Bent Larsen

Jrgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess
Bent Larsen
grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he
was the first Western player to pose a serious challenge to the Soviet Union's
dominance in chess.[1] He is considered to be the strongest player born in Denmark
and the strongest fromScandinavia 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 semifinal 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, Bent Larsen (1961)
Bobby Fischer, and Anatoly Karpov,[2] but lifetime negative scores against them. On Full Jrgen Bent Larsen
a percentage basis, his best score against a World Champion was with Max Euwe. name
Larsen and Euwe met over the board only once, at the Munich Olympiad in 1958;
Country Denmark
the game ended in a draw.[3] From the early 1970s, he divided his year between Las
Palmas and Buenos Aires,[1] with his Argentinian-born wife. He suffered from Born 4 March 1935
diabetes and died in 2010 from acerebral haemorrhage.[4] Tilsted near Thisted,
Denmark
Died 9 September 2010
(aged 75)
Contents Buenos Aires, Argentina

1 Career
Title Grandmaster (1956)
1.1 Early life Peak 2660 (January 1971)
1.2 Young Grandmaster rating
1.3 Challenging for the World title
1.4 Tournament dominance (196573)
1.5 Olympiad performances
1.6 Later career
2 Playing style and authorship
3 Notable games
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

Career

Early life
Larsen was born in Tilsted,[5] near Thisted 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.[1] 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.[6] He became an International Master
at the age of 19 in 1954, from his bronze-medal performance on board one at the Amsterdam Olympiad.[7] He won his first of six
[8]
Danish Championships in 1954 repeating this feat in 1955, 1956, 1959, 1963, and 1964.

Larsen defeated Fririk lafsson in an exhibition match atOslo in 1955 by 43. He won atCopenhagen in 1956 with 8/9.[8]

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 Botvinnik. He tied for 1st2nd places at Hastings 195657 on 6/9 with Svetozar Gligori.
At Dallas 1957, he scored 7/14 for a shared 3rd4th place; the winners were Gligori and
Samuel Reshevsky.

At the 1957 Wageningen Zonal, he tied for 3rd4th places, along with Jan Hein Donner, with 12/17; there were only three
qualifying berths, so the two players had to dispute a playoff match. Larsen won by 31 over Donner at The Hague 1958 to qualify
for his first Interzonal, at Portoro 1958. Larsen could score only 8/20 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 5th6th in a strong field at Zrich 1959 with 9/15, behind
winner Tal, Gligori, Paul Keres, and Bobby Fischer. But Larsen placed only 4th in a middle-range field at the 1960 Berg en Dal
Zonal 1960 with 5/9, and did not advance to the Interzonal. He recovered by sharing 1st2nd places at Beverwijk 1961 on 7/9
with Borislav Ivkov. At Zrich 1961, he tied for 6th7th places with 6/11, as Keres won ahead of Tigran Petrosian. At Moscow 1962,
he shared 7th11th places with 7/15 (Yuri Averbakh 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 Halle
Zonal with 13/19, behind winner Lajos Portisch, to advance to the Interzonal the next year. At Belgrade 1964, he shared 5th6th
places with 10/17 (Boris Spassky won). He tied for 5th7th places atBeverwijk 1964 on 9/15; Keres and Nei won. Larsen's unusual
openings were on full display at the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal, where he shared the 1st4th places on 17/23 with Boris Spassky,
Tal, and Vasily Smyslov, advancing as a Candidate.

In the 1965 Candidates' matches, he defeated Borislav Ivkov at Bled by 52 but lost a hard-fought semifinal, also at Bled by 4
5 to former World Champion Mikhail Tal, who won the tenth game with a complex speculative nkight sacrifice in the center. Larsen
won a playoff match for alternates, an eventual third-place Candidates' position, against Efim Geller by 54 at Copenhagen 1966. In
1967 he won the Sousse Interzonal with the score of 15/21 after Fischer withdrew; this placed him 1 points ahead of the field. He
then won his first-round match against Lajos Portisch by 54 at Porec 1968. In Malm, however, he lost the semifinal by 25
to Boris Spassky, who went on to win the title.

In 1970 he shared 2nd in thePalma de Mallorca Interzonal, on 15/23, behindBobby Fischer. He reached his top rank in theElo rating
system at the start of 1971, equal third in the world (with Korchnoi, behind Fischer and Spassky) with a rating of 2660.[9] He then
defeated Wolfgang Uhlmann by 53 at Las Palmas 1971. But then he lost the semifinal 06 at Denver to Fischer, who also went
on to win the title.

Larsen later claimed 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
[4]
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 5th6th places with 10/17, with 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 36 at Rotterdam. In the Riga Interzonal of 1979, Larsen scored 10/17 for 7th place, and did not advance.
Tournament dominance (196573)
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 Havre 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 15/19, ahead of a strong group
that included Mark Taimanov, Smyslov, Polugaevsky, Gligori, and Miroslav Filip. He shared 2nd3rd places at Dundee 1967 with
5/8, behind Gligori. AtBeverwijk 1967, he was 4th with 8/15 (Spassky won). At Monte Carlo 1967, he shared 3rd4th with 6/9,
behind Fischer and Efim Geller. He shared 1st2nd atWinnipeg 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, Botvinnik, Portisch, Gligori, and Borislav Ivkov. He was
awarded the first Chess Oscar in 1967.

Somewhat unusual for the late 1960s, Larsenas one of the world's top playersoften entered large Open tournaments run on the
Swiss system, and had plenty of success. He won the Canadian Open Chess Championships at Toronto 1968 and St. John's 1970. He
also won the U.S. Open Chess Championshipsat Aspen, Colorado 1968 and Boston 1970.

Larsen won at Monte Carlo 1968 with 9/13, 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.[10] Larsen shared 2nd3rd places atPalma de Mallorca 1968 with 13/17, along with Spassky;Viktor Korchnoi won. In
a playoff match for third place in the Candidates Tournament, he defeated Tal at Eersel 1969 by 52 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 6th7th place (Spassky
won). He defeated International Master Heikki Westerinen by 62 at Helsinki in 1969 in a match in which every game was decisive.

Larsen won at Lugano 1970 with 9/14, 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 2/4 against Spassky and Leonid Stein. At Leiden 1970, he shared 3rd
4th places with 5/12, (Spassky won). He defeated Lubomir Kavalek in a 1970 exhibition match at Solingen by 62. He won at
Vinkovci 1970 with 10/15, ahead of David Bronstein, Hort, and Gligori. At Palma de Mallorca 1970, he shared 6th7th places
with 9/15 (Panno and Ljubomir Ljubojevi were joint winners). Larsen shared 8th9th places at San Antonio 1972 on 8/15
(Portisch, Petrosian, and Karpov triumphed). He won at Teesside 1972 with 11/15, ahead of Ljubojevi and Portisch. At Las Palmas
1972, he shared 2nd3rd places on 11/15 (Portisch won).

Larsen won at Hastings 197273 on 11/15, 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 8/10. He won again at Manila 1973 with 12/15, ahead of
Ljubojevi and Kavalek. In 1975, Larsen defeated Danish Champion and future International Master Gert Iskov at Gellerup by the
score of 5 and lost a match to GMUlf Andersson by the score of 52 atStockholm the same year.

Olympiad performances
He represented Denmark six times in Chess Olympiad play, always on first board, and compiled an aggregate score of 75/109 (+61
20 =28), for 68.8%. He always played a very high number of games and in 1954 played a maximum of 19 games.[11] He won three
board medals, one gold and two bronze.

[11]
Amsterdam 1954, board one, 13/19 (+11 3 =5), board bronze medal;
[12]
Moscow 1956, board one, 14/18 (+11 1 =6), board gold medal;
Munich 1958, board one, 13/19 (+11 4 =4);[13]
Havana 1966, board one, 11/18 (+9 5 =4);[14]
Lugano 1968, board one, 10/18 (+8 5 =5);[15]
[16]
Siegen 1970, board one, 13/17 (+11 2 =4), board bronze medal.

Later career
In 1988 he lost a game to Deep Thought in the Software Toolworks Championship, becoming the first Grandmaster and, at the time,
the player with the highest Elo rating (by then 2560) to be defeated by a computer in tournament play. In 1993 Larsen won a return
match against the supercomputerDeep Blue in Copenhagen by 21.[17]

Despite his advancing age, Larsen continued to play in tournaments. In 1999. he finished 7th out 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. Thereafter 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.

Larsen's final tournament was Magistral Internacional Ruibal 2008 in Buenos Aires. He delivered a poor performance and lost all
nine games he played.

He died in Buenos Aires in September 2010. According to the English Chess Federation Newsletter, "His health had been poor for
[18]
some considerable time and he had been virtually inactive for years".

Playing style and authorship

Larsen was known as a deep thinking and highly imaginative player, more willing to try unorthodox ideas and to take more risks than
most of his peers. This aspect of his play could even manifest itself in his choice of openings. "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
[19]
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 NimzoLarsen 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 dormantBishop'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, Why Not The Philidor Defense?, in
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 favourite line in the CaroKann 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 Grnfeld 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 Grnfeld-Indian systems as White. This led him to co-author a
groundbreaking 1979 book (with Steffen Zeuthen) on this opening and similar structures (ZOOM 001Zero Hour for Operative
Opening Models). His book Larsen's selected games of chess, 194869 (1970) is renowned for annotations that delve into chess
psychology and the effective use of rare openings. A chapter of the book gives some of Larsen's thoughts on his style and he upholds
the views of Polugaevsky and Gligori that he indulged in flank attacks and favored the advance of rooks pawns more than other
contemporary masters. He was also content to be described as an aggressive player, stemming from his dislike of draws. He did,
however, dispute the notion that he would willingly accept dubious positions in order to complicate tactics, a characteristic he
attributed more to Tal.[20] It should also be noted that later reprints of his book have employed the epithet (and sub-title) "Master of
Counter Attack".

Among other examples of Larsen's writing, 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 and contributed a chapter to the Raymond Keene edited
book 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 games
Bent Larsen vs Boris Spassky, Amsterdam Interzonal 1964, Bird's Opening (A03), 10Larsen successfully played
unusual openings in this tournament, and here he uses one of them to knock fofa top Soviet, on his way to winning
the tournament.
David Bronstein vs Bent Larsen, Amsterdam Interzonal 1964, King's Indian Defense:verbakh.
A Benoni Defense
Advance Variation (E75), 01 Larsen defends and ends Bronstein's dream of becoming a W orld Championship
Candidate.
Svetozar Gligori vs Bent Larsen, Zagreb 1965, Sicilian Defence, Scheveningenariation
V (B83), 01 Gligori
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 ariation
V (C82), 01 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 V ariation (B39), 10
Larsen unleashes a queen sacrifice to defeat the W orld Champion.
Mikhail Tal vs Bent Larsen, Eersel 1969, match game 6, Sicilian Defence, RichterRauzer V ariation (B65), 01
Larsen was dangerous with the Black pieces, and here he shows a former W orld Champion why.
Mikhail Botvinnik vs Bent Larsen, Leiden 1970, Dutch Defense, Classical ariation
V (A90), 01 Larsen outplays
another former World Champion in a long endgame.
Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen, Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970, Sicilian Defence,elimirovic
V Attack (B89), 01
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), 01 Larsen springs a rare opening on
the World Champion, and is rewarded with success.
Viswanathan Anand vs Bent Larsen, Roquebrune 1992, Sicilian (B27), 01Larsen beats a future World Champion
using Larsen's favourite opening.

References
1. Speelman, Jon (20 September 2010)."Bent Larsen: Chess player who with Bobby Fischer was one of only two
players the Soviets feared in the 1960s and '70s"(https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bent-larsen-chess-
player-who-with-bobby-fischer-was-one-of-only-two-players-the-soviets-feared-in-the-1960s-and-70s-2083732.html) .
The Independent. London.
2. http://www.chessgames.com, the Bent Larsen games file
3. "* Free online chess game search engine"(http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?yearcomp=exactly&year=&pla
yercomp=either&pid=&player=larsen&pid2=&player2=euwe&movescomp=exactly&moves=&opening=&eco=&result
=). Chessgames.com. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
4. Barden, Leonard (17 September 2010)."Bent Larsen obituary" (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/sep/17/bent
-larsen-obituary). The Guardian. London.
5. "Born 4th March, 1935, according to my birth certificate, in iTlsted near the little town of Thisted, in north-western
Jutland." (Larsen's Selected Games of Chess, by Bent Larsen, London 1970, G. Bell and Sons Ltd, p. 1)
6. "Bent Larsen, Chess Grandmaster, Dies at 75" (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/world/americas/11larsen.html).
The New York Times. 2010-09-11.
7. Wojciech Bartelski (1954-09-25)."11th Chess Olympiad, Amsterdam 1954, information"(http://www.olimpbase.org/1
954/1954in.html). OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
8. "Bent Larsen" (http://www.chessmaniac.com/tag/bent-larsen/). ChessManiac. 2010-09-11. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
9. "Elo ratings 19701997"(https://web.archive.org/web/20091126000035/http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/T rivia/Allti
meList.html). Chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk. Archived fromthe original (http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Trivia/AlltimeList.ht
ml) on 26 November 2009. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
10. "En Passant: Bent Larsen, 19352010"(http://www.chessclub.com/mailing/2010/09a/news.html). Chessclub.com.
Retrieved 2011-10-20.
11. Wojciech Bartelski. "11th Chess Olympiad, Amsterdam 1954, information"(http://www.olimpbase.org/1954/1954in.ht
ml#trivia). OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
12. Wojciech Bartelski. "12th Chess Olympiad, Moscow 1956, information"(http://www.olimpbase.org/1956/1956in.html).
OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
13. Wojciech Bartelski. "13th Chess Olympiad, Munich 1958, information"(http://www.olimpbase.org/1958/1958in.html).
OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
14. Wojciech Bartelski. "17th Chess Olympiad, Havana 1966, information"(http://www.olimpbase.org/1966/1966in.html).
OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
15. Wojciech Bartelski. "18th Chess Olympiad, Lugano 1968, information"(http://www.olimpbase.org/1968/1968in.html).
OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
16. Wojciech Bartelski. "19th Chess Olympiad, Siegen 1970, information"(http://www.olimpbase.org/1970/1970in.html).
OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
17. ChessBase. "Chess legend Bent Larsen turns 75"(http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6162).
ChessBase. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
18. "ECF September/October Chess Moves"(http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?page_id=1954). Englishchess.org.uk.
2011-10-14. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
19. Great Chess Upsets, by Samuel Reshevsky, New York 1976, Arco Publishing, pp. 259260.
20. Bent Larsen's Best Games of Chess: Master of Counter Attack
, by Bent Larsen, 2003, Hardinge Simpole Publishing,
pp. 173175.

Further reading
Larsen. 1935-1965. (Bind I). Ed.: Jan Lfberg & Erik Andr Andersen. Kbenhavn, Lfbergs Forlag, 2014.
ISBN 9788792772039
Kasparov, Garry (2004), My Great Predecessors, part IV, Everyman Chess, ISBN 1-85744-395-0
Larsen, Bent (2009), Bent Larsen: Alle Figuren greifen an, SchachDepot Verlag, ISBN 978-3-9812856-0-4

External links
Bent Larsen player profile and games atChessgames.com
Edward Winter, Bent Larsen (19352010)
Lubomir Kavalek, Chess Great Bent Larsen Dies

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