Of course by the 70's, Olafsson wouldn't have had to qualify at all. As a participant in the previous Candidates, he would have been seeded into the next Interzonal. That's why there was no 3rd place (Larsen vs. Korchnoi) match in the 1971 Candidates or any 3rd place matches after. The 3rd place matches in 1965 and 1968 (both won by Larsen) had been held to determine who got a free interzonal spot. When all the Candidates got one, there was no more need for them.

Funny this should come up. Just this morning I had Fritz analyzing Olafsson's last round black win against Keres at the 1959 Candidates.

Those were the days: nice picture from the Olympiads, La Valletta, Malta, 10th round, 1980: Fridrik Olafsson facing Karpov on board one, with Geller, quite symbolically alongside Karpov, <<http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php...;> as posted above, in that year Fridrik Olafsson beat the reigning chess world champion at a tournament in Buenos Aires.

Here a game worth to comment: young Olafsson against legendary Savielly Tartakower, 1953 at Hastings *those where the days*

<Born 26 January 1935, GM since 1958, Friðrik Ólafsson was the strongest player in Iceland for many decades. He is a lawyer by profession, worked as an attorney, and was president of FIDE from 1978 to 1982. Fridrik Olafsson is certainly one of the strongest amateur players in modern era. In life outside of law and chess, he is married and has two adult daughters.

Fridrik Olafsson beat in classical games amongst others Tartakower (!), Eliskases, Taimanov, Najdorf, Reshevsky, Keres, Geller, Gligoric, Portisch, Hort, Uhlmann, Panno, Miles, Hübner, Timman, Bent Larsen (countless times, www.chessgames.com database has 40 games between the years 1953 and 2003 with an even head-to-head of 15 to 15 and 10 draws, both Larsen and Olafsson were born in 1935), as well as Fischer (twice), Petrosian (twice), Tal (twice), Karpov (Buenos Aires, Clarin) 1980 when Karpov was reigning world champion, and Korchnoi (Amsterdam, IBM) 1976.

Aged seventeen years, he won his first Icelandic Championship (in total, Olafsson is a six times national champion, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1961, 1962, and 1969). In 1953, he took 3rd in the World Junior Championship.

Shortly after this, he completed his studies in Law, he took a post in the Icelandic Ministry of Justice. He continued to be a part-time chess player during the next twenty years, but did not always enjoy the type of success that he might have attained had he been able to devote all of his energies to his studies of the game of chess prior to 1976 when he gave up his government post in order to become a full-time chess player for a brief period until he became president of FIDE in 1978.

He is a multiple-time Scandinavian and became the first Icelandic grandmaster: Olafsson was awarded the GM title automatically - together with Fischer - after they qualified in the Interzonal Portoroz 1958 for the Candidates 1959 in Bled / Zagreb / Belgrade (Tal winning, challenging Botvinnik successfully in 1960).

Fridrik Olafsson’s finest results of international note are his win at Hastings Congress 1955–56 (together with Viktor Korchnoi) and his two triumphs of the traditional Hoogovens tournament (today TATA Steel) at Beverwijk in 1959 (clear first ahead of Erich Eliskases), and at Wijk aan Zee in1976 (together with Ljubomir Ljubojevic;, ahead of Mikhail Tal as shared third).

Notable results include a third place together with Najdorf ahead of Reshevsky, Gligoric;, Benko, and Panno in the strong Piatigorsky Cup, Los Angeles 1963 (Petrosian and Keres won), Olafsson was runner-up with Gligoric, Petrosian and Ivkov, ahead of equal Mecking, Andersson, Hort and Hübner in Wijk aan Zee in 1971 (Korchnoi won), joint second at Las Palmas in 1974 (Ljubojevic won), and runner-up with Spassky, ahead of Bronstein and Hort at Tallinn in 1975 (Keres won).

Olafsson won several strong international invitation events at Reykjavik, in 1957 outright (ahead of Benko, Ståhlberg, and Pilnik) plus three times the today well known Reykjavik Open, then played as an Invitational tournament round robin, in 1966 (II. tournament outright), in 1972 (V. tournament joint with Vlastimil Hort and Florin Gheorghiu), and in 1976 (VII. tournament joint with Jan Timman). After a substantial number of years as one of the top non-Soviet players, Olafsson was nominated also as first reserve in the USSR vs. Rest of the World match in 1970 where he played a sole game, losing it to Smyslov.

He played eight Chess Olympiads between 1952 and 1980. His best score was at Varna in 1962 (+10, = 8), winning the individual Gold medal on board one. In 1955 and 1957, Olafsson played twice a match with Herman Pilnik, winning both.>

Olafsson was Petrosian's nemesis in that tournament. Petrosian who came in third behind Tal and Keres, ahead of Smyslov and Fischer, drew all his four games against Tal and scored one win with three draws against Keres, but was forced to reckon his chances of success as compromised. Petrosian's round 15 game can't have helped his spirits, though it became a highlight for Fridrik Olafsson> Petrosian vs F Olafsson, 1959

<Their adjourned game was finished on a balcony overlooking Zagreb's Republic Square, where a giant demonstration board had been erected: "A crowd of... 5,000 assembled to watch. Olafsson won to... great acclamations... When he tried to go back to the hotel... the crowd insisted on carrying him on their shoulders." (Harry Golombek, 4th Candidates' Tournament, 1959- Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade- September 7th - October 29th" Hardinge Simpole, 2009 (First published as BCM Quarterly No.3, 1960))

Olafsson won the Zonal at Berg en Dal (1960a), above amongst others Bent Larsen. He also won the Special Zonal at Mariánské Lázne; (1961) which incorporated also players who could not compete at Berg en Dal, among them strong Eastern players as Filip, Uhlmann, and Szabó, all former or future Candidates. In the Interzonal at Stockholm in 1962, Fridrik Olafsson finished moderate on position eleven / twelve out of 23 players. He receded from World Chess Championship contests to devote himself to his profession.

He worked as a lawyer at the Icelandic Ministry of Justice and at the Icelandic Parliament.

In 1978, Friðrik Ólafsson won the election against Svetozar Gligoric; and succeeded Max Euwe as President of the international chess governing body FIDE and served for four years in this capacity.

During the tenure he presided over the 1981 Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship match. Since Korchnoi emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1976, the Soviets were holding Korchnoi's son, Igor and his wife Bella. Olafsson delayed the planned September 19 start date of the match 1981 in a bid to get the Soviets to release Victor's son and wife. For this attempt, Olafsson drew the wrath of the Soviets, who then backed the FIDE Vice-President, Florencio Campomanes for Presidency of FIDE. After losing the election in 1982 at Lucerne against the latter, Olafsson was appointed General Secretary to the Icelandic Parliament Althing.

Fridrik Olafsson continued to play occasionally into the 21st century, winning a rapid match against fellow veteran Bent Larsen in 2003 by a score of 5–3.

Today, he has retired from practicing law and lives in his native country of Iceland which in 1972, hosted the most famous chess match ever held, the World Chess Championship between Boris Spassky and Robert James "Bobby" Fischer. Fridrik Olafsson contributed much to the organiszation of this legendary event.

The respected statistician Jeff Sonas (chessmetrics) ranks Olafsson as the #13 player of the world in 1958. His best ranking in the FIDE ELO list was the #14= player in the world in 1969 (unofficial list based on results of the period between January 1966 and Spring 1969), Fridrik Olafsson remained a top fifty player (today regarded as Super Grandmasters) from the mid fifties until the early eighties. His highest ELO rating was 2600 (FIDE), his highest historical ELO 2692 (SONAS).

Olafsson usually played the Sicilian Defence against 1.e4 and the King's Indian Defence and Nimzo-Indian Defence against 1.d4. With White, he usually played the English Opening, but he also played 1.d4, 1.e4 and 1.Nf3 many times.

Happy birthday, good health, many more inspirational games and best wishes for Friðrik Ólafsson!>

Excellent and extensive work, about his career with description of all his games, tournament, matches and team events. Listing of his worthy opponents and results are included.

Iceland (with Hjartarson, Helgi Olafsson, Petursson, Arnason, and Fridrik Olafsson) is the top-seeded team, narrowly ahead of England 1 (Nunn on board one, Speelman on board two), followed by Armenia (Vaganian on board one): http://www.schachfestival.de/world-...