Danish chess grandmaster and author (1935?2010)
Bent Larsen
|
---|
Bent Larsen (1961)
|
Full name
| Jørgen Bent Larsen
|
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Country
| Denmark
|
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Born
| (
1935-03-04
)
4 March 1935
Thisted
, Denmark
|
---|
Died
| 9 September 2010
(2010-09-09)
(aged 75)
Buenos Aires
, Argentina
|
---|
Title
| Grandmaster
(1956)
|
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Peak rating
| 2660 (July 1971)
|
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Peak ranking
| No. 4 (July 1971)
|
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Jørgen Bent Larsen
(4 March 1935 ? 9 September 2010) was a Danish
chess
grandmaster
and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-
Soviet
player, behind only
Bobby Fischer
, for much of the 1960s and 1970s.
[1]
He is considered to be the strongest player born in Denmark and the strongest from
Scandinavia
until the emergence of
Magnus Carlsen
.
Larsen was a six-time
Danish Champion
and a
Candidate
for the
World Chess Championship
on four occasions, reaching the semifinal three times. He had multiple wins over all seven World Champions who held the title from 1948 to 1985:
Mikhail Botvinnik
,
Vasily Smyslov
,
Mikhail Tal
,
Tigran Petrosian
,
Boris Spassky
,
Bobby Fischer
, and
Anatoly Karpov
,
[2]
but lifetime negative scores against them.
[3]
From the early 1970s onward, he divided his years between
Las Palmas
and
Buenos Aires
[1]
with his
Argentinian
-born wife. He suffered from diabetes, and he died in 2010 from a
cerebral haemorrhage
.
[4]
Career
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Larsen was born in Tilsted,
[5]
near
Thisted
in Denmark, and was educated at
Aalborg Cathedral School
. In January 1942, Larsen contracted a number of childhood diseases. Although none had any permanent effects, it was during this period that Larsen discovered chess.
[1]
He went on to represent Denmark twice in the
World Junior Championship
, in 1951 at
Birmingham
(placing fifth) and in 1953 at
Copenhagen
(placing eighth). He started playing seriously at the age of 17 when he moved to Copenhagen to study
civil engineering
, but he never graduated, choosing instead to play chess professionally.
[6]
Furthermore, while at military service, he studied Russian, which was instrumental in assisting him to understand Russian-language chess literature
[
citation needed
]
(something Bobby Fischer was also known to have done).
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
He became an
International Master
at the age of 19 in 1954, from his bronze-medal performance on board one at the
Amsterdam Olympiad
.
[11]
He won his first of six Danish Championships in 1954, repeating this feat in 1955, 1956, 1959, 1963 and 1964.
[12]
Larsen defeated
Friðrik Olafsson
in an exhibition match at
Oslo
in 1955 by 4½?3½. He took first prize at the Gijon International Chess Tournament in 1956, ahead of
Klaus Darga
and
Jan Hein Donner
,
[13]
and in the same year won at
Copenhagen
with 8/9.
[12]
Young Grandmaster
[
edit
]
Larsen became an
International Grandmaster
in 1956 with his gold-medal performance on board one at the Moscow Olympiad, where he drew with World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. He tied for 1st?2nd places at
Hastings
1956?57 on 6½/9 with
Svetozar Gligori?
. At
Dallas
1957, he scored 7½/14 for a shared 3rd?4th place; the winners were Gligori? and
Samuel Reshevsky
.
At the 1957
Wageningen
Zonal, he tied for 3rd?4th places, along with Donner, with 12½/17; there were only three qualifying berths, so the two players had to dispute a playoff match. Larsen won by 3?1 over Donner at
The Hague
1958 to qualify for his first
Interzonal
, at
Portoro?
1958. Larsen could score only 8½/20 for 16th place, and was not close to qualifying. But he scored his first major individual international success by winning
Mar del Plata
1958 with 12/15, ahead of
William Lombardy
,
Erich Eliskases
,
Oscar Panno
, and
Hermann Pilnik
.
Larsen went into a slump beginning with the 1958
Interzonal
. He tied 5th?6th in a strong field at
Zurich
1959 with 9½/15, behind winner Tal, Gligori?,
Paul Keres
, and
Bobby Fischer
. But Larsen placed only 4th in a middle-range field at the 1960
Berg en Dal
Zonal 1960 with 5½/9, and did not advance to the Interzonal. He recovered by sharing 1st?2nd places at
Beverwijk
1961 on 7½/9 with
Borislav Ivkov
. At
Zurich
1961, he tied for 6th?7th places with 6/11, as Keres won ahead of
Tigran Petrosian
. At Moscow 1962, he shared 7th?11th places with 7½/15 (
Yuri Averbakh
won).
Challenging for the World title
[
edit
]
Around this time Larsen diversified his style, switching over to risky and unusual openings in some of his games, to try to throw his opponents off balance; this led to the recovery of his form and further development of his chess. He finished 2nd at the 1963
Halle
Zonal with 13/19, behind winner
Lajos Portisch
, to advance to the Interzonal the next year. At
Belgrade
1964, he shared 5th?6th places with 10/17 (
Boris Spassky
won). He tied for 5th?7th places at
Beverwijk
1964 on 9½/15; Keres and Nei won. Larsen's unusual openings were on full display at the 1964
Amsterdam
Interzonal, where he shared the 1st?4th places on 17/23 with
Boris Spassky
, Tal, and
Vasily Smyslov
, advancing as a Candidate.
In the 1965 Candidates' matches, he defeated
Borislav Ivkov
at
Bled
by 5½?2½ but lost a hard-fought semifinal, also at Bled by 4½?5½ to former World Champion Mikhail Tal, who won the tenth game with a complex speculative knight sacrifice in the center. Larsen won a playoff match for alternates, an eventual third-place Candidates' position, against
Efim Geller
by 5?4 at
Copenhagen
1966 (the first time a Soviet grandmaster had ever been beaten by a non-Soviet in a match). In 1967 he won the
Sousse
Interzonal with the score of 15½/21 after Fischer withdrew; this placed him 1½ points ahead of the field. He then won his first-round match against
Lajos Portisch
by 5½?4½ at
Pore?
1968. In
Malmo
, however, he lost the semifinal by 2½?5½ to Boris Spassky, who went on to win the title.
In 1970 he shared 2nd in the
Palma de Mallorca
Interzonal, on 15/23, behind Bobby Fischer. He reached his top rank in the
Elo rating system
at the start of 1971, equal third in the world (with Korchnoi, behind Fischer and Spassky) with a rating of 2660.
[14]
He then defeated
Wolfgang Uhlmann
by 5½?3½ at
Las Palmas
1971. But then he lost the semifinal 0?6 at
Denver
to Fischer, who also went on to win the title.
Larsen later claimed that his one-sided loss to Fischer was due in part to his condition during the match: "The organizers chose the wrong time for this match. I was languid with the heat and Fischer was better prepared for such exceptional circumstances... I saw chess pieces through a mist and, thus, my level of playing was not good."
[4]
In 1973 he failed to advance from the
Leningrad
Interzonal; he tied for 5th?6th places with 10/17, with Karpov and
Viktor Korchnoi
winning. In 1976 he won the Biel Interzonal, but lost his 1977 Candidates' match, a rematch of their 1968 encounter, to Lajos Portisch by 3½?6½ at
Rotterdam
. In the
Riga
Interzonal of 1979, Larsen scored 10/17 for 7th place, and did not advance.
Tournament dominance (1965?73)
[
edit
]
Starting in the mid-1960s, Larsen enjoyed a very successful run in major tournaments around the world, and he and Fischer became the two strongest players outside the Soviet Union. Larsen played in a lot of strong events, at least as many as any other top player, and repeatedly finished ahead of the top Soviet players. He won at
Le Havre
1966 with 9/11, ahead of
Lev Polugaevsky
. At
Santa Monica
1966, he placed third with 10/18, behind Spassky and Fischer. He won at
Havana
1967 with 15/19, ahead of a strong group that included
Mark Taimanov
, Smyslov, Polugaevsky, Gligori?, and
Miroslav Filip
. He shared 2nd?3rd places at
Dundee
1967 with 5½/8, behind Gligori?. At
Beverwijk
1967, he was 4th with 8½/15 (Spassky won). At
Monte Carlo
1967, he shared 3rd?4th with 6/9, behind Fischer and
Efim Geller
. He shared 1st?2nd at
Winnipeg
1967 with 6/9, along with Darga, ahead of Spassky and Keres. He won at
Palma de Mallorca
1967 with 13/17, ahead of Smyslov, Botvinnik, Portisch, Gligori?, and
Borislav Ivkov
. He was awarded the first
Chess Oscar
in 1967.
Somewhat unusually for the late 1960s, Larsen?as one of the world's top players?often entered large Open tournaments run on the Swiss system, and had plenty of success. He won the
Canadian Open Chess Championships
at
Toronto
1968 and
St. John's
1970. He also won the
U.S. Open Chess Championship
of 1968 at
Aspen, Colorado
, and that at
Boston
in 1970.
Larsen won at
Monte Carlo
1968 with 9½/13, ahead of Botvinnik, Smyslov,
Vlastimil Hort
,
Robert Byrne
, Portisch, and
Pal Benko
. This completed a string of five consecutive clear wins of major tournaments, a feat that had not previously been accomplished in modern chess.
[15]
Larsen shared 2nd?3rd places at
Palma de Mallorca
1968 with 13/17, along with Spassky;
Viktor Korchnoi
won. In a playoff match for third place in the Candidates Tournament, he defeated Tal at
Eersel
1969 by 5½?2½ in a rematch of their 1965 encounter. He won at
Palma de Mallorca
1969 with 12/17, ahead of Petrosian, Korchnoi, Hort, and Spassky. There was a further victory at
Buesum
1969 with 11/15, ahead of Polugaevsky. At
San Juan
1969, he scored 9/15 for a shared 6th?7th place (Spassky won). He defeated
International Master
Heikki Westerinen
by 6?2 at
Helsinki
in 1969 in a match in which every game was decisive.
Larsen won at
Lugano
1970 with 9½/14, ahead of Olafsson. In the
USSR vs Rest of the World
match at
Belgrade
1970, he played first board for the World side, ahead of Fischer, and scored 2½/4 against Spassky and
Leonid Stein
. At
Leiden
1970, he shared 3rd?4th places with 5½/12, (Spassky won). He defeated
Lubomir Kavalek
in a 1970 exhibition match at
Solingen
by 6?2. He won at
Vinkovci
1970 with 10½/15, ahead of
David Bronstein
, Hort, and Gligori?. At
Palma de Mallorca
1970, he shared 6th?7th places with 9/15 (Panno and
Ljubomir Ljubojevi?
were joint winners). Larsen shared 8th?9th places at
San Antonio
1972 on 8½/15 (Portisch, Petrosian, and Karpov triumphed). He won at
Teesside
1972 with 11/15, ahead of Ljubojevi? and Portisch. At
Las Palmas
1972, he shared 2nd?3rd places on 11/15 (Portisch won).
Larsen won at
Hastings
1972?73 on 11½/15, ahead of
Wolfgang Uhlmann
. At
Bauang
1973, he scored 6/9 for 4th place (Kavalek won). Larsen won at
Grenaa
1973 in the
Nordic
Championship with 8½/10. He won again at
Manila
1973 with 12½/15, ahead of Ljubojevi? and Kavalek. In 1975, Larsen defeated Danish Champion and future International Master Gert Iskov at
Gellerup
by the score of 5½?½ and lost a match to GM
Ulf Andersson
by the score of 5½?2½ at
Stockholm
the same year.
Olympiad performances
[
edit
]
He represented Denmark six times in
Chess Olympiad
play, always on first board, and compiled an aggregate score of 75/109 (+61 −20 =28), for 68.8%. He always played a very high number of games and in 1954 played a maximum of 19 games.
[16]
He won three board medals, one gold and two bronze.
- Amsterdam 1954
, board one, 13½/19 (+11 −3 =5), board bronze medal;
[16]
- Moscow 1956
, board one, 14/18 (+11 −1 =6), board gold medal;
[17]
- Munich 1958
, board one, 13/19 (+11 −4 =4);
[18]
- Havana 1966
, board one, 11/18 (+9 −5 =4);
[19]
- Lugano 1968
, board one, 10½/18 (+8 −5 =5);
[20]
- Siegen 1970
, board one, 13/17 (+11 −2 =4), board bronze medal.
[21]
Later career
[
edit
]
In 1988 he lost a game to
Deep Thought
in the
Software Toolworks
Championship, becoming the first Grandmaster and, at the time, the player with the highest
Elo rating
(by then 2560) to be defeated by a computer in tournament play. In 1993 Larsen won a return match against the supercomputer
Deep Blue
in Copenhagen by 2½?1½.
[22]
Despite his advancing age, Larsen continued to play in tournaments. In 1999. he finished 7th out of 10 in the Danish Championship, but in the 2000 event he was forced to withdraw when he became seriously ill with an
edema
which required brain surgery. Thereafter he only played a few tournaments in Buenos Aires. He was 4th in the 2002
Najdorf
Memorial knock-out.
Larsen's final tournament was Magistral Internacional Ruibal 2008 in Buenos Aires. He delivered a poor performance and lost all nine games he played. In the April 2009
FIDE
list, he had an Elo rating of 2415.
He died in Buenos Aires in September 2010. According to the
English Chess Federation
Newsletter, "His health had been poor for some considerable time and he had been virtually inactive for years".
[23]
Playing style and authorship
[
edit
]
Larsen was known as a deep-thinking and highly imaginative player, more willing to try unorthodox ideas and to take more risks than most of his peers. This aspect of his play could even manifest itself in his choice of
openings
. Grandmaster
Samuel Reshevsky
wrote that Larsen "is a firm believer in the value of surprise", and that led him to resort to "dubious variations in various openings." He also wrote that while Larsen "has a great deal of confidence in his game and fears no one", his style was "extremely effective against relatively weak opponents but has not been too successful against top-notchers."
[24]
He was one of the very few modern grandmasters to have employed
Bird's Opening
(1.f4) with any regularity, and had a long-term association with the move 1.b3, a system commonly known as
Larsen's Opening
or the Nimzo?Larsen Attack in his (and
Aron Nimzowitsch
's) honor. He played the
Dutch Defence
with success at a time when the opening was rarely seen at the top level. He revived the almost dormant
Bishop's Opening
(1.e4 e5 2.Bc4) with success in 1964 and explored new ways for Black to seek activity in the
Philidor Defence
(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6). Indeed, he wrote a short monograph on the Philidor,
Why Not The Philidor Defense?
, in 1971. He was also the first top player to successfully use the Grand Prix Attack against the
Sicilian Defence
(1.e4 c5 2.f4), spurring a sudden and sustained gain in its popularity. In the mid-1960s, he showed surprising faith in
Alekhine's Defence
(1.e4 Nf6) and even employed it on important occasions. He played the rare
Scandinavian Defence
1.e4 d5 to defeat World Champion Anatoly Karpov in 1979, sparking renewed interest in that variation. A favourite line in the
Caro?Kann Defence
(1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6) is co-named for him and
David Bronstein
; the idea is to accept a weakness to the Black pawn structure in exchange for an unbalancing of the position and retaining the bishop pair.
Larsen's 1969 book
Larsen's Selected Games of Chess, 1948?69
contained annotations that delved into chess psychology and the effective use of rare openings. A chapter of the book gives some of Larsen's thoughts on his own style, and he upholds the views of Polugaevsky and Gligori? that he indulged in flank attacks and favored the advance of rooks' pawns more than other contemporary masters. He was also content to be described as an aggressive player, stemming from his dislike of draws. He disputed the notion that he would willingly accept dubious positions in order to complicate tactics, a characteristic he attributed more to Tal.
[25]
The book was first published in Denmark; an English-language version followed in 1970 and was sub-titled "Master of Counter-Attack".
[26]
Larsen was one of seven top grandmasters who wrote chapters for the 1974 book
How to Open a Chess Game
. He edited the tournament book for
San Antonio 1972
. When
Ken Smith
played most of his games in that event with the white pieces using the
Smith-Morra Gambit
, Larsen quipped?after one of Smith's opponents responded to 1.e4 with 1...e6, entering a
French Defence
and avoiding the gambit?"stronger was c5, winning a pawn!"
[27]
He also wrote the well-received
Karpov Vs. Korchnoi: World Chess Championship, 1978
, which was published within days of the match ending and was the first book in any language on the 1978 World Championship match.
The
Grunfeld Defence
(1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5) was another opening that became a frequent choice of Larsen with the Black pieces, and similarly he placed considerable reliance on Grunfeld-Indian systems as White. This led him to co-author, with Steffen Zeuthen, a 1979 book on this opening titled
Zoom 001 Zero Hour for Operative Chess Opening Models
.
[28]
Notable games
[
edit
]
- Bent Larsen vs Boris Spassky, Amsterdam Interzonal 1964, Bird's Opening (A03), 1?0
Larsen successfully played unusual openings in this tournament, and here he uses one of them to knock off a top Soviet, on his way to winning the tournament.
- David Bronstein vs Bent Larsen, Amsterdam Interzonal 1964, King's Indian Defense: Averbakh. Benoni Defense Advanced Variation (E75), 0?1
Larsen defends and ends Bronstein's dream of becoming a World Championship Candidate.
- Svetozar Gligori? vs Bent Larsen, Zagreb 1965, Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen Variation (B83), 0?1
Gligori? launches a dangerous-looking attack, but Larsen finds an inspired defence. Larsen had a strong head-to-head dominance over the top Yugoslav player of that era.
- Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen, Santa Monica 1966, Ruy Lopez, Open Variation (C82), 0?1
Fischer has a promising position but miscalculates and is punished in drastic style by Larsen's counterattack.
- Bent Larsen vs Tigran Petrosian, Santa Monica 1966, Sicilian Defence, Accelerated Dragon Variation (B39), 1?0
Larsen unleashes a queen sacrifice to defeat the World Champion.
- Mikhail Tal vs Bent Larsen, Eersel 1969, match game 6, Sicilian Defence, Richter?Rauzer Variation (B65), 0?1
Larsen was dangerous with the Black pieces, and here he shows a former World Champion why.
- Mikhail Botvinnik vs Bent Larsen, Leiden 1970, Dutch Defense, Classical Variation (A90), 0?1
Larsen outplays another former World Champion in a long endgame.
- Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen, Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970, Sicilian Defence, Velimirovic Attack (B89), 0?1
Larsen surprised Fischer, who was then nearly invincible, with an opening innovation, and plays a near-perfect game to win.
- Anatoly Karpov vs Bent Larsen, Montreal 1979, Scandinavian Defence (B01), 0?1
Larsen springs a rare opening on the World Champion, and is rewarded with success.
- Viswanathan Anand vs Bent Larsen, Roquebrune 1992, Sicilian (B27), 0?1
Larsen beats a future World Champion using Larsen's favourite opening.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Speelman, Jon
(20 September 2010).
"Bent Larsen: Chess player who with Bobby Fischer was one of only two players the Soviets feared in the 1960s and '70s"
.
The Independent
. London.
- ^
http://www.chessgames.com
, the Bent Larsen games file
- ^
On a percentage basis, his best score against a World Champion was with
Max Euwe
. Larsen and Euwe met over the board only once, at the
Munich Olympiad in 1958
; the game ended in a draw;
Larsen versus Euwe
,
Chessgames.com
- ^
a
b
Barden, Leonard
(17 September 2010).
"Bent Larsen obituary"
.
The Guardian
. London.
- ^
"Born 4th March, 1935, according to my birth certificate, in Tilsted near the little town of Thisted, in north-western Jutland." (
Larsen's Selected Games of Chess
, by Bent Larsen, London 1970, G. Bell and Sons Ltd, p. 1)
- ^
"Bent Larsen, Chess Grandmaster, Dies at 75"
.
The New York Times
. 11 September 2010.
- ^
Barden, Leonard (4 March 2011).
"Fascination with Bobby Fischer shows no sign of reaching its endgame"
.
The Guardian
.
ISSN
0261-3077
. Retrieved
16 January
2024
.
- ^
Leitao, Rafael (20 August 2017).
"Lies And Truths About Bobby Fischer: Take The Test!"
.
Rafael Leitao
. Retrieved
16 January
2024
.
- ^
Zakharov (Spektrowski), Alexey 'Spectre' (3 March 2019).
"Foreword and Afterword for the Soviet Edition of Bobby Fischer's "My 60 Memorable Games"
"
.
Chess.com
. Retrieved
16 January
2024
.
- ^
(ChessVibes) (31 August 2011).
"Revealed: why Bobby Fischer learned Russian"
.
Chess.com
. Retrieved
16 January
2024
.
- ^
Bartelski, Wojciech (25 September 1954).
"11th Chess Olympiad, Amsterdam 1954, information"
. OlimpBase
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
a
b
"Bent Larsen"
. ChessManiac. 11 September 2010
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
Mendez, Pedro; Mendez, Luis (2019).
The Gijon International Chess Tournaments
. McFarland. pp. 174?176.
ISBN
978-1-4766-7659-3
.
- ^
"Elo ratings 1970?1997"
. Chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk. Archived from
the original
on 26 November 2009
. Retrieved
2011-10-20
.
- ^
"En Passant: Bent Larsen, 1935?2010"
. Chessclub.com. Archived from
the original
on 8 December 2011
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
a
b
Bartelski, Wojciech.
"11th Chess Olympiad, Amsterdam 1954, information"
. OlimpBase
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
Bartelski, Wojciech.
"12th Chess Olympiad, Moscow 1956, information"
. OlimpBase
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
Bartelski, Wojciech.
"13th Chess Olympiad, Munich 1958, information"
. OlimpBase
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
Bartelski, Wojciech.
"17th Chess Olympiad, Havana 1966, information"
. OlimpBase
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
Bartelski, Wojciech.
"18th Chess Olympiad, Lugano 1968, information"
. OlimpBase
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
Bartelski, Wojciech.
"19th Chess Olympiad, Siegen 1970, information"
. OlimpBase
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
ChessBase (3 March 2010).
"Chess legend Bent Larsen turns 75"
. ChessBase
. Retrieved
3 March
2010
.
- ^
"ECF September/October Chess Moves"
. Englishchess.org.uk. 14 October 2011. Archived from
the original
on 1 March 2011
. Retrieved
20 October
2011
.
- ^
Great Chess Upsets
, by
Samuel Reshevsky
, New York 1976, Arco Publishing, pp. 259?260.
- ^
Bent Larsen's Best Games of Chess: Master of Counter Attack
, by Bent Larsen, 2003, Hardinge Simpole Publishing, pp. 173?175.
- ^
Larsen, Bent (10 January 2015).
Bent Larsen's Best Games: Fighting Chess with the Great Dane
. New In Chess. p. 24.
ISBN
978-90-5691-530-8
. Retrieved
21 September
2021
.
- ^
Archived at
Ghostarchive
and the
Wayback Machine
:
"Analyze this Smith-Morra Game! - GM Yasser Seirawan ? 2014.09.23"
.
YouTube.com
. Retrieved
3 May
2018
.
- ^
"ZOOM 001 SUBMODELS A-H"
.
chessgames.com
. Retrieved
21 September
2021
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Larsen. 1935?1965. (Bind I)
. Ed.: Jan Løfberg & Erik Andre Andersen. København, Løfbergs Forlag, 2014.
ISBN
9788792772039
- Kasparov, Garry
(2004),
My Great Predecessors
, part IV
,
Everyman Chess
,
ISBN
1-85744-395-0
- Larsen, Bent (2009),
Bent Larsen: Alle Figuren greifen an
, SchachDepot Verlag,
ISBN
978-3-9812856-0-4
External links
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edit
]
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