Vlastimil Hort: Bent Larsen

"If in hell, then first class"

Bent Larsen (1935 – 2010) and a strong round-robin tournament

Moscow, 1962 - The festive opening ceremony and the drawing of lots took place in the Central Chess Club. Even though the non-Soviet players drew small numbers (which gave them one more game with White) they finished at the lower part of the table. I was by far the youngest player in this prestigious tournament. A talkative Dane was also there. We both had the same goal, namely to crib something from the Russian elite players. During our conversation I noticed that my knowledge of English was as bad as my knowledge of the English: 1.c4. The tournament table is remarkable and noteworthy.

Bent Larsen and Vlastimil Hort, Moscow 1962 | Photo: Vlastimil Hort

At this time Bent still studied but was also working part-time for Danish Broadcasting. There he was an all-rounder in matters of culture and history. When the chess goddess Caissa made him burn all bridges to the civilian world of work is hard to say. The great individualist and self-taught man could achieve much more and more tangible things in chess.

Hard-working, his typewriter was rattling till late at night. All his comments, chess works, ideas or inspirations bear the imprint of his originality. Chess theory was enriched by his exceptional creativity. Because of him, the games of the past masters enjoyed a reincarnation. Larsen's opening 1.b3, the Open Variation in the Spanish — where did the Dane get the energy to sit on so many chairs? An eternal, invincible optimist. With a slight advantage he was already winning, in worse positions, a draw was always still in reach. It was feast or famine wherever he appeared.

Dear Bent, since our last encounter, 1962 in Moscow, a lot has happened in world politics. In our games, the two of us have always fought down to the last pawn, like the two little bears on the famous postcard. Calm and optimism have never been mine, thus I desperately try to emulate your philosophy of life. You might well have been a professor at the Charles University in Prague. The lecture hall would have been filled to capacity.

Your recommendations?

1. If you have to go to hell after all, then only first class.

2. Everyone should believe in Karl Marx until completing the thirtieth year of life, but who then still keeps his marxist convictions is a fool.

3. These small Czechs like small checks.

Yes, the last wisdom was alluding to and criticising my peacefulness in positions which he believed I should have played to the bitter end.

Dear Bent, I assure you that I took your recommendations very much to heart. When I travel, then often first class, politically, my position is à la droite, and as a small Czech I like the big checks with lots of zeros at the end best.

Palma de Mallorca 1969

In a strong tournament in Palma de Mallorca 1969 Larsen lost his first three games. "That does not matter," the eternal optimist said to me. "I feel fine and I will win the tournament anyway." I was speechless.

San Antonio 1972

San Antonio 1972. Church's Fried Chicken Tournament. During the opening ceremony, the participants sit together at a big table. "The first prize is too high," Petrosian complains. We, the other players, agreed because we were also in favour of a milder scaling of the prize-fund. But the organisers did not change anything. Why? Bent Larsen was the only one who was against a different prize-fund. He came to San Antonio to bring the big first prize home. Does chess have something of Russian Roulette?

Anatoly Karpov and Bent Larsen in round 3 of Church’s Fried Chicken International Chess Tournament, November 21, 1972. | Photo: San Antonio Express-News Collection, MS 360: E-0026-127-30

A small Cessna with four people on board, flying from Gatwick to Eindhoven where the organisers of the Tilburg tournament were already waiting for us. Larsen was in a very good mood because he had just won the BBC TV Tournament in Brighton. He beat me in the fifth blitz game of the finals, and he was a well-known and popular commentator for TV. But back then transmission technology was still in its infancy. Therefore, a "catman", dressed in black from top to toe, had to manually move the pieces on the demonstration board. This forced the commentators to pay fiendishly fierce attention to the synchronisation.

On the airplane, Bent just talked and talked without break, just as he had done in the TV studio of Brighton. He sat in front, next to the pilot, while I used the whole stock of vomit bags in the back. It was stuffy in the Cessna, up and down, thunderstorm. Thank God we were on solid ground again after landing. "These small Czechs don't like small Cessnas", Bent joked afterwards. I had to laugh but secretly decided to try to win our next game in Tilburg at all costs.

Here's what I think about the game after many years and with a certain amount of distance: Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy is famous. If Hamlet had been a chess player, he might have said "to be two or not to be two". Because in chess the pawn b2 is ususally poisoned. In our game 33…Ra1 would have been "to be" and winning for me. Unfortunately, with my move 33… Bh5 I opted for "not to be".

Belgrade 1970

USSR against the Rest of the World. Bent Larsen played on board one which Fischer, to everyone's surprise, had agreed to concede to him. Both Fischer and Larsen won on their boards (Larsen 2½ / 4, Fischer 3.0 / 4). Though the second round game Larsen 0-1 Spassky is quite famous and was published in chess magazines everywhere and entered chess history as an all-time classic, I think that Larsen still showed outstanding chess in Belgrade.

In the third round game, Larsen levelled the score by winning with Black against Spassky. Spassky must have sensed that Larsen was in top form. Therefore, he did not mind at all to let bench-warmer Leonid Stein play the last game with Black. Was Spassky afraid of a humiliation? At any rate, Larsen played superbly and in the game the Soviet substitute did not see any light at the end of the tunnel.

"Bent Larsen" | Drawing by Otakar Masek

"Boris Spassky", | Drawing by Otakar Masek

My Secret Weapon: 1.b3

Meanwhile, 1.b3 has also found its way into the practice of today's world elite, and now finally a modern top ten player has taken on the subject for ChessBase: none other than Grandmaster Wesley So!

"Leonid Stein" | Drawing by Otakar Masek

Solid and safe against the Indian openings: Play the Fianchetto

The King''s Indian and Grunfeld are notoriously tricky and theoretical openings. The Fianchetto variation avoids the main lines which Black players enjoy, and goes for a small but safe edge. GM Nick Pert played the Fianchetto variation for over 20 years, and at the time of recording was unbeaten with White since November 2011!

I am also impressed by a rather unknown game by Larsen (Jelen-Larsen), played in the tournament Ljubljana/Portoroz 1972. Sometimes I dream of the cheekiness of Black's king. Then, the well-known melody of the Radetzky March, which the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra always gives as an encore to New Year, comes to my mind.

He was never one for grandmaster draws! His chess calling card is impressive! In the 60s Bent Larsen is, without a doubt, the best player from the West. Even the Soviet Chess Power was afraid of the wild Viking. He qualifies no less than four times for the Candidates. He wins a whole number of super-tournaments. In January 1971 he reaches an Elo-rating of 2660, which is a clear indicator of today's Elo-inflation.

His way — or flight — from Denmark via the Canary Islands (Las Palmas) to Argentina can be compared to the fate of the famous French actor Gérard Depardieu. Neither of them wanted to pay the unjustifiably high taxes in their home countries. Larsen chose the West, Depardieu the East. I only hope he invested his savings well in his new home. By the way, the Argentine steaks are of the highest quality. Not to mention the Argentine tango, Milonga.

Today's FIDE does nothing, really nothing at all, against the huge inflation of Elo-ratings and Grandmaster titles. There are many grandmasters who have not even won one single tournament of medium strength and only once in their life made weak norms. Maybe the FIDE will one day introduce what is reasonable: the super-grandmaster title.

"Even post mortem, you, dear Bent,  will, of course, sit in the front row!"

Translation from German: Johannes Fischer

Update March 1st:  Our regular contributor Prof. Nagesh Havanur checked contemporary reports and found out Lajos Portisch has a point. In an email to ChessBase he writes: Do check p.66 of Chess Life & Review, February 1973. Under S.B. score Portisch finished with 76.75, Petrosian with 72.75 and Karpov with 70.25 points. No official tie-breaking was done and all the three received equal prizes. The initial tournament table on p.8 in the January issue shows the winners in the alphabetical order. That's what we find in the article by Hort.

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