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Bent Larsen vs Ljubomir Ljubojevic
Teesside (1972), Thornaby-on-Tees ENG, rd 1, Apr-17
King's Indian Attack: Spassky Variation (A05)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-16-12  luzhin: Larsen's decision to sacrifice his d-pawn with 14.Qd3!? is spectacularly justified with 22.e5!!-- what an awesome player he was at that time.
Feb-16-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: Mindboggling second pawn sacrifice.

Even Houdini does not see it until 18 ply, and has it on the backburner at 21st choice of 41.

Did Larsen ever annotate this one?

Feb-16-12  drukenknight: at the end it looks like 36...Ne2+ then the N goes to d4.
Feb-16-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Penguincw: Without looking at the pawns, queen vs. rook and bishop isn't too bad. Three games have reached that endgame, all drawn.

S Volkov vs Drasko, 2008

K Rusev vs V Georgiev, 2008

P Carlsson vs A Brkic, 2011

But with queen vs. rook, easy win for Larsen.

The side with the queen, never loss.

Feb-16-12  tacticalmonster: What is even more impressive is that how did Fischer shut out a player like Larsen 6-0? Fischer just completely destroyed Larsen's spirit back in 1971 and he was never the same player again after that.
Feb-17-12  luzhin: Does this seem like a game by a player whose spirit has been completely destroyed?
Feb-17-12  pawn to QB4: Well, exactly. You hear just the same sort of stuff about Spassky, whose post-Fischer career was considerably more distinguished than Larsen's. Like every chess fan I've played through, learned from and admired Fischer's games, but why do some seem to find it an attractive feature that he allegedly left others psychologically crushed? Says something odd about them. Quick rundown from wikipedia on later results by Larsen:

< 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 Ljubojevic and Kavalek. In 1975, Larsen defeated Danish Champion and future International Master Gert Iskov at Gellerup by the score of 5.5-.5 and lost a match to GM Ulf Andersson by the score of 5.5-2.5 at Stockholm the same year.>

Feb-17-12  luzhin: ...and this game was one of Larsen's 8 wins in a very strong tournament played less than a year after his loss to Fischer: he won the event a clear point ahead of the likes of Portisch, Gligoric, Ljubojevic and Andersson. A contemporary report stated that "Larsen demonstrated his position as the third best player in the world [after Fischer and Spassky]".
Feb-17-12  King Death: < pawn to QB4: ...Like every chess fan I've played through, learned from and admired Fischer's games, but why do some seem to find it an attractive feature that he allegedly left others psychologically crushed? Says something odd about them.>

Possibly this is because in the real lives of some, about the only thing they crush is a fly with a fly swatter especially if they got a self image that's negative and weak. Cheering on Fischer's whitewashes and statement "I like to see em squirm" is as close they'll ever get to making any human squirm.

There's nothing like playing Monday morning quarterback as we say here in the States and it's even easier now that anybody can get software and criticize even the strongest players of all time.

May-14-12  zev22407: Larsen later admited that when he had some set back in a tournament he felt the 6-0 lose to Fischer
May-14-12  zev22407: Larsen after "2)..b5! I wanted to kick myself!"

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