MARGEIR PETURSSON INTERVIEW

MARGEIR PETURSSON INTERVIEW
The Grandmaster
Who Rode the Financial Tiger
Interview by Ian Rogers, Photos by Cathy Rogers
M
argeir Petursson was Icelandic
Three years after I started reading chess books I was
Champion at 15 but played chess
sharing first in the Icelandic Championship – at 15. So it
professionally for only six years
went very fast.
before turning to a quiet life as a
conservative banker. He was thrown
[However] I became professional only when I was 28. I fin-
into the spotlight when the world economic crisis hit
ished my education, became a lawyer and then I worked
Iceland hard and he was one of the few who emerged
for four years. I was playing as well – I won the Hastings
almost unscathed.
Tournament of 1985/6 and became a GM – but I was frus-
Now 55, Petursson is one of Iceland’s richest citizens. Playing his first classical tournament in 15 years
in Sardinia in June, Petursson talked to Ian Rogers –
trated. You give a handicap when you have a day job,
so I decided ‘Lets play a few years when you don’t give
a handicap’.
whom he beat at a World Junior
It was a good year – so I was a
Championship 40 years earlier–
about retiring from professional
chess, running the Icelandic
bank that survived economic
meltdown, creating a chess club
in Ukraine and beating Magnus
Carlsen.
Chil d o f t h e
Fischer Boom
‘ I don´t regret the
decision, it was a great
experience, the life
of a chess pro has its
advantages.’
In 1972 everyone in Iceland got interested in chess
during the Fischer-Spassky match. I was interested in
games but I thought chess was like snakes and ladders.
Suddenly I realised that chess was much more interesting, a serious game.
professional for 5 or 6 years.
It was a very good time when
I went professional but nowadays to become a professional
at 28, it’s just a joke; you retire
at 28, you’re over the hill at 28! I
don´t regret the decision, it was
a great experience, the life of a
chess pro has its advantages.
Now if you want to be in the
top ten or twenty, to have a life outside chess seems
practically impossible. I wouldn’t really advise anybody
in Iceland to aim for professional chess; if you have an
option for a different career this kind of life is too tough;
to earn a living playing for maybe 20 or 30 years is not
realistic unless you are Carlsen or Caruana. But it wasn’t
as tough for us [in the 1980s and 90s].
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MARGEIR PETURSSON
On Leaving Professional Chess
and Beating Carlsen
But after 5 or 6 years I wanted to get out; it was enough
for me–I just didn’t want to be a chessplayer for life. If I
had more success, top 20 or something, maybe I would
have continued. I played Board 1 for Iceland in the 1996
Yerevan Olympiad and that was my last Olympics.
While I was finishing my time as a chess professional
I studied economics and the State Bank also gave me
some work while I was a professional because I was a
qualified barrister. It sped up my departure from chess
that I was personally present in Sveti Stefan when Fischer
came back, he made a shocking impression. It seemed he
paid too high
‘ I was personally
present in Sveti Stefan
when Fischer came
back, he made a
shocking impression.’
a price for his
successes.
My last serious
to ur nam e n t ,
played with a
normal time
control, was
the Zonal tour-
nament of 2000. I did well and played with Stefansson
for the qualification spot but for me it was the only time
in my life when I figured I had no business winning, no
real ambition. I had already qualified three times for the
Interzonals and to go to a fourth Interzonal made no
sense. I was no longer a serious player. Still I put up a
good fight against Stefansson but lost 1.5–0.5. So that
was the last serious tournament I played.
I did play a big blitz tournament in Reykjavik in 2004
and managed to beat Magnus Carlsen. He was 13 years
old, nearly a grandmaster and almost beat Kasparov in
this tournament. It’s a pity this game was not recorded;
I remember it of course more or less but I didn’t write it
down. He played the King’s Indian and I played some old
stuff; g3, Qc2, Rd1. At one point he could repeat moves
52 50 MOVES MAGAZINE
but he typically refused and then somehow I got the
advantage and I won. If I had known he would become
world champion I would have written it down. I regret it
now that I didn’t, but the tournament table is there.
I am a great admirer of Magnus and like to think that all
the tournaments my late friend Arnold Eikrem organized
in Norway had something to do with the foundation of his
great triumphs. But in his matches with Anand I rooted
for my old friend Vishy. In Lviv I joke that I taught him to
eat fish in Iceland and after that his rating skyrocketed!
Financial Meltdown in Iceland
I enjoyed the freedom of chess so after that I just couldn’t
imagine myself working again as a subordinate accepting orders, so I started my own small securities company
– MP Securities.
First we got a simple licence then we had an investment
banking licence in 2003 and we grew. In 2008 we got a
banking licence so we were a full bank. When they gave
us a banking licence it was when the system collapsed.
[The government] saw our bank was clean so they gave us
a licence; they wanted at least one [safe] bank. The others
had huge exposures that were difficult to see through.
For instance Glitnir [the sponsor of the 2006 tournament
and one of the many Icelandic banks which collapsed–IR]
was about 50 times bigger than us, they were expanding extremely fast. I was afraid for them. We could have
taken on a lot more risk but I didn’t want to. We had a
huge surplus of foreign currency because I knew what
was coming.
For Iceland the crisis was one year, 2008. The currency
collapsed. You could basically feel it – imported goods
became much more expensive. Salaries remained nominally the same but buying power collapsed by something
like 40% or more. So that was a shock. The country was
just totally overextended and we had to face it sooner or
INTERVIEW
later. I don’t understand how foreigners kept financing
Still, chess is more stressful than business. Of course in
Iceland; it made no sense.
2008 I was very stressed but I am just so used to these
huge market fluctuations and what can you do if things
Even so, the crisis in Iceland has been widely overplayed.
are out of your control? If you are a serious chess-player
There was serious unemployment but it didn’t even reach
you are in a tournament and your whole train of think-
10%. In Europe even now [in some countries] you have
ing, [all day], is around the games.
20% so it was nothing compared to that. But there were
many individual tragedies and broken dreams.
Banking and Chess in Lviv
Then, as a consequence of the banking collapse they put
By 2008 I was running operations in the Baltics and
on currency restrictions. And we could only change our
Ukraine, a pension fund in Lithuania and a bank in Lviv.
foreign currency at a fixed rate–the central bank insisted
MP Bank in Iceland was sold to a group of Icelandic and
we change it–it was basically confiscated. This was the
foreign investors in 2011. They still operate it. MP Pension
worst thing that happened to me–not the collapse. You
Fund in Lithuania was sold last year.
can’t continue like this but we already had operations
outside Iceland so I had an escape–plan B you could say.
A few years ago after our Iceland bank operation was
I had started to diversify out of Iceland already in 2004.
sold then I had much more time. I was stationed in Lviv
Things were just totally crazy in Iceland – they just had
on the supervisory board of the city bank, Bank Lviv. In
to go down in flames.
Ukraine people don’t have investment horizons because
AUGUST 2015 53
MARGEIR PETURSSON
they don’t trust banks. I have a friend in Ukraine and he
put money in banks and he always lost it. Three times. So
he told me ‘I am not going to any bank even when I know
you are working there.’
There have been so many schemes in Ukraine and if you
try to market a private pension company people will just
think they will never see the money again. In the Ukraine
it would be interesting to do this but the market is just
not ready.
I live seven or eight months of the year in Lviv. I could have
chosen an easier country but my experience from Iceland
has been very useful in Ukraine and I speak Russian and
understand Ukrainian. One of the very positive things for
me is the chess in Lviv; there are 40 grandmasters originating from Lviv and really strong young players.
In Ukraine I have my own chess club, the Petursson Club,
arranged with Adrian Mikhalchishin. So far we don’t play
club matches, just blitz. We try to gather every one or two
months. We just see who is in town; Adrian calls around.
I do the prizes. We play a round robin blitz and then have
dinner afterwards. Sometimes I win against these 2700
guys in Lviv in blitz but most of the time they crush me.
It’s nice to meet the others and I hear first hand what is
going on with chess. It’s still my passion, I enjoy it a lot as
an amateur and sponsor.
When there is a Chess Olympiad, the World Championship
or big tournaments we follow the games and we can have
really intellectual discussions about it on a very high level.
The strength in Lviv is simply unbelievable. It’s fascinating
for me to see how chess has developed, the top players
are taking crazy risks and their ability to calculate complicated variations is really admirable.
The night before I left for Sardinia we had a big celebration
in the club for Maria Muzychuk for becoming Women’s
World Champion. She and Anna come very often to play
blitz in my club.
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On the Creation of the Icelandic
Legends Team
Three years ago we went to Portoroz with Fridrik
[Olafsson] to commemorate that he qualified for the
Interzonal in 1958 – before I was born. A great trip; there
were 7 grandmasters and Fridrik showed all the games
and showed where they were played. Tal won the tournament [and Fridrik was equal with Fischer IR]. It was an
historic Interzonal.
One and a half years ago, Adrian suggested that we
Icelandic ‘old guys’ [should form a legends team] at
the European Teams Championship [in Reykjavik in
November]. When in Iceland I always play chess with my
friends there, Johann [Hjartarsson], Helgi [Olafsson] and
Jon [Arnason] amongst others. So I told them about the
idea and they immediately caught on. Then we told the
Federation and they immediately said yes, fantastic. And
then Fridrik, even he was ready, so now there is no way
out of it!
I figured I had to do some training for the European
Championships, not only play blitz but some serious
chess. So that’s how I ended up here in Sardinia, my first
tournament in 15 years. I met Gunnar [Bjornsson, the
organiser of the Reykjavik Open] in Italy when he was
on the way back [from Porto Mannu in 2014] and he was
saying this is such a nice tournament – something for the
retired guys. Then Yuri [Garrett] was in Reykjavik [at the
Reykjavik Open in March] and he promoted the tournament, very successfully as you can see.
Adrian told me when I left for Porto Mannu that he was
quite worried about me and the reputation of our club. He
gave me a book by John Nunn – chess puzzles–and said
“you have to study this for half an hour every day before
the games just to avoid blundering.” I do it; it’s nice to be
on the beach and just prepare for half an hour and read
this book but not to be too tired. One round I neglected
this advice and lost.
INTERVIEW
A Second Chess Career?
I will not have a second chess career. But I heard there is
a nice atmosphere in senior tournaments and I think it is
a very positive development. I can see myself playing in
some senior events. John Nunn is playing and he looks
like he is having fun.
I see my Elo slowly going down – there is not much to
do about it. Here I blundered twice in the same game
against Codenotti so of course I was frustrated. When I
hung the exchange against him I was upset at looking like
an idiot. Then I had a good time analysing it with Fridrik
and Johann and my feeling was more like ‘So what?’. The
agony is not so terrible; you just accept that your rating
will slowly decrease and you try to keep it from doing so.
Icelandic legends GMs Margier Petursson and Fridrik Olafsson playing in Sardinia
AUGUST 2015 55