Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson | |
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Country | Sweden |
Born | Västerås, Sweden | 27 June 1951
Title |
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FIDE rating | 2518 (April 2024) |
Peak rating | 2655 (January 1997) |
Peak ranking | No. 4 (January 1983) |
ICCF rating | 2737 (April 2004) |
ICCF peak rating | 2821 (July 1998) |
Ulf Andersson (born 27 June 1951) is a leading Swedish chess player.
Chess career
At his peak, Andersson reached number four on the
Playing style
Andersson is a very solid positional player. He draws a high percentage of his games against fellow grandmasters (Kaufeld & Kern 2011:12). He is renowned as a great player of endgames, especially rook endgames, and is famous for winning seemingly "unwinnable" endgames, often in very long games (Kaufeld & Kern 2011:167). Jacob Aagaard wrote about Andersson in his book Excelling at Chess, stating: "He is a very prophylactic player, seeing all kinds of tactics well in advance and avoiding pitfalls with great skill." Chess writer Dennis Monokroussos once remarked of Andersson's style,
For most of us, if we're playing a peer and major exchanges occur, a quick draw is the likely result ... for Andersson ... exchanges [are] often not the prelude to a quick draw but the signal that it [is] time for his opponent to start suffering.[3]
Correspondence play
In 1995,[4] Andersson began playing correspondence chess, this year[5] becoming a grandmaster in that form of chess as well. In 2002, he reached the top of the correspondence chess rating list (Kaufeld & Kern 2011:11). His correspondence games tend to be very tactical, which contrasts sharply with his style of play over the board. Very few players in history have been as successful as Andersson at both forms of chess.
Notable games
In the following game, using the "hedgehog" formation he in part originated (characterized by a half-open c-file and pawns on a6, b6, d6, and e6, knights on d7 and f6, bishops on b7 and e7, a rook on c8, and kingside castling), Andersson inflicts upon Anatoly Karpov the latter's first loss as world champion:
a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
8 | 8 | ||||||||
7 | 7 | ||||||||
6 | 6 | ||||||||
5 | 5 | ||||||||
4 | 4 | ||||||||
3 | 3 | ||||||||
2 | 2 | ||||||||
1 | 1 | ||||||||
a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Nf6 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 Be7 9.Be2 0-0 10.0-0 b6 11.Be3 Bb7 12.Rc1 Re8 13.Qb3 Nd7 14.Rfd1 Rc8 15.Rd2 Qc7 16.Qd1 Qb8 17.f3 Ba8 18.Qf1 Nce5 19.Nab1 Nf6 20.Kh1 h6 21.Rdd1 Bf8 22.Nd2 Rcd8 23.Qf2 Ned7 24.a3 (diagram) d5 25.cxd5 exd5 26.exd5 Bd6 27.Nf1 Rxe3 (an
References
- ^ (Kaufeld & Kern 2011:217)
- ^ "Individual medals". OlimpBase.org. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
- ^ ChessBase News – Technique and psychology with Ulf Andersson
- ^ NOR/NPSF-50, NSPF 50 years
- ^ Player Details 450018 SWE GM Andersson, Ulf
- ^ "Karpov vs. Andersson, Milan 1975". Chessgames.com.
- ^ "Happy Birthday Ulf Andersson". ChessVista.com. Archived from the original on 12 November 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
Bibliography
- Kaufeld, Jurgen; Kern, Guido (2011), Grandmaster Chess Strategy: What amateurs can learn from Ulf Andersson's positional masterpieces, ISBN 978-90-5691-346-5
External links
- Ulf Andersson rating card at FIDE
- Ulf Andersson player details at ICCF
- Ulf Andersson player profile and games at Chessgames.com
- Ulf Andersson member profile at the Internet Chess Club
- Ulf Andersson Chess Olympiad record at OlimpBase.org