Bent Larsen’s Best Games Praise for Bent Larsen “His chess writing is among the best, combining analysis with humour and psychological understanding of the fight.” Pe ter Heine Niel sen, for mer Dan ish Chess Cham pion “Of the many chess masters I have met, Bent is the most original.” Anatoly Kar pov “He aims for the initiative and always plays for a win.” Max Euwe “Together with his love for and deep knowledge of chess, it is the refined humour of this outstanding player and highly cultured person that makes his comments so unique.” Mihail Marin, for mer Ro ma nian Chess Cham pion “Larsen is a fighter. He is always searching. I am a realist, but he is a romantic.” Miguel Najdorf “His enormous talent together with his inexhaustible optimism generated a specific, inimitable style.” Garry Kasparov “He bears an amazing resemblance to Nimzowitsch with his extremely dynamic play, conforming to a single strategic goal.” Lev Polugaevsky “With a fine sense of humour Larsen explains his aggressive and unconventional approach to chess, in a way that is instructive to players of all levels.” Chris to pher Lutz, for mer Ger man Chess Cham pion “His boldness and his concrete and non-routine approach to positions cannot fail to appeal to all connoisseurs of chess.” Tigran Petrosian “Larsen is one of the greatest fighters in chess, prepared to fight to death with both White and Black.” Ray mond Keene, for mer Brit ish Chess Cham pion “One of the best books in the entire history of chess. A masterpiece.” Alfonso Romero Holmes, for mer Span ish Chess Cham pion Bent Larsen Bent Larsen’s Best Games Fight ing Chess with the Great Dane New In Chess 2014 The Stra te gic Nimzo-In dian Con tents In troduc tion: The Will to Win...........................................7 Au thor’s Pref ace ......................................................21 Ed i tor’s Fore word.....................................................23 Chap ter 1 Be gin nings .....................................25 Chap ter 2 Scan di na vian Cham pion ...........................34 Chap ter 3 In ter national Mas ter ..............................37 Chap ter 4 Grand mas ter!....................................40 Chap ter 5 Ups and Downs..................................52 Chap ter 6 Ex peri ments ....................................61 Chap ter 7 In vol un tary Pause ................................75 Chap ter 8 Great Leap For ward ...............................91 Chap ter 9 Dif fi cult Choice .................................113 Chap ter 10 The Pub lic Wants Sharp Play .......................124 Chap ter 11 Satis factor y Re sults ..............................131 Chap ter 12 1967: A Crazy Year ..............................143 Chap ter 13 1968: An other Busy Year..........................172 Chap ter 14 1969: About My Style ............................179 Chap ter 15 Lugano to Solingen 1970 .........................192 Chap ter 16 The Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970...............197 Chap ter 17 Palma de Mallorca 1971 ..........................206 Chap ter 18 Teesside 1972 ..................................209 Chap ter 19 My First Vic tory against Smyslov ....................214 Chap ter 20 Le nin grad Interzonal 1973 ........................221 Chap ter 21 Ma nila 1973 ...................................225 Chap ter 22 Las Palmas 1974 ................................231 Chap ter 23 The Span ish Team Cham pi on ship 1974...............240 Chap ter 24 Ma nila 1974 ...................................242 Chap ter 25 Re port from Orense 1975 .........................252 Chap ter 26 Ma nila 1975 ...................................257 Chap ter 27 Span ish Team Cham pi on ships 1975 .................263 Chap ter 28 Biel Interzonal 1976 .............................265 5 Bent Larsen’s Best Games Chap ter 29 Las Palmas Tour na ment 1976 ......................277 Chap ter 30 Lanzarote 1976 .................................290 Chap ter 31 Costa Brava 1976................................297 Chap ter 32 Span ish Team Cham pi on ships 1976 .................302 Chap ter 33 Geneva 1977 ...................................306 Chap ter 34 Las Palmas 1977 ................................310 Chap ter 35 Ljubljana/Portoroz 1977 ..........................320 Chap ter 36 Span ish Team Champi on ship Alicante 1977 ...........326 Chap ter 37 Bobby Fischer ..................................333 Chap ter 38 Bent Larsen’s Extraor dinary Per son al ity ...............339 Chap ter 39 Bent Larsen’s Exhaust ing Cur ric u lum Vi tae ............341 Larsen’s Achievements until 1973 ......................................343 In dex of Open ings ...................................................345 In dex of Games .....................................................348 6 The Will to Win by Pe ter Heine Niel sen, Dan H. Andersen and Thorbjørn Rosenlund Bent Larsen was born on March 4th, 1935 near Thisted, a small town in north ern Jutland. By a strange co in ci dence, Aron Nimzowitsch died 12 days later. The Lat- vian grand mas ter had lived in Den mark since 1922, and his death at only 46 meant that there was no one of com pa ra ble strength in Den mark dur ing Larsen’s rise to the world elite. Bent Larsen learned to play chess in 1942, when he was con fined to bed with a se ries of chil dren’s dis eases. He joined a chess club in 1947, and in swift suc ces sion he be came club cham pion, city cham pion, and pro vin cial cham pion, usu ally with a 100 per cent score. At 16 he had his in ter na tional de but at the 1951 Ju nior World Cham pi on ship in Bir ming ham, where he fin ished fourth (Ivkov won). He won his first Dan ish cham pi on ship in 1954, and at the age of 19 he was the stron gest player in Den - mark, a po si tion he kept for at least 35 years. In the USSR a boy could go to the lo cal pi o neer pal ace and play chess against very strong play ers. The very best would con tinue to spe cial programs and schools, and there would be strong tour na ments and train ing ses sions with grand masters. In Den mark there was noth ing of the sort. Larsen him self has dis missed the no tion that it would have been better for his chess de vel op ment to have been born in Mos - cow. He worked alone and felt com forta ble with it. One thing Den mark did have was world-class chess writ ing, repre sented by Aron Nimzowitsch and in ter na tional mas ter Jens Enevoldsen. Their highly in di vid - ual kind of writ ing, with its em pha sis on the in ten sity of the fight, was un doubt- edly an in spi ration for Larsen. He be gan very early to write for news pa pers and Skakbladet (the chess mag a zine of the Dan ish Chess Fed er a tion), and to gether with simuls and lec tures this made it pos si ble for him to carve out a prof es sional ca reer. In Larsen’s opin ion, the big gest boost to his chess un der stand ing came from an- nota ting the games of the 1953 Can di dates’ Tour na ment in Zürich for Skakbladet. By the end of the year he felt con fi dent that his un der stand ing of the game was at grand mas ter level, but he lacked prac ti cal play ing strength. At the Am ster dam Olym piad in 1954 he scored 71% and was re warded with the ti tle of In ter na tional Mas ter. The year af ter he de feated the Ice lan dic chess hero and fu ture FIDE pres i dent Fridrik Olafsson in a match for the Nordic Cham pi on ship. Then came the first great break through, when he scored the high est per cent age on Board 1 at the Mos cow Olym piad in 1956. This gave him the Grand mas ter ti tle, a much more select ti tle then, when there was only a hand ful of ac tive grand masters in the world. In the fi nals he de feated Gligoric in a clas sic game, and even the great Botvinnik had to fight with his back to the wall be fore his te na cious de fence se - cured the draw. 7 Bent Larsen’s Best Games Larsen stud ied en gi neer ing at the tech ni cal col lege in Co pen ha gen, and most peo - ple, in clud ing the of fi cials of the Dan ish Chess Fed er a tion, wanted him to take his exam and get a steady job. Their rea sons were prob a bly a mix ture of dis dain for prof es sional sports and a gen u ine feel ing that a career as a pro fes sional chess player was not a good choice in the long run. Chess did not re ward its prof es sion als well. Carl Schlechter starved to death in 1918. Janowsky died poor and lonely in a rented room. Tartakower died a bit ter man. Fifty years later Larsen smiles and says about his de ci sion to be come a prof es sional that he did, in deed, spend most of the nights study ing chess in stead of en gi neer ing, but there never was a conscious de ci sion. It just kind of hap pened. The years af ter the tri umph in Mos cow were diff i cult ones for him. His results were modest and his games were very un even. Stra te gic mas ter pieces were fol lowed by weak moves and strange de feats. He ex per i mented and played sharp set-ups. With hind sight you can see that this pe riod was the diff i cult learn ing process which was a prereq ui site for later greatness, some thing that many young mas ters give up in ad vance, per haps afraid of los ing their newly won prestige and high rat- ing.