Bent Larsen's Best Games

Bent Larsen's Best Games

Bent Larsen (1935–2010) was one of the great fighting spirits in chess history — the Danish grandmaster who defeated every World Champion from Botvinnik to Karpov, qualified as a Candidate four times, and was chosen ahead of the entire Soviet team to play board one for the Rest of the World in 1970. This is the definitive collection of his finest games, annotated by the great man himself.

More than 120 games are presented, and Larsen’s notes are the heart of the book: lucid, sharply to the point, deeply instructive, and famously witty. He was as original a writer as he was a player, and his comments convey not just the analysis but the uncompromising, risk-embracing attitude that made him such a dangerous and beloved competitor.

The games are arranged as a career narrative, carrying the reader from his early Scandinavian successes through his astonishing run of five consecutive international victories in 1967, the Interzonals and great tournaments of the 1970s, and his encounters with Fischer, Spassky, and the rest of the era’s elite.

Part games collection, part autobiography, this is a book to study and to enjoy — ideal for any player who wants to learn attacking, independent chess from one of its supreme practitioners.