Henrik Danielsen

Henrik Danielsen, 2008
Association	Denmark (until 2006) Iceland (since 2006)
Born	January 23, 1966 Nykøbing Falster , Denmark
title	International Master (1991) Grand Master (1996)
Current  Elo rating	2514 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2545 (May 2011)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Henrik Danielsen (born January 23, 1966 in Nykøbing Falster ) is a Danish chess player and coach who has been playing for the Icelandic Chess Federation since 2006 . He has held the title of Grand Master since 1996 .

Life

He is the director of the Hrókurinn chess school in Reykjavík , Iceland and plays for the local club Haukar . Danielsen sponsors the training of young people in Greenland and Namibia through Hrókurinn and puts together instructional videos. In the Danish Skakligaen (formerly 1st Division) he played until 1997 and from 2002 to 2004 for the Skakklubben K41 , with which he was Danish team champion in 1996 , from 1997 to 2000 for the SK 1934 Nykøbing , with which he was Danish team champion in 2000 , from 2010 to 2013 at BMS Skak , in the 2016/17 season for the Jetsmark Skakklub and since 2018 for the Xtracon Køge team , with whom he was champion in 2019 , in Sweden for Lunds ASK . In Germany he played from 1997 to 2001 for the Schachfreunde Schwerin in the Oberliga Nord and from 2001 to 2004 for the second team of Lübecker SV in the 2nd Bundesliga North . Since 2008 he has been playing again for Schachfreunde Schwerin . At the European Club Cup Henrik Danielsen took in 1988 with the Skakklubben K41 and 1999 with the SK 1934 Nykøbing part.

For Denmark he took part in the Chess Olympiads in 1992 , 1994 and 1996 , for Iceland in 2006 , 2008 and 2012 . His overall result at the Chess Olympiads is 30.5 points from 55 games (+21 = 19 −15, 55.5%). He also took part in the European Team Championships in 1992 for Denmark, 2007, 2011 , 2013 and 2015 for Iceland. In 2009 he won the Icelandic individual championship in Bolungarvík .

Danielsen is one of the few chess players who meanwhile still successfully uses the Bird opening 1. f2 – f4 at grandmaster level. In instructional videos he calls it the Polar Bear System .

Game example

Danielsen - Nielsen, 2003

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Position after 21.… Bf5xc2

Danielsen played an interesting game with the polar bear system in 2003 at Papir Kop in Dalum, a suburb of Odense , against his Danish compatriot and grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen . In the position in the diagram Danielsen ignored the attack of the c2-bishop on his queen and played on checkmate :

22.Rf1xf7!

If Black now takes the queen, he will be checkmated in a few moves after 23. e5 – e6, with which the bishop on a1 intervenes decisively in the game. In the game it followed:

22.… h7 – h6

23. e5 – e6 h6xg5

24. Rf7-g7 +

Kg8 – f8 is followed by checkmate on h8 after 25. Rg7 – h7. To

24.… Kg8 – h8

25. Rg7xe7 + Kh8-g8

a queen sacrifice follows , which Black must accept:

26. Qa4 – e8 + Rb8xe8

27. Re7xe8 + Kg8-h7

and now White is mating with Re8 – h8.

Web links

• The Polar Bear System . Henrik Danielsen's website
• Replayable chess games by Henrik Danielsen on chessgames.com (English)

References and comments

1. ↑ Old DWZ index card at the German Chess Federation
2. ↑ Henrik Danielsen's results at European Club Cups on olimpbase.org (English)
3. ↑ Henrik Danielsen's Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
4. ↑ Henrik Danielsen's European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
5. ↑ Danielsen analyzes his game on his website (Flash video, English) (no longer online)