I remember quite well Larsen doing so in the Interzonals of '64, '67, 70 etc, even during his Candidates matches, when there was a lot at stake. Not to mention non-WC-cycle events.

Of course, in those days Larsen was such a strong player that despite his "unorthodox" approach, he was still able to be highly successful.

Apparently Larsen's attitude has not changed even now, some 4 decades later. But his playing strength has :-)

At least he doesn't have to worry about the concerns inherent to younger, active players. Things like ratings, prize money, qualifying etc.

<...The second from Bent Larsen <<<KAPP>>> principle “Keep All Pieces Protected” These come from Bent Larsen notes in Skakbladet to an old game against Seirawan.>

Anyone have more details on this Larsen <KAPP> principle?

It is often very risky to do this capture, and the story goes that a wealthy man once put a condition in his will, that his heir was only going to inherit him if he promised never to capture on b2/b7.

" When I was very young, I overprotected all the time, a la Nimzovitch My System. When I didn't know what to do, I would make an overprotection move, because at least I would have a principle: overprotect the e5 pawn or some such thing. However, I overprotect much less nowadays. "

I was there, saw all six games. Yes, it was a hot summer in Denver as I recall - but dry, not humid or muggy at all. The playing auditorium was fine - I'm sure it was air conditioned.

Kasparov seems to be quite schizophrenic about Fischer...Sometimes he gives him credit for being one of the most dominant players (of his own generation) the game has ever seen...And he admits that he grew up idolizing Fischer.

But it also seems like Kasparov realizes that Fischer is one of his strongest rivals for the mythical 'greatest player of all time' title.....

My wife is my second.

--- Larsen

...

Alternative QOTD

"my wife is the referee"

--- Every Patzer like us

..........:)-

The match was played at the Colorado Woman's College (later Temple Beull College) as I recall. Fairly large auditorium, perhaps 200-300 seats. for most of the match I recall it as being fairly full. A lot of us had pocket sets to follow along the games.

Fischer was actually quite a nice looking fellow, some gaunt perhaps. He had a casual, lanky walk, very peering eyes. I don't remember any particular incident - I guess he was on such a roll then he no time for bad behavior. I do remember him a few times looking sharply out at the audience if he heard ANY sound. Larsen looked a bit dumpy to me, not as handsome as his pictures...and he did seem uncomfortable as he moved his body.

The first game was quite interesting (a French) and complicated. We thought Larsen had the best of it for awhile in the middle game. There was a strong consensus by the third game that it was all over.

I met Fischer *very* briefly before the match. He needed some books and John Harris and John Howell (who did most of the work bringing the match to Denver) asked me if I had them. Fischer borrowed three books - Trifunovic's Grunfelda Indiska Odbrana (sorry <brankat> I spelled it wrong again!), Larsen's Selected Games and Gligoric's Sicilan. He returned two, signed, but kept one of them which I was able to replace easy enough.

Again, as to the heat: I am guessing it was high-80s most of the time but again, very dry and the auditorium was first class - I was 21 at the time and I remember it being much newer than the auditorium in Boulder where I attended college. Let's remember Larsen retired to Argentina...If anything affected him I would suspect it was the altitude (5280 above sea level). But I really think is was over after the first two or three games. I think it was the third game he played some strange move in a Sicilian and really got crushed.

I remember Fischer dressed quite nice in a light grey suit, peering eyes, large mouth ( :) ) long limbs. I would describe him (for the 3-4 minutes I was next to him) as business-like but quite a nervous personality. Seemed like a decent enough chap to me.