Friðrik Ólafsson

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Friðrik Ólafsson (born January 26, 1935) is a chess Grandmaster and former president of FIDE.

He was born in Reykjavík in Iceland. A first time winner of the Icelandic Championship in 1952 and of the Scandinavian Championship a year later, he rapidly became recognised as the strongest Icelandic player of his generation. Ólafsson's first result of international note was shared first with Viktor Korchnoi at Hastings 1955-56. He became a Grandmaster in 1958, and his result in the Interzonal tournament at Portorož in the same year (with the same score as Bobby Fischer) qualified him for the Candidates Tournament (the last stage to determine the challenger to the World Chess Champion) the following year. There, however, he finished seventh of eight with 10/28.

Among his best tournament results were joint third in the strong Piatigorsky Cup, Los Angeles 1963 with 7.5/14 and shared first with Ljubomir Ljubojevic at Wijk aan Zee 1976, ahead of Mikhail Tal. In 1978 he succeeded Max Euwe as President of international chess governing body FIDE. In 1982 he was replaced by Florencio Campomanes and appointed Secretary to the Icelandic Parliament. Ólafsson continued to play occasionally into the 21st century, winning a rapid match against fellow veteran Bent Larsen in 2003 by a score of 5-3.

Ólafsson usually played the Sicilian Defence against 1.e4 and the Nimzo-Indian Defence against 1.d4. With white, he usually played the English Opening, but played almost as many games with 1.d4 and 1.e4.

In life outside of chess, he is married and has two grown-up daughters. Prior to 1974 when he became a chess professional, he worked as a lawyer at the Icelandic Ministry of Justice.

Friðrik Ólafsson should not be confused with fellow Icelandic Grandmaster Helgi Ólafsson.