When I received an email some days ago about the passing away of Danish IM Ole Jacobsen, it didn't ring a bell immediately. But a few days later I realized I had met this tall and friendly Dane at a tournament in Salou in 2007.

On July 2nd I received an email by Peter Dürrfeld, who informed us that Danish IM Ole Jakobsen had passed away. When I still played actively as a tournament player, and during the start of the "ChessVibes on Tour" period in 2007, I met with Jakobsen in Salou, Spain. We didn't meet over the board, but we chatted a few times and I remember his tall appearance and friendly and calm manners. As Dürrfeld shows on his blog Chess Menu, in his best period Jakobsen was a dangerous opponent to anyone.

In his prime years "Lange Ole" (as he was called due to his height) won the Danish Championship three times: 1969, 1971 and 1980. In 1969 he scored sweeping 11,5 of 13 points to become a clear winner of that year's Nordic Championship. He was active until short time before his death, playing an important role in many international senior tournaments and participating with a good performance in a chess festival in San Sebastian as late as in April this year.

People come and people go, and it's no different with chess players. Luckily we have a beautiful way to remember a chess player - by showing a great game. This is exactly what we'll do below - annotations provided by Peter Dürrfeld of Chess Menu.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 c5 3. Nf3 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. g4 a6 7. g5 Ng8 8. Bg2 Nc6 ...

It started as Frensh Defence, now we have the Keres attack in the Sicilian Defence.

9. Be3 Bd7 10. h4 h6 11. f4 hxg5 12. hxg5 Rxh1+ 13. Bxh1 Nxd4 14. Qxd4 Ne7 15. Qd2 Qa5 16. O-O-O O-O-O?

In view of the weak square b6 Black's long castling is far too risky. And Ole instantly attacks the opponent where he is weakest.

17. Qf2! Kc7 ...

Protects the weak pawn on d6, but Sköld has overseen the smart:

18. Rxd6!

The black king can't take back, as 18. - Kxd6 19.Bb6! will catch the queen.

18... Nc6 19. e5! b6 20. Rd5!

Another nasty surprise for the Swedish veteran. Now 20... exd5 is met by 21.Bxb6+ Qxb6 22.Nxd5+ - and wins.

20... b5 21. Bc5 Bxc5 22. Rxc5 Rc8 23. Qd2 Qb6 24. Qd6+ Kd8 25. g6 fxg6 26. Nd5!

A final blow - Black has no other options as to take the knight:

26... exd5 27. e6 Qa7 28. exd7 Qxd7 29. Rxd5 ...

And Sköld resigned in view of 29... Qxd6 30.Rxd6+ followed by 31.Rxc6 with a piece more for White in the end game. A nice feature that the white bishop on the modest position h1 also played a role in the attack!

Jacobsen-Sköld
Stockholm 1971

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R.I.P Ole Jakobsen (1942-2010) | The photo of Ole I took at the Salou 2007 tournament