Other Larsen Tributes
I've noticed three in particular that are worthy of attention. (That doesn't mean there aren't more; I just haven't run across them yet.)
Over at TWIC, Mark Crowther presents a biography, complete with tables of some of his notable performances and a large, downloadable selection of his games (without annotations).
At ChessVibes they offer a profile, combined with reactions from Peter Heine Nielsen and Yasser Seirawan. Both the ChessVibes profile and TWIC also link to a beautiful 64-page document produced by the Danish Chess Federation to celebrate the occasion of Larsen's 75th birthday, earlier this year. The only problem (for most of us) is that it's in Danish, but we can all appreciate the pictures and games. (And if you're patient, you can get a decent idea of the text using Google Translate or some similar program.)
Finally, ChessBase remembers Larsen here, but the best material is in this earlier post from March (again, celebrating his 75th birthday). It includes - among many other things - a fascinating interview conducted back in 1998. Worth reading!
Reader Comments (3)
One part of the Danish birthday issue of Skakbladet, by Peter Heine Nielsen, covers Larsen's contributions to theory. He basically covers the ground that he did for a New in Chess magazine article earlier this year.
Also in March this year to celebrate Larsen's 75th birthday, German Chessbase had some stories on Larsen and Bobbby Fischer that - to my knowledge - don't appear elsewhere (including their own English-language site):
http://www.chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10123
"Larsen, then 24, accepted the offer [by Bobby's mother Regina] to meet the 18-year old Fischer in Venice and prepare openings. But then there is an episode so typical of Fischer: Larsen arrives in Venice but Bobby had travelled straight on to Munich because he didn't like Venice. Only after a week both met and then Fischer wanted to go back to New York immediately, what his mother didn't like ... "
"During the candidates tournament Larsen analyzed Fischer's adjourned game against Benkö – a rook endgame with three against two pawns - and was rather frustrated because the ambitious Bobby absolutely wanted to squeeze a win from that obviously drawn position: „I had to analyze this sterile position with him all night long. From the point of view of a second, this is of course quite ridiculous. On the other hand, it has to be taken into account that the work of a second is, at least in part, also of a psychological nature."
nice find on the TWIC article. I've never heard of that site till now, it looks impressive.
[DM: Everyone has to discover things for the first time! Historically, it's one of the two or three most important chess sites there is, period, and it's still a tremendously useful resource to the chess community.]