Йорген Бент Ларсен: Данияның шахмат шебері

Danish chess grandmaster and author (1935–2010)

Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second strongest non Soviet player, behind only Bobby Fischer, for much of the 1960s and 1970s. He is considered to be the strongest 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 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, Bobby Fischer, and Anatoly Karpov, but lifetime negative scores against them. From the early 1970s onward, he divided his years between Las Palmas and Buenos Aires

Larsen was born in Tilsted, 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. Furthermore, while at military service, he studied Russian, which was instrumental in assisting him to understand Russian language chess literature (something Bobby Fischer was also known to have done). 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 took first prize at the Gijón International Chess Tournament in 1956, ahead of Klaus Darga and Jan Hein Donner, and in the same year won at Copenhagen with 8/9. He then defeated Wolfgang Uhlmann by 5½–3½ at Las Palmas 1971. But then he lost the semifinal 0–6 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 chess pieces through a mist and, thus, my level of playing was not good." Larsen shared 2nd–3rd places at Palma 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 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 10½/15, ahead of David Bronstein, Hort, and Gligorić. At Palma de Mallorca 1970, he shared 6th–7th places with 9/15 (Panno and Ljubomir Ljubojević were joint winners). Larsen shared 8th–9th places at San Antonio 1972 on 8½/15 (Portisch, Petrosian, and Karpov triumphed). He won at Teesside 1972 with 11/15, ahead of Ljubojević 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 Ljubojević and Kavalek. In 1975, Larsen defeated Danish Champion and future International Master Gert Iskov at Gellerup by the score of 5½–½ and lost a match to GM Ulf Andersson by the score of 5½–2½ at Stockholm the same year.

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 supercomputer Deep Blue in Copenhagen by 2½–1½. 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 which required brain surgery. Thereafter he only played a few tournaments in Buenos Aires. He was 4th in the 2002 Najdorf Memorial knock out. Larsen's final tournament was Magistral Internacional Ruibal 2008 in Buenos Aires. He delivered a poor performance and lost all nine games he played. In the April 2009 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2415. He died in Buenos Aires in September 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".

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. Grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky wrote that Larsen "is a firm believer in the value of surprise", and that led him to resort to "dubious variations in various openings." He also wrote that while Larsen "has a great deal of confidence in his game and fears no one", his style was "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, 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 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. Larsen's 1969 book Larsen's Selected Games of Chess, 1948–69 contained annotations that delved into chess psychology and the effective use of rare openings. A chapter of the book gives some of Larsen's thoughts on his own style, and he upholds the views of Polugaevsky and Gligorić 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 disputed the notion that he would willingly accept dubious positions in order to complicate tactics, a characteristic he attributed more to Tal. The book was first published in Denmark; an English language version followed in 1970 and was sub titled "Master of Counter Attack". Larsen 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. When Ken Smith played most of his games in that event with the white pieces using the Smith Morra Gambit, Larsen quipped—after one of Smith's opponents responded to 1. e4 with 1 e6, entering a French Defence and avoiding the gambit—"stronger was c5, winning a pawn!" 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. 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 Grünfeld Indian systems as White. This led him to co author, with Steffen Zeuthen, a 1979 book on this opening titled Zoom 001 Zero Hour for Operative Chess Opening Models.

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 Advanced Variation (E75), 0–1 Larsen defends and ends Bronstein's dream of becoming a World Championship Candidate. Svetozar Gligorić vs Bent Larsen, Zagreb 1965, Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen Variation (B83), 0–1 Gligorić 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 Larsen outplays another former World Champion in 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. Viswanathan Anand vs Bent Larsen, Roquebrune 1992, Sicilian (B27), 0–1 Larsen beats a future World Champion using Larsen's favourite opening.