Friday, 24 May 2019

Pick a player, almost any player

I enjoy reading game collections of great players, especially if the player themselves is the author. I usually pick a new player every couple of months, and play through the games from books that cover their career. Currently I am looking at a couple of books on Bent Larsen, who was one of the leading players of the 1960's and 70's.
Larsen was one of these players with a 'universal' style, in a similar way to Spassky or Keres. He was also a fan of slightly off beat openings, and famously avoided easy draws with 'chancy' moves, figuring that 2 wins and a loss was always better than 3 drawn games.
He was a 'sharp' player, but his attacks were usually built on solid positional foundations. He played many brilliant games in his career (and was on the other side of a few brilliancies as well), but the one I've chosen to feature is his win over Gligoric from the 1967 Capablanca Memorial.


Gligoric,Svetozar - Larsen,Bent [E43]
Capablanca Memorial Havana (12), 1967

Start positionPrevious MoveNext MoveEnd positionPlay movesStop playing
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 b6 5. Bd3 Bb7 6. Nf3 Ne4 7. O-O f5 8. Bxe4 fxe4 9. Nd2 Bxc3 10. bxc3 O-O 11. Qg4 Rf5 12. d5 Rg5 13. Qf4 exd5 14. cxd5 Bxd5 15. c4 Bc6 16. Nxe4 Rg6 17. Bb2 Na6 18. f3 Nb4 19. Bc3 Nd3 20. Qf5 Qh4 21. Nf6+ gxf6 22. Qxd3 Rh6 23. h3 Kf7 24. Rf2 Rg8 25. Kf1 Rxg2 26. Rxg2 Qxh3 27. e4 Rg6 0-1


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