Bent Larsen died yesterday, 75 years old.

With his attacking, uncompromising and unorthodox style he was an inspiration for many players throughout the world. For a period of time he was probably the best tournament player in the world, but never made it to a final for the World Championship.
Other than being a great player he was also an excellent writer and by all accounts a very nice guy who lived his life exactly how he wanted.

Rest in peace, Bent Larsen. You will be missed.

sucks, RIP

RIP

Truly brilliant player.

A remarkable man, player and character, and a great chess writer. One of the greats of the game, undeservedly marked by his destruction by Fischer in the 1971 Candidates semi-finals, where his game just disintegrated after the first encounter. World class from 1960 to 1980 with many highs and some curious lows. The chessworld has lost a great man.

i just always find a corrolary relation between the etiquette that was stamp on larsen with is crushing defeat vs fisher and the lost of eric siedle vs jonnhy chan with the movie the rounders lol when they say chan owns him

only 1 moment in their carrer ,defining wronly imo, their status

Wow MC, what did you smoke before writing this? :-) In the 1967-69 World Championship Cycle larsen played in the semi-finals against Spassky and went down 3-0 in the first three games. He did manage to score a few points after that. That´s basically how his match against Fischer could/should have gone, the positions in the games at say move 30 did not justify a wipe out. Fischer´s best game, and the only worthwile in the match IMO, is the first game, the other games were either marred by blunders by Larsen in equal (endgame) positions or really bad play by larsen, not great play by Fischer. I think larsen after beating Fischer in the Palma Interzonal and demanding first board in the russia vs world match and Fischer agreeing thought he was really kind of the favourite and he just broke down mentally after game 1. In Game two Larsen already blew an equal/slightly promising position out of the blue if I recall correctly.

So, if Fischer hadn't gotten a seat at Palma, and didn't get to go to Candidates, who else thinks Larsen would've won through and faced Spassky? I think he is as least as likely as Petrosian, maybe more so.

A question, just how often did he used his own opening?

I think he was using it fairly regularly until he got trashed by Spassky in 1970.

Bent Larsen was one of my favorites: a true student of Nimzowitsch with an unbelievable imagination (blockades and all that stuff combined with great optimism and skill in counterattacks). RIP.

I don't know how serious the games were, but on chessgames.com he's listed as +35 -6 =6

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess...1&eco=&result=

EDIT: Ah, I thought I've said this before: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/14...l#post16255145

And then I was told:

He had some great tournaments/matches and some horrible ones. After 0-6 vs Fischer he also got crushed by Andersson in 1975 match (2.5-5.5 I believe), losing two endgames where he was pawn up. And the following year he won another Interzonal.

If we take Fischer out of the standings of the Palma Interzonal (and insert Benkö, who would not have played for the qualifying spots), Portisch (first reserve) would have entered the Candidates Matches. A top GM in his own right, but never really close to a WC match. Petrosian and Larsen are indeed the most likely candidates to play Spassky instead of Fischer. Looking at the january 1971 rating list we see:

1. Fischer 2740
2. Spassky 2690
3-4 Larsen & Korchnoi 2660
5. Petrosian 2640
6-9 Portisch, Botvinnik, 2630
Geller & Polugayevsky

Petrosian having beaten Korchnoi in the semi-finals, this leaves him and Larsen as the likely finalists. (Funny how Karpov four years before becoming world champion was ´only´ rated at 2540 and shared a 43rd spot on the FIDE list with amongst others Osnos, Lutikov and Gheorghiu).

Petrosian had a clear plus score againt Larsen (+9 -4 =10 according to chessgames.com), but we can ascribe that for a great deal to their early games (5-1 to Petrosian) when The Tiger was already a well established world class GM and Larsen up and coming. Larsen and Petrosian seemed to inspire each other, remember the double defeat Larsen inflicted on Petrosian as world champion in the 1966 Santa Monica Tournament.

I´d say Larsen was the better Tournament player, Petrosian the better match player. Chances would have been roughly 50-50 I think, much if not everything depending on Larsen´s form, notoriously hard to predict. One would like to think Larsen would have won, even if only to have a new face playing Spassky and not a 3rd Spassky-Petrosian match, that almost certainly would have been won by the former.

As far as a Spassky-Larsen, I think Spassky would have been a prohibitive favourite. They met in the 1969 Candidates semi-finals and Spassky on his way to the world title crushed Larsen 5,5-2,5 after getting off the blocks with a ´Fischeresque´ 3-0. Their overall record also indicates Spassky was simply a notch stronger, not to mention more stable in his performances.

Just heard the news today. Very sad.

Damn. This sucks, RIP.

Larsen was for many years a top five player, and also, depending on how one wants to rank Capablanca, probably the 2nd strongest Western-born player ever prior to Short & Carlsen, tho I'm sure I'm forgetting someone(s).

He beat Fischer with Black at both Santa Monica '66 and the '70 Zonal. A unique player & personality, perhaps unjustly tarred by the 0-6 where everything that could wrong for him did, who definitely left his mark on the game.

Maybe the GOAT to never play for the WC, assuming Carlsen gets there soon?