Olav Ulvestad

Olav Ulvestad (October 27, 1912 – August 24, 2000) was a well-known American chess player.

Olav Ulvestad was born on October 27, 1912, in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington, to Martin Ulvestad his wife (Norwegian immigrants.)

Ulvestad began playing chess in his teens. While still in high school, he began practicing blindfold play and when asked if he was able to play by memory or did he keep a mental image in his head, he said, "I try to keep a clear mental picture of the boards in my mind. Of course the board where I'm playing at the moment is the clearest in my mind, but subconsciously keep the image of all ten boards. I guess it's a kind of idea, photographic mind." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 1934).

Ulvestad learned to play at age 17 and remained in obscurity in chess because Washington was so far from the center of chess in the U.S. Despite that, in the 1920s and 1930s, there were a number of strong players in Washington and Oregon. His first known result appears to be a third-place finish in the 1932 state championship.

He spent nearly three years in Alaska (from late 1935 to late 1938) in search of work but eventually returned home. After excellent results in tournaments on the West Coast, he decided to try for national recognition and moved to New York City.

In 1934, 1952, and 1956, he won the Washington State Championship.

In his first major tournament in 1939 against some of the best American players at Ventnor City, New Jersey, he produced a sensational win over Anthony Santasiere. 

Also in 1939, at the U.S. Open Championship Preliminaries, Ulvestad finished 2nd behind Samuel Reshevsky with 4.5 points out of six and so qualified for the finals. In the finals, he scored +3 -7 =3 and tied with Weaver W. Adams for 9th place out of 12 players. He defeated Adams in their individual game.

In 1941, Ulvestad became better known in the chess field with the publication of the newsletter along with Kenneth Harkness, Chess Charts.

In the spring of 1941, he enlisted in the military and was assigned to a battalion of tanks in North Africa, going on to Italy, France, and Germany with the Allied advance until his return to the United States in the summer of 1945.

He returned to competitive chess in 1946 at the U.S. Open. He easily qualified for the finals, scoring +6 -1 =1, placed ahead of Herman Steiner, Abraham Kupchik, and Gerald Katz. But, he only finished 5th (out of 10) in the finals, scoring +2 -3 =4.

He gained worldwide attention when he defeated in one of the two games Soviet chessmaster David Bronstein in Moscow in September 1946. Ulvestad's best result came in the 1948 US Championship where he finished tied for 3rd and 4th with George Kramer behind Herman Steiner and Isaac Kashdan.

In 1957, Ulvestad, with other players, founded the Seattle Chess Center. There were no annual fees; visitors paid 25 cents an hour to play. The center was not very successful and after about two years it failed and after the divorce from his wife, Ulvestad left town. In the sixties, he went to live in Andorra (a tiny, independent principality between Spain and France) and played first board in the 1970 chess Olympiad in Siegen.

He is also famous for the Ulvestad variation of the Two Knights defense: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 b5. 

Ulvestad was the subject of American chess player William John Donaldson's 2000 book titled Olaf Ulvestad: An American original (a 36-page-booklet)

Little is known of Ulvestad's personal life, but it is reported that he was married three times. 

Ulvestad died on August 24, 2000, in Retsil, Kitsap County, Washington. 

• David Bronstein vs. Ulvestad (1946) at chessgames.com
• Lajos Portisch vs. Ulvestad (1964) at chessgames.com