A Dean of American Chess

Arthur Bisguier (1929-2017) was a grandmaster (1957) from New York. The 1954 U.S. Champion won clear or shared first place at the U.S. Open five times between 1950 and 1969. He also represented the USA in five Olympiads between 1952 and 1972.

As an author he wrote, among other works, The Art of Bisguier: Selected Games 1961-2003.

Bent Larsen (1935-2010) was a top player, and a famously combative one, often employing risky openings with both colors. This may have extracted more points than usual against relatively weaker opposition, but sometimes things went badly wrong, as here.

 

Who’s Afraid of the Pirc/Modern?

In May 2020, I featured another classic demolition of the Pirc; do I have something against this opening?

Variations and symbols are from the bulletin (source: MegaBase). The text comments are mine.