chess. In 1979, he defeated then-reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov.

"He was our state champion,'' said John Coffey, vice president of the Utah Chess Association. "He was our best player by far. Nobody else even came close. Serious chess players like having someone of that caliber. He'll be missed for the great player that he was.''

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Update #1: Here is a longer piece from The Salt Lake Tribune.

Update #2: Seems I was way behind the rest of the blogosphere on this one. Check out posts from The Chess Mind, Chess News and Events, The Closet Grandmaster and Onlinechess.ca (ChessSmith and I independently ripped the same picture from the net).