caption country peakrating death_date death_place birth_place title fideid birth_date birthname image article_title name
bent larsen -lrb- 1961 -rrb- denmark 2660 -lrb- january 1971 -rrb- 9 september 2010 buenos aires tilsted near thisted , denmark grandmaster -lrb- 1956 -rrb- 1400029 4 march 1935 jørgen bent larsen bentlarsen.jpg bent larsen
 bent larsen
bent larsen

jørgen bent larsen -lrb- 4 march 19359 september 2010 -rrb- was a danish chess grandmaster and author .
larsen was known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play , and he was the first western player to pose a serious challenge to the soviet union 's dominance in chess .
he is considered to be the strongest player born in denmark and the strongest from scandinavia until the emergence of magnus carlsen .
larsen was a six time danish champion and a candidate for the world chess championship on four occasions , reaching the semifinal three times .
he had multiple wins over all seven world champions who held the title from 1948 to 1985 : mikhail botvinnik , vasily smyslov , mikhail tal , tigran petrosian , boris spassky , bobby fischer , and anatoly karpov , but lifetime minus scores against them .
on a percentage basis , his best score against a world champion was with max euwe .
larsen and euwe met over the board only once , at the munich olympiad in 1958 ; the game ended in a draw .
from the early 1970s , he divided his year between las palmas and buenos aires , with his argentinian-born wife .
he suffered from diabetes and died in 2010 from a cerebral haemorrhage .
