Dr. Anthony Saidy Remembers Fridrik Olafsson, Post #437/2025

Lubosh Kavalek (left) v. Fridrik Olafsson, no tournament listed.

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Dr. Anthony Saidy, International Master, shares his remembrance of Fridrik Olafsson, who recently passed away, aged 90.

It was my honor to know this fine and gentle man.

At the the beach in Bulgaria in 1958 I warned him what the southern sun could inflict on his very pale skin.

Weeks later I saw him qualify from the Portoroz Intezonal.

In Zurich two years later I dragged him & his Nordic rival Larsen to "Don Giovanni."

Once I complimented him on how he had used my favorite line, the Samisch v. KID, to crush Najdorf. He demurred, "The moves played themselves."

No amateur, un-coached player rose so high.

Statesman & national hero.

Why was he voted out of his delicately-handled FIDE presidency in 1982 in favor of Campomanes? Bribery.

Two decades later, he was influential in Iceland's magnanimous rescue and adoption of Fischer from a Japanese jail.

I never played him, but last year I enjoyed the expanded edition of his best games.

Olafsson is in the chess pantheon. -AFS