That's a shame. He was one of the greats. Most people don't remember how strong he was in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fischer, to everyone's surprise, agreed to let Larsen play first board for the World, ahead of Fischer, in the 1970 USSR-Rest of the World match. Although the game everyone remembers from that event is Spassky's brilliant crush of Larsen's 1.b3, Larsen went 2.5-.5 in the other three games.
When I played my first tournament game in September 1972 Larsen was past his heyday which was in the 60s and prior. At the time I knew of Larsen mainly through his quotes. I remember in the San Antonio 72 book, Larsen annotated a game where someone (Campos Lopez maybe?) played the French against Ken Smith's 1. e4. Larsen gave a "(?)after 1...e6 with the comment that "1...c5! wins a pawn against Ken Smith."
I also remember Larsen playing in a few World Open events in the 70s.
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That's a shame. He was one of the greats. Most people don't remember how strong he was in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fischer, to everyone's surprise, agreed to let Larsen play first board for the World, ahead of Fischer, in the 1970 USSR-Rest of the World match. Although the game everyone remembers from that event is Spassky's brilliant crush of Larsen's 1.b3, Larsen went 2.5-.5 in the other three games.
I was just about to look up his games.
I wanted to see if he ever had a crazy opening game with Tony Miles and how it went.
What a shame. Flohr-Larsen 1966 was previously unknown to me. What a gem! Such energetic and sparkling play!
When I played my first tournament game in September 1972 Larsen was past his heyday which was in the 60s and prior. At the time I knew of Larsen mainly through his quotes. I remember in the San Antonio 72 book, Larsen annotated a game where someone (Campos Lopez maybe?) played the French against Ken Smith's 1. e4. Larsen gave a "(?)after 1...e6 with the comment that "1...c5! wins a pawn against Ken Smith."
I also remember Larsen playing in a few World Open events in the 70s.
I got to watch Larsen up-close for a week in the 1974 Canadian Open.
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