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Opdateret d. 29-6-03

Bent Larsen

Image from Unkrowned Kings

Bent Larsen was born in Thisted, Denmark, March 4, 1935. Today he lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina with his Argentinian wife.

Bent Larsen is the greatest chess player Denmark have ever had. Larsen has won so many international tournaments that it is almost impossible to count them all!

Bent Larsen has won the Interzonal 3 times, 1964 Amsterdam, 1967 Sousse and 1976 Biel. This is a record. In Amsterdam he shared first place with 2 former and one future World Champions! In Sousse and Biel Bent Larsen didn't share with anyone!

Bent Larsen became International Master in 1954, when he scored 13½/19 on the first board at the Olympiad in Amsterdam where Denmark played in the B-final. Two years later in Moscow, Denmark reached the A-final and Larsen won the first board with 14 points in 18 games in front of the World Champion Botvinnik. This result gave Bent Larsen the Grand Master title.

Later on Bent Larsen four times played in the Candidate tournament, his closest attempt for the world title, was his first Candidate Tournament in 1965 were he lost a close semi final to Mikhail Tal.

In 1967 he was awarded the Chess Oscar as player of the year. In those years he was called "The tournament World Champion" winning a lot of tournaments. In 1967-68 he won 8 tournaments in a row including the interzonal. In the late sixties Larsen was probably the strongest tournament player in the world, but unfortunately he was not so successful a match player and therefore never won the world championship.

Larsen have a sharp, uncompromising playing style, always playing for a win. He is known often to play unusual openings. The opening 1.b3 is named after him.

Larsen in the Candidate tournament
1965
QF: Bent Larsen - Borislav Ivkov 5½-2½
SF: Bent Larsen - Mikhail Tal        4½-5½
1968
QF: Bent Larsen - Lajos Portisch 5½-4½
SF: Bent Larsen - Boris Spassky 2½-5½
1971
QF: Bent Larsen - Wolfgang Uhlmann 5½-3½
SF: Bent Larsen - Robert Fischer     0-6
1977
QF: Bent Larsen - Lajos Portisch 3½-6½

Larsen in the Interzonal
1958  Portoroz
16.pl.(1.Tal 13½/20, 2.Gligoric 13, 3.Petrosian, Benko 12½ ... 16.Larsen 8½)
1964   Amsterdam
1.-4.pl.(1.Smyslov, Larsen, Spassky, Tal 16½/24)
1967  Sousse, Tunis
1. pl. (1.Larsen 15½/21, 2.Geller, Gligoric, Korchnoi 14½)
1970  Palma de Mallorca
2.-4. pl. (1.Fischer 18½/23, 2.Geller, Hübner, Larsen 15)
1973  Leningrad
5.-6. pl. (1.Korchnoi, Karpov 13½/17, 3.R.Byrne 12½, ... 5.Larsen, Hübner 10)
1976  Biel
1. pl. (1.Larsen 12½/19, 2. Petrosjan, Tal, Portisch 12)
1979  Riga
7. pl. (1.Tal 14/17 2.Polugajevski 11½, ... 7.Larsen 10)
1982  Las Palmas
7. pl. (1.Ribli 9½/13, 2.Smyslov 8½ ... 7.Larsen 6½)

Larsen in the Danish Championship
Winner of the Danish Championship 6 times:
1954, 1955, 1956, 1959, 1963, 1964
In those years Bent Larsen won every time he took part, after 1964 he didn't play in the danish championship before 1989 where he shared first place but lost the play off.

Larsen in International Tournaments
This is a selection of some af Larsens best tournament results.
1954
Amsterdam, Olympiad 1.board, B-final1.Larsen 13½/19
1955
Oslo, Nordic Championship 1.-2.Larsen and Olafsson
1956
Reykjavic, Nordic Championship play off Larsen-Olafsson 4½-3½
Gijon 1.Larsen 7.5/9
Copenhagen, Ekstrabladet 1.Larsen 8/9
Moscow, Olympiad 1.board, A-final1.Larsen 14/18, 2.Botvinnik
1956/57
Hasting 1.-2.Larsen and Gligoric
1958
Mar del Plata 1.Larsen, 2.Lombardy
1960
Bevervijk 1.-2.Larsen and Petrosian 6½/9
1961
Bevervijk 1.-2.Larsen and Ivkov
1963
Halle zonal 1.Portisch, 2.Larsen, 3.Ivkov
1964
Amsterdam IBM 1.Larsen
1966
Le Havre 1.Larsen
1967
Havanna 1.Larsen
Winnipeg 1.Larsen
Palma de Mallorca 1.Larsen
1968
Monaco 1.Larsen
US Open 1.Larsen
Canadian Open 1.Larsen
Merrimac Grand Prix 1.Larsen
1969
Busum, Anderssen Memorial 1.Larsen 11/15
Mallorca 1.Larsen 12/17
1970
Lugano 1.Larsen
Belgrade USSR-The World, board 1:Larsen-Spassky 1½-1½ and Larsen-Stein 1-0
US Open 1.Larsen
Canadian Open 1.Larsen
Vinkovci 1.Larsen 10½/15, 2.Hort,Bronstein,Gligoric 10
1972
Tessside 1.Larsen, 2.Ljubojevic
Hastings 1.Larsen 11½, 2.Uhlmann 11
1973
Manila 1.Larsen 12½, 2.Ljubojevic 11½
Grenaa, Nordic Championship 1.Larsen
1975
Orense 1.Larsen
1976
Costa Brava 1.Larsen
1977
Geneva 1.Larsen 8½/13, 2.Andersson 8
Ljubljana/Portoroz, Vidmar memorial 1.Larsen 9½/13, 2.Hort,Savon 9
1978
Lone Pine 1.Larsen
1979
Buenos Aires 1.Larsen 11/13, 2.Najdorf,Miles,Spassky,Andersson 8
1980
Buenos Aires 1.Larsen 9½/13, 2.Timman 9, 3.Ljubujevic 8, 4.Karpov, Andersson 7½
Bugojno 1.Karpov, 2.Larsen
1981
Linares 1.-2. Karpov and Christiansen, 3.Larsen
1983
Niksic 1.Kasparov, 2.Larsen
1985
Næstved (Nimzowitch Memorial) 1.-3.Larsen, Vaganian and Browne 6½/11
Reykjavik 1. Larsen 8/11
1989
London (Williams Watson & Farley) 1.Larsen 9.5/13
1990
New York (Williams Watson & Farley) 1.Larsen 6.5/9

The results in the Candidate tournament and the interzonal I have from this web site The World Chess Championship
The international tournaments results until 1980 I have mostly from the book "Bogen om skak" from Politikens Forlag. Results from 1980-1990 and a few earlier results I have from Glenn Giffen, who kindly sent me those results. Glenn Giffen has his own webpage: Chess Tournament and Match History

I am sure some results are missing so if anyone can help me getting missing results then please mail me.

Games

Amsterdam Interzonal 1964 23 games.
Bent Larsen - Henrique Mecking, Sousse Interzonal 1967
Lajos Portisch - Bent Larsen, Candidate quarter-final 1968

Cross Tables

Amsterdam Interzonal 1964

Links

Interview
at KasparovChess
Unkrowned Kings
More than 2.500 Larsen games for download
Træk af stormester Larsens liv
fra Berlinske Tidende