GM Fridrik Olafsson

[Simon Rogers]

The sad news has been reported that the Icelandic Grandmaster Fridrik Olafsson passed away on 4th April 2025, at the age of 90.
Fridrik was born on 26th January 1935 in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was six-time Icelandic Chess Champion and two-time Nordic Chess Champion.
In 1955-56, Fridrik shared first with Viktor Korchnoi at Hastings.
He also was President of FIDE between 1978 and 1982.
RIP

[Matt Mackenzie]

The last survivor of the 1959 Candidates as well.

[Nick Ivell]

A very strong player who destroyed the young Fischer with a positional exchange sac in the 1958 Interzonal.

[Nick Burrows]

[Event "Portoroz Interzonal"] [Site "Portoroz SLO"] [Date "1958.08.22"] [Round "11"] [White "Fridrik Olafsson"] [Black "Robert James Fischer"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D38"] [PlyCount "87"] [EventDate "1958.08.05"] 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. d4 Bb4 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 c5 8. e3 Nc6 9. Rc1 c4 10. Be2 Be6 11. O-O O-O 12. Nd2 Be7 13. b3 g5 14. Bg3 Ba3 15. Rc2 Nb4 16. bxc4 Nxc2 17. Qxc2 dxc4 18. Nb5 Bb4 19. Nc7 Bxd2 20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Bxc4 Qe8 22. Qxd2 Ne4 23. Qd3 Nxg3 24. hxg3 Rf6 25. Qe4 Rc8 26. Bb3 Qd7 27. Rd1 Re8 28. f4 Qh7 29. Qe5 Qf5 30. g4 Qxe5 31. dxe5 Rf7 32. f5 Rc7 33. Rd6 Rc5 34. Bxe6+ Kf8 35. Bb3 Rcxe5 36. Rxh6 Rxe3 37. Rg6 R8e4 38. Rxg5 Rg3 39. Rg8+ Ke7 40. g5 Re2 41. Bd5 Kd6 42. Bf3 Rxa2 43. f6 Ke6 44. Re8+ 1-0

[Nick Ivell]

And then in the Candidates Bobby tried his own exchange sac and lost again.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

And then in the Candidates Bobby tried his own exchange sac and lost again.

[Event "Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade Candidates"] [Site "Bled, Zagreb & Belgrade YUG"] [Date "1959.09.14"] [EventDate "1959.09.07"] [Round "5"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Fridrik Olafsson"] [Black "Robert James Fischer"] [ECO "B90"] [WhiteElo "?"] [BlackElo "?"] [PlyCount "90"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bc4 e6 7. a3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Ba2 b5 10. f4 Bb7 11. f5 e5 12. Nde2 Nbd7 13. Ng3 Rc8 14. Bg5 Nb6 15. Nh5 Rxc3 16. bxc3 Nxh5 17. Bxe7 Qxe7 18. Qxh5 Bxe4 19. Qg4 d5 20. f6 Qc5+ 21. Kh1 g6 22. Rae1 Re8 23. Qh4 h5 24. Qg5 Nc4 25. Bxc4 bxc4 26. Re3 Qf8 27. Rb1 Rb8 28. Ree1 Rxb1 29. Rxb1 Bxc2 30. Rb7 Bf5 31. Qe3 Be6 32. Qxe5 Qxa3 33. h3 Qc1+ 34. Kh2 g5 35. Ra7 h4 36. Rxa6 Kh7 37. Ra1 Qf4+ 38. Qxf4 gxf4 39. Rf1 d4 40. cxd4 Kg6 41. Rxf4 Bf5 42. Rf3 Kxf6 43. Re3 Kg5 44. g3 Bd3 45. d5 Bf5 1-0

To be fair to Bobby, in that 1959 Candidates Tournament he won his two games against Olafson with White, and drew the other game with Black, making it overall 2.5-1.5 in their 4-game mini-match within that quadruple-round APA.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Reykjavik tournament starts tomorrow, and of course their website pays tribute https://www.reykjavikopen.com/fridrik-o ... 1935-2025/

[John Upham]

From the Alekhine Memorial:

From the Alekhine Memorial

img_0115lv.jpg (1.91 MiB) Viewed 2269 times

Caption for above

img_0116_lv.jpg (902.03 KiB) Viewed 2269 times

[Nick Ivell]

In which he drew with Karpov as Black, so clearly no slouch.

[NickFaulks]

Was he the last FIDE President whom the BCF / ECF voted for? Perhaps he was unopposed, depriving the BCF of a losing candidate for whom they might have voted.

On reflection, I seem to remember the BCF was somehow persuaded at the last minute to switch their support to Campomanes in 1994, one year before he was finally removed.

[Mick Norris]

TWIC

Pete Doggers

Olafsson was among the world’s best 50 players for about a quarter of a century, between 1955 and 1980. In this period, he defeated many of the biggest names in chess, including World Champions Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Bobby Fischer, and Anatoly Karpov, but also e.g. Paul Keres, Efim Geller, Viktor Korchnoi, Mark Taimanov, Yuri Averbakh, Miguel Najdorf, Bent Larsen, Svetozar Gligoric, Lajos Portisch, Robert Hubner, Zoltan Ribli, Ulf Andersson, Jan Timman, Tony Miles, and Yasser Seirawan.

[NickFaulks]

so clearly no slouch.

Perhaps not the most apposite description. In the days of 40/150, he was noted for having to play his last fifteen or so moves before the time control in about a minute.

[Nick Ivell]

I did not know his clock handling was so bad. That would have held him back.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Some memories of Olafsson from Jan Timman at this New In Chess podcast:

https://www.newinchess.com/blog/post/ni ... jan-timman