Schacksnack

GM Lubomir Kavalek har en schackspalt i The Huffington Post. Precis som massor av andra skribenter runt om i världen har han skrivit om att den legendariske danske stormästaren Bent Larsen gått bort för några dagar sedan. Han har lyckats att på ett mycket fint och nyanserat sätt ge en bild av schackspelaren Bent, som är ytterst få förunnat. En bidragande orsak till detta kan vara att de möttes många gånger. Längst ner i detta inlägg publicerar Schacksnack ett av deras partier som är kommenterat av Kavalek och publicerat i hans spalt den 11 september. Vits inledningsdrag är B3 vilket kännetecknar Larsens öppning. 

Just one day before the world’s top-rated grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway shone in New York, winning the RAW World Chess Challenge, another great Scandinavian chess player quietly left the chess world. Bent Larsen, the legendary Danish grandmaster and world championship candidate, died on September 9 in Buenos Aires at the age of 75….

I was fortunate to witness Larsen’s many victorious drives in tournaments and matches. He was the ultimate chess battler, always interested in wins and first places. Sometimes he reached too far, but it never stopped him from reaching again. He played with enormous energy and great fighting spirit. Offering him a draw was a waste of time. He would decline it politely, but firmly. ”No, thank you,” he would say and the fight would go on and on and on…

In a double-round tournament in 1970 in Lugano, Switzerland, Larsen destroyed me in both games and on the back of the picture from our first game he wrote: ”With best wishes to Lubos, who allowed me twice to believe in chess beauty.”

GM Bent Larsen – GM Lubomir Kavalek 1970.