Olaf Barda
Encyclopedia
Olaf Barda born Olaf M. Olsen, was a Norwegian
chess
player. He was the first Norwegian awarded the title of International Master, which he received in 1952.
Barda won the Norwegian Chess Championship
six times, 1930 (still with the name Olsen), 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953, and 1957.
Barda authored the Norwegian instruction manual "Sjakk!", and wrote the chess column for the newspaper Dagbladet
.
Barda was also a strong correspondence chess
player, winning the Norwegian correspondence chess championships in 1946 and 1949/1950. He received the title of Grandmaster in correspondence chess in 1953 and finished fourth in the Fourth World Correspondence Chess Championship played between 1950 and 1953. This was the best Norwegian result in that contest until Ivar Bern
won the 17th championship in 2006.
According to ChessBase
, Barda usually opened with 1.d4 when he was playing White. With black against 1.e4 Barda played several variations of the Sicilian Defence
(1...c5), but occasionally played 1...d6 (the Pirc Defense) or 1...e5 allowing the Ruy Lopez
. Against 1.d4 his repertoire is varied, playing such openings such as the Old Indian Defense
, Nimzo-Indian Defense and Slav Defense
.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player. He was the first Norwegian awarded the title of International Master, which he received in 1952.
Barda won the Norwegian Chess Championship
Norwegian Chess Championship
The Norwegian Chess Championship is an annual tournament held in Norway during the month of July, in order to determine the national chess champion. The tournament is held at different venues each year as part of the Landsturnering...
six times, 1930 (still with the name Olsen), 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953, and 1957.
Barda authored the Norwegian instruction manual "Sjakk!", and wrote the chess column for the newspaper Dagbladet
Dagbladet
Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....
.
Barda was also a strong correspondence chess
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
player, winning the Norwegian correspondence chess championships in 1946 and 1949/1950. He received the title of Grandmaster in correspondence chess in 1953 and finished fourth in the Fourth World Correspondence Chess Championship played between 1950 and 1953. This was the best Norwegian result in that contest until Ivar Bern
Ivar Bern
Ivar Bern is a Norwegian chess player, most famous for being the seventeenth ICCF World Champion in correspondence chess. In over the board chess he holds an International Master title....
won the 17th championship in 2006.
According to ChessBase
ChessBase
ChessBase GmbH is a German company that markets chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates a server for online chess. Set up in 1998, it maintains and sells massive databases, containing most historic games, that permit analysis that had not been possible prior to computing...
, Barda usually opened with 1.d4 when he was playing White. With black against 1.e4 Barda played several variations of the Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...
(1...c5), but occasionally played 1...d6 (the Pirc Defense) or 1...e5 allowing the Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...
. Against 1.d4 his repertoire is varied, playing such openings such as the Old Indian Defense
Old Indian Defense
The Old Indian Defense is a chess opening defined by the moves:This opening is distinguished from the King's Indian Defense by Black developing his king's bishop on e7 rather than fianchettoing it at g7...
, Nimzo-Indian Defense and Slav Defense
Slav Defense
The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Slav is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's Gambit. Although it was analyzed as early as 1590, it was not until the 1920s that it started to be explored extensively...
.