Helgi Ólafsson (born 15 August 1956) is an Icelandic

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

grandmaster. He is a six-time Icelandic Chess Champion.

Chess career

A native of

Heimaey Heimaey (), is an Icelandic island. At , it is the largest island in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, and the largest and most populated island off the Icelandic coast. Heimaey is off the south coast of Iceland. It is the only populated isla ...

, the largest and sole populated island in the

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyja ...

archipelago off the south coast of Iceland, Helgi was sixteen when the

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

–

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...

World Chess Championship 1972, dubbed the chess world's "Match of the Century", was held in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

. He subsequently became one of a group of Icelandic chess prodigies who emerged in its aftermath, achieving the title of grandmaster in 1985. He is the No. 5 ranked Icelandic player as of October 2017. He is author of the book ''Bobby Fischer Comes Home: The Final Years in Iceland, a Saga of Friendship and Lost Illusions'' (2014), New In Chess, .

References

External links

* * Helgi Olafsson Chess Grandmasters Helgi Olafsson 1956 births Living people {{Iceland-chess-bio-stub