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Bent Larsen is Dead

The great Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen died on September 9, 2010.
Larsen was the Danish chess champion six times and a candidate for
the world chess championship four times. Larsen was the riskiest of
his contemporaries rarely leaving an unclear sacrifice unplayed.
During his career Bent Larsen defeated Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov,
Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, and
Anatoly Karpov.
Below is my favorite Bent Larsen chess game:
[Event "Larsen Sacrifices a Queen"]
[Site "Santa Monica"]
[Date "1966.??.??"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Bent Larsen"]
[Black "Petrosian"]
[ECO "B39"]
[PlyCount "59"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Be3 Bg7 
6. c4 Nf6 7. Nc3 Ng4 8. Qxg4 Nxd4 9. Qd1 Ne6 10. Qd2 d6 11. Be2 Bd7 
12. O-O O-O 13. Rad1 Bc6 14. Nd5 Re8 15. f4 Nc7 16. f5 Na6 17. Bg4 Nc5 
18. fxg6 hxg6 19. Qf2 Rf8 20. e5 Bxe5 21. Qh4 Bxd5 22. Rxd5 Ne6 
23. Rf3 Bf6 24. Qh6 Bg7 25. Qxg6 Nf4 26. Rxf4 fxg6 27. Be6+ Rf7 
28. Rxf7 Kh8 29. Rg5 b5 30. Rg3 1-0

Published by chessmusings

Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Chris Torres served as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy from 2005-2020 and currently is recognized as a correspondence chess master with the United States Chess Federation. Since 1998 Chris Torres has taught 6 individual national champions as well as led multiple school teams to win national championship titles. In addition, Chris Torres has directed and taught at 10 different schools which have been California State Champions at chess. In 2011 and 2012, several former and current students of Chris Torres have been selected to represent the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.

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