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| Mar-30-04 | | ConLaMismaMano: Timman, Larsen and Olafsson were the best western players at the time the soviets had almost complete domination on chess? |
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| Mar-30-04 | | nikolaas: They're not really from the same time. In 1973, Timman was a up-coming talent. By that time, Olafsson was already forgotten. |
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| Jun-05-05 | | babakova: You are forgetting Ulf Andersson, he was third behind the two undisputable giants Karpov & Kasparov |
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| Jul-05-05 | | supertimchan: What about Fischer? He is a western player when the soviet had dominate the chess world. |
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| Jul-05-05 | | PinkPanther: Olafsson was never one of the best Western players, I mean his best rating was only 2570 for crying out loud. |
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| Jul-05-05 | | Hanada: I found this in an interview with Karpov:
" All the world champions came from Russia, except Bobby Fischer. In theory they were called amateurs by the Russian government, but would you regard Unzicker as an amateur world champion, because he worked as a judge? Karpov: That is possible, for a certain period he was one of the strongest amateurs, no doubt about it. It is difficult however to make comparisons. The Icelandic grandmaster Fridrik Olafsson, who worked as a lawyer, was as strong as Unzicker, but he is from another generation." It seems Olafsson was more of an amateur player and was indeed considered a VERY strong player, maybe even a championship candidate had he given his full attention to chess. |
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| Jul-06-05 | | MrSifter: <PinkPanther> In those days the ratings were much lower. 2570 was very solid for that time, and that was past Olafsson's prime. Is Gligoric considered a Western player?
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| Jul-06-05 | | PinkPanther: 2570 still doesn't make you one of the BEST Western Players, even Larsen was 2600+ |
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| Jul-06-05 | | MrSifter: OK, well his best period was the late 50's and early 60's so there weren't ratings back then. |
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| Jul-10-05 | | pazzed paun: how good was F OLafson? ask one his contemporays-Larry Evans about how he was regarded at the time-
If you go to the chessmetrics site and read how they set it up trying to give a comparable rating to all players regardless of what year they played in -Olafson is ranked quite highly over a 20 year span!
--- I think people overestimated predicting his ultimate results in direct proportion to underestimating how difficult it would be to beat the Soviet Machine and it young stars of the 1950"S Boleslavsky-Bronstein Kotov Petrosian Furman Spassky Taimov Tal- Fischer (who Olaffson beat in 2 games) took several attempts to qualify as the challenger to the world championship- all of the young soviet stars up untill Karpov and Tukamov learned to play chess during or before WW2 so there was quite a number of years with a talent gap. |
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Aug-16-05
 | | WannaBe: Mr. Fredrik Olaffson is still with us, perhaps we can get him back to FIDE presidency and restore some order perhaps? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridri... (I don't care how old he is!) Oh yeah 99th!! |
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Sep-01-05
 | | WTHarvey: Here is a little collection of puzzles from Fridrik's games: http://www.wtharvey.com/olaf.html |
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Sep-01-05
| | WannaBe: Wasn't he also the player of the day from August 16th 2005? I can't remember the reason for my posting that day. (Best guess is that he was Player o' Day.) |
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| Sep-01-05 | | ughaibu: Pity Paul Lovric only scent marks the games not the players. |
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| Jan-17-06 | | karlth: Fridrik Olafsson was never a member of parliment but rather its highest ranking employee - the so called Secretary General of the Icelandic Parliament. Fridrik rose to through the ranks in the Nordic chess world at the same time as Bent Larsen and was probably the stronger player of the two until around the early 1960. Fridrik was for the most part an amateur chess player and only dedicated himself to the game for a few years in the mid 70s. I saw him a few weeks ago in downtown Reykjavik and he was looking extremely fit and healthy for a 70 year old, looked 20 years younger. |
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| Apr-20-06 | | diagonal: For the sake of the legality of the things:
The last democratic FIDE president, lawyer Fridrik Olafsson, announced he is supporting Bessel Kok and The Right Move campaign in the forthcoming elections in Torino. Olafsson on Bessel Kok: "He is an ideal candidate with a keen sense of entrepreneurship and integrity that is required to make this important step into a new era for chess". Obviously this is no prediction... Will sadly (as in 1982 when Fridrik Olafsson as a fair, respected and modern president was voted down at Lucerne (Olympiads) by Campomanes' crew and their arguments/money) once more loose the democratic approach? hopefully not! |
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| Sep-21-06 | | Plato: His record includes wins over four World Champions: Tal, Petrosian, Fischer, and Karpov. |
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| Oct-27-06 | | Maatalkko: <Pink Panther: <Olafsson was never one of the best Western players, I mean his best rating was only 2570 for crying out loud.>> Uhhm...
1) Olafsson was always an amateur
2) He played in a CANDIDATES tournament in 1959 and did better than, say, Miroslav Filip in 1962.
3) His best years were played before the Elo system was implemented. Paul Keres was "only" 2580 lifetime official best, because his days were nearly over when the Elo system begun. Incidentally, Olafsson looks admirably fit for his age. It's a pity he has so few kibitzes here, he deserves many more. I really hope I can visit Iceland to meet (both)Olafssons and Fischer someday. |
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| Jun-21-07 | | talisman: <Plato> you are correct sir.And one of the all time greats needs a place on the drop down list(w/STEIN>! |
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| Jan-26-08 | | BIDMONFA: Fridrik Olafsson OLAFSSON, Fridrik
http://www.bidmonfa.com/OLAFSSON%20...
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| Jan-26-08 | | diagonal: Happy birthday to the the first Icelandic grandmaster in chess history: Fridrik Olafsson is a gentleman and one of the last of the previous generations of true Chess greats |
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| Jan-26-08 | | timhortons: i think the first time fischer and olaffson play these master beat fischer |
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| Jan-26-08 | | whiteshark: Player of the day.
Many pages in Icelandic...
He was also a politican and was lately 'dean' president of the Althing. |
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Mar-12-09
 | | Joshka: Allright I think I'm beginning to understand how the names go in Icelandic...<paulalbert> wrote on the <helgi olafsson> page, that if Fridrik Olafsson were Helgi's Olafsson's father, Helgi's name would really be Helgi Fridriksson, is this correct for anyone who has a grasp of the way names are pronounced in Iceland? Also does anyone know if Fridrik has any children?...thanks in advance |
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Mar-13-09
 | | paulalbert: <Joshka> Go to Wikipedia.com under "Icelandic name". The patronymic naming system is explained there. Also on Wikipedia writeup on Fridrik Olafsson, it says he has two adult daughters. I think daughters in Iceland use a matronymic system, i.e., the last name is the mother's first name with "dottir" appended. Slavic names have some similar characteristics,but with complicated systems and spelling variants, middle name patronymics for example and "ova" endings for females. Paul Albert |
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