{"id":9698,"date":"2025-04-09T20:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chessbd.com\/?p=9698"},"modified":"2025-04-09T20:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:10:18","slug":"fridrik-olafsson-1935-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chessbangladesh.com\/?p=9698","title":{"rendered":"Fridrik Olafsson (1935 \u2013 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Fridrik Olafsson, Iceland\u2019s first Grandmaster and the fourth President of FIDE, has died aged 90. A six-time national champion and two-time Nordic Chess Champion, he led the global chess body from 1978 to 1982.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born on January 26, 1935, in Reykjavik, Olafsson was taught chess by his father when he was eight. His first big national success came at the age of 17, when he won the Icelandic chess championship in 1952. This would be the first of six national titles (1952, 1953, 1957, 1961, 1962, and 1969). The following year, Olafsson became the Scandinavian Champion and also won a bronze medal at the World Junior Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He rose to international prominence at the 1955\u201356 Hastings Chess Congress, where he shared first place with Viktor Korchnoi. Arriving late and without a hotel reservation, he spent his first night in a Hastings police station cell\u2014courtesy of a sympathetic officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Olafsson qualified for the 1958\u201360 World Championship cycle, finishing joint 5th at the Portoro\u017e Interzonal, which earned him the Grandmaster title\u2014making him the first Icelander to do so\u2014and a place in the 1959 Candidates Tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was the peak of his playing career. Playing at the top, he defeated Bobby Fischer, Tigran Petrosian and Mikhail Tal\u2014each on two occasions\u2014establishing himself among the world\u2019s elite. At the 1959 Candidates tournament in Yugoslavia, he famously defeated Tigran Petrosian in front of a crowd of 5,000 spectators, who \u2013 according to Harry Golombek \u2013 celebrated by carrying him on their shoulders afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1976 Olafsson shared first place with Ljubomir Ljubojevic at the prestigious Wijk aan Zee tournament. He was a runner-up at the event in 1971, sharing second place with Gligoric, Petrosian and Ivkov. Olafsson represented Iceland in eight Chess Olympiads between 1952 and 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1980, while serving as FIDE President, Olafsson defeated reigning World Champion Anatoly Karpov at the Clarin Tournament in Buenos Aires. The victory earned him membership in the so-called \u201cMikhail Chigorin Club\u201d\u2014players who beat a sitting world champion but never became one themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bAlthough Fridrik Olafsson never secured the World Chess Championship title, he frequently stood atop the global chess podiums\u2014not as a player, but as the President of FIDE. In 1978, at the Congress in Buenos Aires, he defeated Narciso Rabell Mendez and Svetozar Gligori\u0107 to become the fourth president of the world governing body of chess, succeeding Max Euwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During his mandate as President, Olafsson focused on securing more commercial sponsorship for FIDE and improving relations between the Soviets and the rest of the chess world. He also oversaw the controversial 1981 World Championship match between Viktor Korchnoi and Karpov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the 1982 election, Olafsson lost to Florencio Campomanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though best known for his chess achievements, Olafsson\u2019s professional background was in law. Before FIDE, he worked at the Icelandic Ministry of Justice. Afterwards, he served as Secretary-General of the Icelandic Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In January, he celebrated his 90th birthday, at which he was joined by the active FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Olafsson will be remembered as the man who put Iceland on the global chess map\u2014well before the 1972 Fischer\u2013Spassky match\u2014and helped FIDE grow in stature during a pivotal era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fridrik Olafsson, Iceland\u2019s first Grandmaster and the fourth President of FIDE, has died aged 90. A six-time national champion and two-time Nordic Chess Champion, he led the global chess body from 1978 to 1982. Born on January 26, 1935, in Reykjavik, Olafsson was taught chess by his father when he was eight. His first big&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fridrik Olafsson (1935 \u2013 2025) -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chessbangladesh.com\/?p=9698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fridrik Olafsson (1935 \u2013 2025) -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fridrik Olafsson, Iceland\u2019s first Grandmaster and the fourth President of FIDE, has died aged 90. 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