The Chess Saga of Fridrik Ólafsson

Boka om og med Islands verdensstjerne i sjakk og senere FIDE-president Fridrik Ólafsson, bygget på hans egen partisamling med 50 partier. En innbundet bok med 288 sider, 118 kommenterte partier og mange fotografier.

Vi er stolte over at boka ble shortlistet, som det heter, blant fire finalister i "English Chess Federation's Book of the Year Award 2021". https://www.englishchess.org.uk/book-of-the-year-2021-shortlist/

At long last a book in English about Fridrik Ólafsson's chess career. The career of the famous Icelandic grandmaster is described through 10 chapters starting from 1946, up to his last championship participation in 2016.

The book contains 114 annotated games plus 4 game finishes, of which 52 games are presented and annotated by Fridrik Ólafsson himself. Two of the games in the book are wins against Tal, one of them very brilliant, two wins against Fischer, two against Petrosian and one against Karpov. That was in Buenos Aires 1980 when the FIDE President beat the reigning World champion.

The book has also 115 photos, and quite many of them not published before.

The text on the back of the book:

Chess grandmaster Fridrik Ólafsson was the World championship candidate who became a national hero at home in Iceland and later President of the World Chess Federation, FIDE. This book follows his career with 114 games plus 4 game finishes, most of them played against leading grandmasters of several generations, from the legendary Savielly Tartakower in 1954 to David Navara in 2013.

The core of this book are 50 games which Fridrik presented and annotated for an Icelandic games collection back in 1976. Among his defeated opponents in this book are World Champions Petrosian, Tal, Fischer and Karpov, and lots of the world's other strongest players.

At long last Fridrik Ólafsson's chess career, with commentaries to many of his best and instructive attacking games, is available in English. Jan Timman wrote: "With his unorthodox and enterprising style posed a threat to all top players, including the Soviet elite."

The book has a foreword by the President of Iceland, Gudni Th. Jóhannesson.

--

The authors in short:

Fridrik Ólafsson was born 1935 in Reykjavik where he still lives. Nordic Champion in 1953, at 18. Won his first grandmaster tournament at Hastings 1955/56, shared with Korchnoi and ahead of Taimanov. A World Championship candidate 1958-59. President of FIDE 1978-82. Besides his great chess career, he is a lawyer, and was for 21 years Secretary General of the Icelandic parliament, Althingi.

Øystein Brekke was born in 1956 and is a Norwegian chess player, organizer, arbiter, trainer, historian, author and publisher.

From the Foreword by President of Iceland Gudni Th. Jóhannesson:

"Throughout his career, Fridrik Ólafsson carried the reputation of his nation around the world. He gained renown for his brilliance at the chessboard, and equally for his refinement and elegance. Thus, Fridrik won the respect and admiration of all Icelanders, as well as vast numbers of chess fans internationally."

From the Preface by Øystein Brekke:

Fridrik Ólafsson may be the strongest chess player of the 20th century about whom until now no book existed in any of the big languages. It feels great to present to the world this first book outside Iceland about the chess career of their first and most prominent grandmaster.

During 25 years from about 1955 to 1980 he was one of the world's ten to fifty best players, in spite of coming from remote Iceland and in spite of giving priority also to this studies, his job, his family, and being elected President of FIDE.

Fridrik Ólafsson has had a personal attacking style which you may study and admire in this book, with more than 50 games explained by Fridrik himself. Among his victims are World Champions Tal, Petrosian, Fischer and Karpov, and other top players of the era like Keres, Geller, Korchnoi, Taimanov, Averbakh, Stein, Reshevsky, Najdorf, Panno, Larsen, Gligoric, Uhlmann, Benkö, Portisch, Szabo, O'Kelly, Donner and Unzicker, and also somewhat younger players like Hübner, Tukmakov, Savon, Kavalek, Smejkal, Ribli, Sax, Quinteros, Andersson, Timman, Browne, Miles and Seirawan.

The platform of the book is Fridrik's own Icelandic games collection from 1976 "Vid skákbordid i aldarfjördung - 50 valdar sóknar skákir" (At the chess board for a quarter of cengtury - 50 selected chess games). Another appropriate name of this book would have been "50 Attacking Games". There are many lessons to be learnt here about both how to build an attack and how to carry it out.

The work on an English Edition started in Reykjavik 2009 when Fridrik presented to Gunnar Finnlaugsson the handwritten manuscript with a translation of his Icelandic book, made by the late Icelandic chess player and English teacher Björn Johannesson. Gunnar later got exclusive game commentaries to this book from grandmasters Tiger Hillarp Persson, Axel Smith, Ian Rogers and Yasser Seirawan, and was permitted to use annotiations from Margeir Pétursson, Jóhann Hjartarson and Jan Timman. ...