Bent Larsen
Encyclopedia
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish
chess
Grandmaster and author. Larsen was known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play and he was the first western player to pose a serious challenge to the Soviet Union's dominance of chess. He is considered to be the strongest chess player born in Denmark and the strongest from Scandinavia
until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen
.
Larsen was a six time Danish Champion
and a candidate for the World Chess Championship
on four occasions, reaching the semi final three times. He had multiple wins over all seven World Champions who held the title from 1948 to 1985: Mikhail Botvinnik
, Vasily Smyslov
, Mikhail Tal
, Tigran Petrosian
, Boris Spassky
, Bobby Fischer
, and Anatoly Karpov
., but lifetime minus scores against them. On a percentage basis, his best score against a World Champion was with Max Euwe
. Larsen and Euwe met over the board only once, at the Munich Olympiad in 1958; the game ended in a draw. From the early 1970s, he divided his year between Las Palmas and Buenos Aires
, with his Argentinian
-born wife. He suffered from diabetes and died in 2010 from a cerebral haemorrhage.
in Denmark and was educated at Aalborg Cathedral School
. In January 1942 Larsen contracted a number of childhood diseases, although none had any permanent effects it was during this period that Larsen discovered chess. He went on to represent Denmark twice in the World Junior Championship
, in 1951 at Birmingham
(placing fifth) and in 1953 at Copenhagen
(placing eighth). He started playing seriously at the age of 17 when he moved to Copenhagen to study Civil Engineering
but he never graduated choosing instead to play chess professionally. He became an International Master at the age of 19 in 1954, from his bronze-medal performance on board one at the Amsterdam Olympiad
. He won his first of six Danish Championships in 1954 repeating this feat in 1955, 1956, 1959, 1963, and 1964.
Larsen defeated Friðrik Ólafsson
in an exhibition match at Oslo
in 1955 by 4½–3½. He won at Copenhagen
in 1956 with 8/9.
. He tied for 1st–2nd places at Hastings
1956–57 on 6½/9 with Svetozar Gligorić
. At Dallas 1957, he scored 7½/14 for a shared 3rd–4th place; the winners were Gligorić and Samuel Reshevsky
.
At the 1957 Wageningen
Zonal, he tied for 3rd–4th places, along with Jan Hein Donner
, with 12½/17; there were only three qualifying berths, so the two players had to dispute a playoff match. Larsen won by 3–1 over Donner at The Hague
1958 to qualify for his first Interzonal
, at Portorož
1958. Larsen could score only 8½/20 for 16th place, and was not close to qualifying. But he scored his first major individual international success by winning Mar del Plata 1958 with 12/15, ahead of William Lombardy
, Erich Eliskases
, Oscar Panno
, and Herman Pilnik
.
Larsen went into a slump beginning with the 1958 Interzonal
. He tied 5th–6th in a powerful field at Zürich
1959 with 9½/15, behind winner Mikhail Tal
, Gligorić, Paul Keres
, and Bobby Fischer
. But Larsen placed only 4th in a middle-range field at the 1960 Berg en Dal
Zonal 1960 with 5½/9, and did not advance to the Interzonal. He recovered by sharing 1st–2nd places at Beverwijk
1961 on 7½/9 with Borislav Ivkov
. At Zürich
1961, he tied for 6th–7th places with 6/11, as Keres won ahead of Tigran Petrosian
. At Moscow 1962, he shared 7th–11th places with 7½/15 (Yuri Averbakh
won).
Zonal with 13/19, behind winner Lajos Portisch
, to advance to the Interzonal the next year. At Belgrade
1964, he shared 5th–6th places with 10/17 (Boris Spassky
won). He tied for 5th–7th places at Beverwijk
1964 on 9½/15; Keres and Nei won. Larsen's unusual openings were on full display at the 1964 Amsterdam
Interzonal, where he shared the 1st–4th places on 17/23 with Boris Spassky
, Mikhail Tal
, and Vasily Smyslov
, advancing as a Candidate.
In the 1965 Candidates' matches, he first defeated Borislav Ivkov
at Bled
by 5½–2½, but lost in the semi-final, also at Bled by 4½–5½ to former world champion Mikhail Tal
. An indication of the quality of the match is given by the fact that it was tied after nine games and Tal had to win the tenth game with a complex speculative knight sacrifice in the center. He won a playoff match for alternates, an eventual third-place Candidates' position, against Efim Geller
by 5–4 at Copenhagen
1966. In 1967 he won the Sousse
Interzonal with the score of 15.5/21 after Fischer withdrew; this placed him 1.5 points ahead of the field. He then won his first-round match against Lajos Portisch
by 5½–4½ at Porec
1968. In Malmö
, however, he lost the semi-final by 2½–5½ to Boris Spassky
, who went on to win the title.
In 1970 he shared 2nd in the Palma de Mallorca
Interzonal, on 15/23, behind Bobby Fischer
. He reached his top rank in the Elo rating system
at the start of 1971, equal third in the world (with Korchnoi, behind Fischer and Spassky) with a rating of 2660. He then defeated Wolfgang Uhlmann
by 5½–3½ at Las Palmas 1971. But then he lost the semi-final 0–6 at Denver to Fischer, who also went on to win the title.
Larsen later claimed in a Kasparov.com interview (1998) that his one-sided loss to Fischer was due in part to his condition during the match: "The organizers chose the wrong time for this match. I was languid with the heat and Fischer was better prepared for such exceptional circumstances... I saw chess pieces through a mist and, thus, my level of playing was not good."
In 1973 he failed to advance from the Leningrad
Interzonal; he tied for 5th–6th places with 10/17, with Anatoly Karpov
and Viktor Korchnoi
winning. In 1976 he won the Biel Interzonal, but lost his 1977 Candidates' match, a rematch of their 1968 encounter, to Lajos Portisch
by 3½–6½ at Rotterdam
. In the Riga
Interzonal of 1979, Larsen scored 10/17 for 7th place, and did not advance.
1966 with 9/11, ahead of Lev Polugaevsky
. At Santa Monica
1966, he placed third with 10/18, behind Spassky and Fischer. He won at Havana
1967 with a powerful 15/19, ahead of a strong group which included Mark Taimanov
, Smyslov, Polugaevsky, Gligoric, and Miroslav Filip
. He shared 2nd–3rd places at Dundee
1967 with 5½/8, behind Gligoric. At Beverwijk
1967, he was 4th with 8½/15 (Spassky won). At Monte Carlo
1967, he shared 3rd–4th with 6/9, behind Fischer and Efim Geller
. He shared 1st–2nd at Winnipeg
1967 with 6/9, along with Klaus Darga
, ahead of Spassky and Keres. He won at Palma de Mallorca
1967 with 13/17, ahead of Smyslov, Mikhail Botvinnik
, Portisch, Gligoric, and Borislav Ivkov
. He was awarded the first Chess Oscar
in 1967.
Somewhat unusual for the late 1960s, Larsen, as one of the world's top players, often entered large Open tournaments run on the Swiss system, and had plenty of success. He won the Canadian Open Chess Championship
s at Toronto
1968 and St. John's
1970. He also won the U.S. Open Chess Championship
s at Aspen
1968 and Boston
1970.
Larsen won at Monte Carlo
1968 with 9½/13, ahead of Botvinnik, Smyslov, Vlastimil Hort
, Robert Byrne, Portisch, and Pal Benko
. This completed a string of five consecutive clear wins of major tournaments, a feat that had not previously been accomplished in modern chess. Larsen shared 2nd–3rd places at Palma de Mallorca
1968 with 13/17, along with Spassky; Viktor Korchnoi
won. He defeated Heikki Westerinen
by 6–2 in a 1969 exhibition match at Helsinki
. In a playoff match for third place in the Candidates Tournament
, he defeated Mikhail Tal
at Eersel
1969 by 5½–2½ in a rematch of their 1965 encounter. He won at Palma de Mallorca
1969 with 12/17 ahead of Petrosian, Korchnoi, Hort, and Spassky. There was a further victory at Buesum 1969 with 11/15 ahead of Polugaevsky. At San Juan
1969, he scored 9/15 for a shared 6th–7th place (Spassky won). He defeated International Master Heikki Westerinen
by 6-2 at Helsinki
in 1969 in a match in which every game was decisive.
Larsen won at Lugano
1970 with 9½/14, ahead of Olafsson. In the USSR vs Rest of the World match at Belgrade
1970, he played first board for the World side, ahead of Fischer, and scored 2½/4 against Spassky and Leonid Stein
. At Leiden 1970, he shared 3rd–4th places with 5½/12, (Spassky won). He defeated Lubomir Kavalek in a 1970 exhibition match at Solingen
by 6–2. He won at Vinkovci
1970 with 1½/15, ahead of David Bronstein
, Hort, and Gligoric. At Palma de Mallorca
1970, he shared 6th–7th places with 9/15 (Panno and Ljubomir Ljubojevic
were joint winners). Larsen shared 8th–9th places at San Antonio 1972 on 8½/15 (Portisch, Petrosian, and Anatoly Karpov
triumphed). He won at Teesside
1972 with 11/15, ahead of Ljubojevic and Portisch. At Las Palmas 1972, he shared 2nd–3rd places on 11/15 (Portisch won).
Larsen won at Hastings
1972–73 on 11½/15, ahead of Wolfgang Uhlmann
. At Bauang 1973, he scored 6/9 for 4th place (Kavalek won). Larsen won at Grenaa 1973 in the Nordic
Championship with 8½/10. He won again at Manila
1973 with 12½/15, ahead of Ljubojevic and Kavalek. In 1975, Larsen defeated Danish Champion and future International Master Gert Iskov at Gellerup
by the score of 5.5-.5 and lost a match to GM Ulf Andersson
by the score of 5.5-2.5 at Stockholm
the same year.
play, always on first board, and compiled an aggregate score of 75/109 (+61 =28 −20), for 68.8%. He always played a very high number of games and in 1954 played a maximum of 19 games. He won three board medals, one gold and two bronze.
in the Software Toolworks Championship, becoming the first Grandmaster and the player with the highest Elo rating
(by then 2560) to be defeated by a computer in tournament play.
Larsen continued to play occasionally in tournaments, although he was becoming older and his health was failing. In 1999 he finished 7th of 10 in the Danish Championship, but in the 2000 event he was forced to withdraw when he became seriously ill with an edema
, requiring brain surgery. Since then he only played a few tournaments in Buenos Aires. He was 4th in the 2002 Najdorf
Memorial knock-out. In the April 2009 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2415.
He died in Buenos Aires in 2010. According to the English Chess Federation
Newsletter, "His health had been poor for some considerable time and he had been virtually inactive for
years".
s. "He is a firm believer in the value of surprise. Consequently, he often resorts to dubious variations in various openings. He also likes to complicate positions even though it may involve considerable risk. He has a great deal of confidence in his game and fears no one. His unique style has proven extremely effective against relatively weak opponents but has not been too successful against top-notchers."
He was one of the very few modern Grandmasters to have employed Bird's Opening
(1.f4) with any regularity, and had a long-term association with the move 1.b3, a system commonly known as Larsen's Opening
or the Nimzo-Larsen Attack in his (and Aron Nimzowitsch
's) honor. He played the Dutch Defence
with success at a time when the opening was rarely seen at the top level. He revived the almost dormant Bishop's Opening
(1.e4 e5 2.Bc4) with success in 1964 and explored new ways for Black to seek activity in the Philidor Defence
(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6). Indeed, he wrote a short monograph on the Philidor by the title of Why Not The Philidor Defense? (1971). He was also the first top player to successfully use the Grand Prix Attack against the Sicilian Defence
(1.e4 c5 2.f4), spurring a sudden and sustained gain in its popularity. In the mid-1960s, he showed surprising faith in Alekhine's Defence
(1.e4 Nf6) and even employed it on important occasions. He played the rare Scandinavian Defence 1.e4 d5 to defeat World Champion Anatoly Karpov in 1979, sparking renewed interest in that variation. A favorite line in the Caro-Kann Defence
(1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6) is co-named for him and David Bronstein
; the idea is to accept a weakness to the Black pawn structure in exchange for an unbalancing of the position and retaining the bishop pair.
The Grünfeld Defence
(1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5) was another opening that became a frequent choice of Larsen with the Black pieces and similarly, he placed considerable reliance on Grunfeld-Indian systems as White. This led him to co-author a groundbreaking 1979 book (with Steffen Zeuthen) on this opening and similar structures (ZOOM 001—Zero Hour for Operative Opening Models). His book of "Larsen's selected games of chess, 1948-69" (1970) is renowned for its pithy annotations which delve into chess psychology and the effective use of rare openings.
Larsen was respected as an excellent writer who reached out to his readers; he was one of seven top Grandmasters who wrote chapters for the 1974 book How to Open a Chess Game. He edited the tournament book for San Antonio 1972. He contributed a chapter to the Raymond Keene
edited Learn From The Grandmasters (1975). He also wrote the well-received Karpov Vs. Korchnoi: World Chess Championship, 1978, which was published within days of the match ending and was the first book in any language on the 1978 World Championship match.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster and author. Larsen was known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play and he was the first western player to pose a serious challenge to the Soviet Union's dominance of chess. He is considered to be the strongest chess player born in Denmark and the strongest from Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list...
.
Larsen was a six time Danish Champion
Danish Chess Championship
The Danish Chess Championship was organised by the Danish Chess Union and first held in 1910. A masterclass was first introduced in 1915. But it is only from 1922 that the title of Danish chess champion was introduced, this was the first year also players from Copenhagen joined.-History:In 1949...
and a candidate for the World Chess Championship
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
on four occasions, reaching the semi final three times. He had multiple wins over all seven World Champions who held the title from 1948 to 1985: Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
, Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions . Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship , and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won...
, Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
, Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
, Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
, Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
, and Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
., but lifetime minus scores against them. On a percentage basis, his best score against a World Champion was with Max Euwe
Max Euwe
Machgielis Euwe was a Dutch chess Grandmaster, mathematician, and author. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion . Euwe also served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978.- Early years :Euwe was born in Watergraafsmeer, near Amsterdam...
. Larsen and Euwe met over the board only once, at the Munich Olympiad in 1958; the game ended in a draw. From the early 1970s, he divided his year between Las Palmas and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, with his Argentinian
Argentine people
Argentines are the citizens of Argentina, or their descendants abroad. Argentina is a multiethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnic backgrounds. According to the , Argentina had a population of 36,260,130 inhabitants, of which 1,527,320, or 4.2%, were born...
-born wife. He suffered from diabetes and died in 2010 from a cerebral haemorrhage.
Early life
Larsen was born in Tilsted, near ThistedThisted
Thisted is a town in Thisted municipality of Region Nordjylland, in Denmark. It has a population of 13,005 and is located in Thy, in northwestern Jutland....
in Denmark and was educated at Aalborg Cathedral School
Aalborg Cathedral School
Aalborg Cathedral School is the oldest gymnasium in North Jutland.The exact date of foundation is not known, but historical documents indicate that Christian III of Denmark in 1540 gave the school a wing of the old Holy Ghost Monastery in Aalborg after the dissolution of the Danish monasteries...
. In January 1942 Larsen contracted a number of childhood diseases, although none had any permanent effects it was during this period that Larsen discovered chess. He went on to represent Denmark twice in the World Junior Championship
World Junior Chess Championship
The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament organized by the World Chess Federation ....
, in 1951 at Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
(placing fifth) and in 1953 at Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
(placing eighth). He started playing seriously at the age of 17 when he moved to Copenhagen to study Civil Engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
but he never graduated choosing instead to play chess professionally. He became an International Master at the age of 19 in 1954, from his bronze-medal performance on board one at the Amsterdam Olympiad
11th Chess Olympiad
The 11th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 4 and September 25, 1954, in Amsterdam, Netherlands...
. He won his first of six Danish Championships in 1954 repeating this feat in 1955, 1956, 1959, 1963, and 1964.
Larsen defeated Friðrik Ólafsson
Friðrik Ólafsson
Friðrik Ólafsson is an Icelandic chess Grandmaster and former president of FIDE.Friðrik was born in Reykjavík, Iceland. A first-time winner of the Icelandic Championship in 1952 and of the Scandinavian Championship a year later, he rapidly became recognised as the strongest Icelandic player of his...
in an exhibition match at Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
in 1955 by 4½–3½. He won at Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
in 1956 with 8/9.
Young Grandmaster
Larsen became an International Grandmaster in 1956 with his gold-medal performance on board one at the Moscow Olympiad, where he drew World Champion Mikhail BotvinnikMikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
. He tied for 1st–2nd places at Hastings
Hastings International Chess Congress
The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...
1956–57 on 6½/9 with Svetozar Gligorić
Svetozar Gligoric
Svetozar Gligorić is a Serbian chess grandmaster. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is considered the best player ever from Serbia...
. At Dallas 1957, he scored 7½/14 for a shared 3rd–4th place; the winners were Gligorić and Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
.
At the 1957 Wageningen
Wageningen
' is a municipality and a historical town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specializes in life sciences. The city has 37,414 inhabitants , of which many thousands are students...
Zonal, he tied for 3rd–4th places, along with Jan Hein Donner
Jan Hein Donner
Johannes Hendrikus Donner was a Dutch chess grandmaster and writer. Donner was born in The Hague and won the Dutch Championship in 1954, 1957, and 1958. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded him the GM title in 1959. He played 11 times for the Netherlands in the Chess Olympiads...
, with 12½/17; there were only three qualifying berths, so the two players had to dispute a playoff match. Larsen won by 3–1 over Donner at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
1958 to qualify for his first Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
, at Portorož
Portorož
- External links :**...
1958. Larsen could score only 8½/20 for 16th place, and was not close to qualifying. But he scored his first major individual international success by winning Mar del Plata 1958 with 12/15, ahead of William Lombardy
William Lombardy
William James Lombardy is an American Grandmaster of chess, writer, teacher, and one-time Catholic priest.- Life and career :...
, Erich Eliskases
Erich Eliskases
Erich Gottlieb Eliskases was a chess Grandmaster of the 1930s and 1940s, who represented Austria, Germany and Argentina in international competition....
, Oscar Panno
Oscar Panno
Oscar R. Panno is an Argentine chess Grandmaster.Panno won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, and also won the championship of Argentina the same year....
, and Herman Pilnik
Herman Pilnik
Herman Pilnik was an Argentine chess Grandmaster.-Career:...
.
Larsen went into a slump beginning with the 1958 Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
. He tied 5th–6th in a powerful field at Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
1959 with 9½/15, behind winner Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
, Gligorić, Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
, and Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
. But Larsen placed only 4th in a middle-range field at the 1960 Berg en Dal
Berg en Dal
Berg en Dal is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located to the southeast of the city of Nijmegen. The largest part of the village lies in the municipality of Groesbeek, but a small part lies in Ubbergen....
Zonal 1960 with 5½/9, and did not advance to the Interzonal. He recovered by sharing 1st–2nd places at Beverwijk
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
1961 on 7½/9 with Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov is a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was the first ever World Junior Champion in 1951. He won the Yugoslav Championship in 1958 , 1963 and 1972. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979...
. At Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
1961, he tied for 6th–7th places with 6/11, as Keres won ahead of Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
. At Moscow 1962, he shared 7th–11th places with 7½/15 (Yuri Averbakh
Yuri Averbakh
Yuri Lvovich Averbakh is a Soviet and Russian chess player and author. He is currently the oldest living chess grandmaster.-Life and career:...
won).
Challenging for the World title
Around this time Larsen diversified his style, switching over to risky and unusual openings in some of his games, to try to throw his opponents off balance; this led to the recovery of his form and further development of his chess. He finished 2nd at the 1963 HalleHalle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
Zonal with 13/19, behind winner Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik"...
, to advance to the Interzonal the next year. At Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
1964, he shared 5th–6th places with 10/17 (Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
won). He tied for 5th–7th places at Beverwijk
Beverwijk
Beverwijk is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The town is located about northwest of Amsterdam in the Randstad metropolitan area, north of the North Sea Canal very close to the North Sea coast...
1964 on 9½/15; Keres and Nei won. Larsen's unusual openings were on full display at the 1964 Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
Interzonal, where he shared the 1st–4th places on 17/23 with Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
, Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
, and Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions . Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship , and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won...
, advancing as a Candidate.
In the 1965 Candidates' matches, he first defeated Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov is a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was the first ever World Junior Champion in 1951. He won the Yugoslav Championship in 1958 , 1963 and 1972. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979...
at Bled
Bled
Bled is a municipality in northwestern Slovenia in the region of Upper Carniola. The area, within the Julian Alps, is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
by 5½–2½, but lost in the semi-final, also at Bled by 4½–5½ to former world champion Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
. An indication of the quality of the match is given by the fact that it was tied after nine games and Tal had to win the tenth game with a complex speculative knight sacrifice in the center. He won a playoff match for alternates, an eventual third-place Candidates' position, against Efim Geller
Efim Geller
Efim Petrovich Geller was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions...
by 5–4 at Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
1966. In 1967 he won the Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...
Interzonal with the score of 15.5/21 after Fischer withdrew; this placed him 1.5 points ahead of the field. He then won his first-round match against Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik"...
by 5½–4½ at Porec
Porec
Poreč is a town and municipality on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, in Istria County, Croatia. Its major landmark is the 6th century Euphrasian Basilica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997....
1968. In Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
, however, he lost the semi-final by 2½–5½ to Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
, who went on to win the title.
In 1970 he shared 2nd in the Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
Interzonal, on 15/23, behind Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
. He reached his top rank in the Elo rating system
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
at the start of 1971, equal third in the world (with Korchnoi, behind Fischer and Spassky) with a rating of 2660. He then defeated Wolfgang Uhlmann
Wolfgang Uhlmann
Wolfgang Uhlmann is a prominent German International Grandmaster of chess. Despite being a dedicated professional chess player, and undoubtedly the GDR's most successful ever, he has also had a career in accountancy.-Chess career:...
by 5½–3½ at Las Palmas 1971. But then he lost the semi-final 0–6 at Denver to Fischer, who also went on to win the title.
Larsen later claimed in a Kasparov.com interview (1998) that his one-sided loss to Fischer was due in part to his condition during the match: "The organizers chose the wrong time for this match. I was languid with the heat and Fischer was better prepared for such exceptional circumstances... I saw chess pieces through a mist and, thus, my level of playing was not good."
In 1973 he failed to advance from the Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
Interzonal; he tied for 5th–6th places with 10/17, with Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
and Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ; pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit...
winning. In 1976 he won the Biel Interzonal, but lost his 1977 Candidates' match, a rematch of their 1968 encounter, to Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik"...
by 3½–6½ at Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
. In the Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
Interzonal of 1979, Larsen scored 10/17 for 7th place, and did not advance.
Tournament dominance 1965–1973
Starting in the mid-1960s, Larsen enjoyed a very successful run in major tournaments around the world, and he and Fischer became the two strongest players outside the Soviet Union. Larsen played in a lot of strong events, at least as many as any other top player, and repeatedly finished ahead of the top Soviet players. He won at Le HavreLe Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
1966 with 9/11, ahead of Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was an International Grandmaster of chess and frequent contender for the world chess championship, although he never achieved that title...
. At Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
1966, he placed third with 10/18, behind Spassky and Fischer. He won at Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
1967 with a powerful 15/19, ahead of a strong group which included Mark Taimanov
Mark Taimanov
Mark Evgenievich Taimanov is a leading Soviet and Russian chess player and concert pianist.-Chess:He was awarded the International Grandmaster title in 1952 and played in the Candidates Tournament in Zurich in 1953, where he tied for eighth place. From 1946 to 1956, he was among the world's top...
, Smyslov, Polugaevsky, Gligoric, and Miroslav Filip
Miroslav Filip
Miroslav Filip was a Grandmaster of chess from the Czech Republic. Filip was awarded the title of International Master in 1953, and the Grandmaster title in 1955...
. He shared 2nd–3rd places at Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
1967 with 5½/8, behind Gligoric. At Beverwijk
Beverwijk
Beverwijk is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The town is located about northwest of Amsterdam in the Randstad metropolitan area, north of the North Sea Canal very close to the North Sea coast...
1967, he was 4th with 8½/15 (Spassky won). At Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
1967, he shared 3rd–4th with 6/9, behind Fischer and Efim Geller
Efim Geller
Efim Petrovich Geller was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions...
. He shared 1st–2nd at Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
1967 with 6/9, along with Klaus Darga
Klaus Darga
Klaus Viktor Darga is a German Grandmaster chess player.In 1951 Darga became German Junior Champion after winning the national under-20 championship. He also proved his strength as a young chessplayer by sharing first place in the World Junior Championship of 1953, with Oscar Panno of Argentina...
, ahead of Spassky and Keres. He won at Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
1967 with 13/17, ahead of Smyslov, Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
, Portisch, Gligoric, and Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov is a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was the first ever World Junior Champion in 1951. He won the Yugoslav Championship in 1958 , 1963 and 1972. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979...
. He was awarded the first Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar is an international award given to the best chess player every year. The winner is selected by a poll of chess experts across the world, including Grandmasters...
in 1967.
Somewhat unusual for the late 1960s, Larsen, as one of the world's top players, often entered large Open tournaments run on the Swiss system, and had plenty of success. He won the Canadian Open Chess Championship
Canadian Open Chess Championship
The Canadian Open Chess Championship is Canada's Open chess championship, first held in 1956, and held annually since 1973, usually in mid-summer. It is organized by the Chess Federation of Canada....
s at Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
1968 and St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
1970. He also won the U.S. Open Chess Championship
U.S. Open Chess Championship
The U.S. Open Championship is an open national chess championship that has been held in the United States annually since 1900.-History:Through 1938, the tournaments were organized by the Western Chess Association and its successor, the American Chess Federation .The United States Chess Federation ...
s at Aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
1968 and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
1970.
Larsen won at Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
1968 with 9½/13, ahead of Botvinnik, Smyslov, Vlastimil Hort
Vlastimil Hort
Vlastimil Hort is a chess Grandmaster of Czech nationality. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the Candidates stage of competition for the world chess championship, but was never able to compete for the actual title.Hort was born in Kladno,...
, Robert Byrne, Portisch, and Pal Benko
Pál Benko
Pal Benko is a chess grandmaster, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems.- Early life :Benko was born in France but was raised in Hungary. He was Hungarian champion by age 20. He emigrated to the United States in 1958, after defecting following the World Student Team...
. This completed a string of five consecutive clear wins of major tournaments, a feat that had not previously been accomplished in modern chess. Larsen shared 2nd–3rd places at Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
1968 with 13/17, along with Spassky; Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ; pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit...
won. He defeated Heikki Westerinen
Heikki Westerinen
Heikki Markku Julius Westerinen is a Finnish chess player, born in Helsinki.He became a national master at age sixteen, and earned the FIDE titles of International Master in 1967 and Grandmaster in 1975....
by 6–2 in a 1969 exhibition match at Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. In a playoff match for third place in the Candidates Tournament
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
, he defeated Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
at Eersel
Eersel
Eersel is a municipality and a town in southern Netherlands in the province of North Brabant. Eersel is situated in the Campine area....
1969 by 5½–2½ in a rematch of their 1965 encounter. He won at Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
1969 with 12/17 ahead of Petrosian, Korchnoi, Hort, and Spassky. There was a further victory at Buesum 1969 with 11/15 ahead of Polugaevsky. At San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
1969, he scored 9/15 for a shared 6th–7th place (Spassky won). He defeated International Master Heikki Westerinen
Heikki Westerinen
Heikki Markku Julius Westerinen is a Finnish chess player, born in Helsinki.He became a national master at age sixteen, and earned the FIDE titles of International Master in 1967 and Grandmaster in 1975....
by 6-2 at Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
in 1969 in a match in which every game was decisive.
Larsen won at Lugano
Lugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...
1970 with 9½/14, ahead of Olafsson. In the USSR vs Rest of the World match at Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
1970, he played first board for the World side, ahead of Fischer, and scored 2½/4 against Spassky and Leonid Stein
Leonid Stein
Leonid Zakharovich Stein was a Soviet chess Grandmaster from Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s , and was among the world's top ten players during that era.- Early life :...
. At Leiden 1970, he shared 3rd–4th places with 5½/12, (Spassky won). He defeated Lubomir Kavalek in a 1970 exhibition match at Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
by 6–2. He won at Vinkovci
Vinkovci
Vinkovci is a city in Croatia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County. In the 2011 census, the total population of the city was 35,375, making it the largest town of the county...
1970 with 1½/15, ahead of David Bronstein
David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...
, Hort, and Gligoric. At Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
1970, he shared 6th–7th places with 9/15 (Panno and Ljubomir Ljubojevic
Ljubomir Ljubojevic
Ljubomir Ljubojević is a Grandmaster of chess. He was born on November 2, 1950, in Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia . Ljubojević was awarded the International Master title in 1970 and the GM title in 1971. He was Yugoslav champion in 1977 and 1982. He won the 1974 Canadian Open Chess Championship...
were joint winners). Larsen shared 8th–9th places at San Antonio 1972 on 8½/15 (Portisch, Petrosian, and Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
triumphed). He won at Teesside
Teesside
Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in the north east of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham and surrounding settlements near the River Tees. It was also the name of a local government district between 1968 and 1974—the County Borough of...
1972 with 11/15, ahead of Ljubojevic and Portisch. At Las Palmas 1972, he shared 2nd–3rd places on 11/15 (Portisch won).
Larsen won at Hastings
Hastings International Chess Congress
The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...
1972–73 on 11½/15, ahead of Wolfgang Uhlmann
Wolfgang Uhlmann
Wolfgang Uhlmann is a prominent German International Grandmaster of chess. Despite being a dedicated professional chess player, and undoubtedly the GDR's most successful ever, he has also had a career in accountancy.-Chess career:...
. At Bauang 1973, he scored 6/9 for 4th place (Kavalek won). Larsen won at Grenaa 1973 in the Nordic
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
Championship with 8½/10. He won again at Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
1973 with 12½/15, ahead of Ljubojevic and Kavalek. In 1975, Larsen defeated Danish Champion and future International Master Gert Iskov at Gellerup
Gellerup
Gellerup is a district of Brabrand and western suburb to the city of Aarhus, Denmark. The name Gellerup is also commonly used to refer to a large housing project called Gellerupparken located in the suburb. The housing project was built in 1968-72 and contains in total 1776 apartments...
by the score of 5.5-.5 and lost a match to GM Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson is a leading Swedish chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1970 and the Grandmaster title in 1972 .-Career:...
by the score of 5.5-2.5 at Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
the same year.
Olympiad performances
He represented Denmark six times in Chess OlympiadChess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
play, always on first board, and compiled an aggregate score of 75/109 (+61 =28 −20), for 68.8%. He always played a very high number of games and in 1954 played a maximum of 19 games. He won three board medals, one gold and two bronze.
- Amsterdam 195411th Chess OlympiadThe 11th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 4 and September 25, 1954, in Amsterdam, Netherlands...
, board one, 13½/19 (+11 =5 −3), board bronze medal; - Moscow 195612th Chess OlympiadThe 12th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 31 and September 25, 1956, in Moscow, Soviet Union.-References:...
, board one, 14/18 (+11 =6 −1), board gold medal; - Munich 195813th Chess OlympiadThe 13th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 30 and October 23, 1958, in Munich, West Germany.-References:...
, board one, 13/19 (+11 =4 −4); - Havana 196617th Chess OlympiadThe 17th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 23 and November 20, 1966, in Havana, Cuba.-References:* OlimpBase...
, board one, 11/18 (+9 =4 −5); - Lugano 196818th Chess OlympiadThe 18th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 17 and November 7, 1968, in Lugano, Switzerland.-References:* OlimpBase...
, board one, 10½/18 (+8 =5 −5); - Siegen 197019th Chess OlympiadThe 19th Chess Olympiad, comprising an open team tournament and the Annual Congress of the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, took place between September 5 and September 27, 1970, in the small town of Siegen, West Germany.-Tournament report:...
, board one, 13/17 (+11 =4 −2), board bronze medal.
Later career
In 1988 he lost a game to Deep ThoughtDeep Thought (chess computer)
Deep Thought was a computer designed to play chess. Deep Thought was initially developed at Carnegie Mellon University and later at IBM. It was second in the line of chess computers developed by Feng-hsiung Hsu, starting with ChipTest and culminating in Deep Blue...
in the Software Toolworks Championship, becoming the first Grandmaster and the player with the highest Elo rating
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
(by then 2560) to be defeated by a computer in tournament play.
Larsen continued to play occasionally in tournaments, although he was becoming older and his health was failing. In 1999 he finished 7th of 10 in the Danish Championship, but in the 2000 event he was forced to withdraw when he became seriously ill with an edema
Edema
Edema or oedema ; both words from the Greek , oídēma "swelling"), formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin or in one or more cavities of the body that produces swelling...
, requiring brain surgery. Since then he only played a few tournaments in Buenos Aires. He was 4th in the 2002 Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation....
Memorial knock-out. In the April 2009 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2415.
He died in Buenos Aires in 2010. According to the English Chess Federation
English Chess Federation
The English Chess Federation is the governing chess organisation in England and is affiliated to FIDE. The ECF was formed in 2004 and was effectively a re-constitution of the extant governing body, the British Chess Federation , an organisation founded in 1904...
Newsletter, "His health had been poor for some considerable time and he had been virtually inactive for
years".
Chess style and writings
Larsen was known as a deep thinking and highly imaginative player, more willing to try unorthodox ideas and to take risks than most of his peers. This aspect of his play could even manifest itself in his choice of openingChess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
s. "He is a firm believer in the value of surprise. Consequently, he often resorts to dubious variations in various openings. He also likes to complicate positions even though it may involve considerable risk. He has a great deal of confidence in his game and fears no one. His unique style has proven extremely effective against relatively weak opponents but has not been too successful against top-notchers."
He was one of the very few modern Grandmasters to have employed Bird's Opening
Bird's Opening
Bird's Opening is a chess opening characterised by the move:Bird's is a standard but never popular flank opening. White's strategic ideas involve control of the e5-square without occupying it, but his first move is also non-developing and slightly weakens his kingside...
(1.f4) with any regularity, and had a long-term association with the move 1.b3, a system commonly known as Larsen's Opening
Larsen's Opening
Larsen's Opening is a chess opening starting with the move:It is named after the Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen...
or the Nimzo-Larsen Attack in his (and Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch was a Russian-born Danish unofficial chess grandmaster and a very influential chess writer...
's) honor. He played the Dutch Defence
Dutch Defence
The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:Elias Stein , an Alsatian who settled in The Hague, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.-Theory:Black's 1.....
with success at a time when the opening was rarely seen at the top level. He revived the almost dormant Bishop's Opening
Bishop's Opening
The Bishop's Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:White attacks Black's f7-square and prevents Black from advancing his d-pawn to d5....
(1.e4 e5 2.Bc4) with success in 1964 and explored new ways for Black to seek activity in the Philidor Defence
Philidor Defence
The Philidor Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:It is named after the famous 18th-century player François-André Danican Philidor, who advocated it as an alternative to the common 2...Nc6...
(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6). Indeed, he wrote a short monograph on the Philidor by the title of Why Not The Philidor Defense? (1971). He was also the first top player to successfully use the Grand Prix Attack against the Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...
(1.e4 c5 2.f4), spurring a sudden and sustained gain in its popularity. In the mid-1960s, he showed surprising faith in Alekhine's Defence
Alekhine's Defence
Alekhine's Defence is a hypermodern chess opening that begins with the moves:Black tempts White's pawns forward to form a broad pawn centre, with plans to undermine and attack the White structure later in the spirit of hypermodern defence. White's imposing mass of pawns in the centre often includes...
(1.e4 Nf6) and even employed it on important occasions. He played the rare Scandinavian Defence 1.e4 d5 to defeat World Champion Anatoly Karpov in 1979, sparking renewed interest in that variation. A favorite line in the Caro-Kann Defence
Caro-Kann Defence
The Caro-Kann Defence is a chess opening —a common defense against the King's Pawn Opening characterised by the moves:The usual continuation isfollowed by 3.Nc3 , 3.Nd2 , 3.exd5 , or 3.e5 . The classical variation has gained much popularity...
(1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6) is co-named for him and David Bronstein
David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...
; the idea is to accept a weakness to the Black pawn structure in exchange for an unbalancing of the position and retaining the bishop pair.
The Grünfeld Defence
Grünfeld Defence
The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The first instance of this opening is in an 1855 game by Moheschunder Bannerjee, an Indian player who had transitioned from Indian chess rules, playing black against John Cochrane in Calcutta, in May 1855: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4...
(1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5) was another opening that became a frequent choice of Larsen with the Black pieces and similarly, he placed considerable reliance on Grunfeld-Indian systems as White. This led him to co-author a groundbreaking 1979 book (with Steffen Zeuthen) on this opening and similar structures (ZOOM 001—Zero Hour for Operative Opening Models). His book of "Larsen's selected games of chess, 1948-69" (1970) is renowned for its pithy annotations which delve into chess psychology and the effective use of rare openings.
Larsen was respected as an excellent writer who reached out to his readers; he was one of seven top Grandmasters who wrote chapters for the 1974 book How to Open a Chess Game. He edited the tournament book for San Antonio 1972. He contributed a chapter to the Raymond Keene
Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene OBE is an English chess Grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author.p196 He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England to earn a Grandmaster norm, in 1974. In 1976 he became the second...
edited Learn From The Grandmasters (1975). He also wrote the well-received Karpov Vs. Korchnoi: World Chess Championship, 1978, which was published within days of the match ending and was the first book in any language on the 1978 World Championship match.
Notable chess games
- Bent Larsen vs Boris Spassky, Amsterdam Interzonal 1964, Bird's Opening (A03), 1–0 Larsen successfully played unusual openings in this tournament, and here he uses one of them to knock off a top Soviet, on his way to winning the tournament.
- David Bronstein vs Bent Larsen, Amsterdam Interzonal 1964, King's Indian Defense: Averbakh. Benoni Defense Advance Variation (E75), 0-1 Larsen defends and end Bronstein dreams about becoming World candidate.
- Svetozar Gligoric vs Bent Larsen, Zagreb 1965, Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen Variation (B83), 0–1 Gligoric launches a dangerous-looking attack, but Larsen finds an inspired defence. Larsen had a strong head-to-head dominance over the top Yugoslav player of that era.
- Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen, Santa Monica 1966, Ruy Lopez, Open Variation (C82), 0–1 Fischer has a promising position but miscalculates and is punished in drastic style by Larsen's counterattack.
- Bent Larsen vs Tigran Petrosian, Santa Monica 1966, Sicilian Defence, Accelerated Dragon Variation (B39), 1–0 Larsen unleashes a queen sacrifice to defeat the World Champion.
- Mikhail Tal vs Bent Larsen, Eersel 1969, match game 6, Sicilian Defence, Richter–Rauzer Variation (B65), 0–1 Larsen was dangerous with the Black pieces, and here he shows a former World Champion why.
- Mikhail Botvinnik vs Bent Larsen, Leiden 1970, Dutch Defense, Classical Variation (A90), 0–1 Another former World Champion can't hold a long endgame.
- Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen, Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970, Sicilian Defence, Velimirovic Attack (B89), 0–1 Larsen surprised Fischer, who was then nearly invincible, with an opening innovation, and plays a near-perfect game to win.
- Anatoly Karpov vs Bent Larsen, Montreal 1979, Scandinavian Defence (B01), 0–1 Larsen springs a rare opening on the World Champion, and is rewarded with success.
External links
- Edward WinterEdward Winter (chess historian)Edward Winter is an English journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author about the game of chess. He writes a regular column on that subject, Chess Notes, and is also a regular columnist for ChessBase.-Chess Notes:...
, Bent Larsen (1935-2010) - Lubomir Kavalek, Chess Great Bent Larsen Dies