Bent Larsen

Bent Larsen was born on March 4, 1935 in Denmark. He is considered to be the strongest chess player ever born in Denmark. At the age of 19, he became an International Master. Two years later, he had gained the rank of International Grandmaster. He is an imaginative player, more willing to try unorthodox ideas than most other top players, and is noted for occasionally using unusual openings. He is one of the few modern grandmasters to have used Bird's Opening (1. f4) regularly, and the opening move 1. b3 is sometimes called the Nimzo-Larsen Attack in his and Aron Nimzowitch's honor.

In 1965, Larsen played in the Candidates match. He lost to Mikhail Tal, a former world champion, in the semi-final. In 1968, he again lost in the semi-final, this time to Boris Spassky, who went on to win the title. Bobby Fischer also beat him in the 1971 semi-final on his way to winning the title. He won the Interzonal tournament 3 times: 1964 in Amsterdam, 1967 at Sousse in Tunisia, and 1976 at Biel in Switzerland.

In 1988, Larsen played in the Software Toolworks Championship and lost a game to Deep Thought. He became the first Grandmaster and player with the highest ELO rating (2560) to be beaten by a computer in tournament play. He occasionally plays in tournaments to the present day. In 1999, he finished in 7th place out of 10 in the Danish Championship. In the 2002 Najdorf Memorial knock-out in Buenos Aires, he finished 4th. On the July 2004 FIDE list, his ELO rating was 2461.

Download 1626 chess games by Bent Larsen

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