NIC Podcast #97: GM Margeir Petursson
In this episode of the New In Chess podcast, I talk to Icelandic grandmaster Margeir Petursson, a man of more than one talent. In a lively conversation, we discuss the two international careers that he successfully embarked on and that took him from Iceland to Ukraine, where he lives today in the city of Lviv.
Margeir first became a national celebrity in Iceland as a chess player. He won the Icelandic championship twice, in 1986 and 1987, and had further successes at home and abroad, winning classics such as the Hastings Premier in 1986 and dozens of strong Opens around the world. He was also a member of the legendary Icelandic national team that finished 5th at the Dubai Olympiad in 1986 and 6th at the Manila Olympiad in 1992. The ‘Golden Team’ that he played on together with Johann Hjartarson, Helgi Olafsson and Jon Arnason.
While many still saw him first and foremost as a chess player, Margeir also embarked on a banking career and founded his own bank, MP Bank (indeed, Margeir Petursson bank!). He became internationally known as the owner of the only Icelandic bank that did not collapse in the big Icelandic banking crisis in 2008.
Those turbulent days were far from the last time that he had to operate in chaos and crisis. In the following years, Margeir switched his activities to Ukraine where he acquired Bank Lviv, and faced entirely new challenges, particularly when the country was invaded by Russia and became a nation at war.
In short, we had more than enough to talk about as we took a tour of Margeir’s life and the role chess played and continues to play in it. From the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match in Reykjavik that he witnessed as a kid, to the chess club in his new home city of Lviv that he set up and where he plays the game with his Ukrainian friends such as legends Alexander Beliavsky, Adrian Mikhalchishin and Oleg Romanishin. That’s right. Don’t miss it!
0:00 – Intro
2:14 – Margeir’s memory of Reykjavik 1972
9:06 – How Margeir developed his passion for chess
21:46 – AD BREAK
23:27 – Margeir’s decision to pursue chess while working as a banker
28:30 – How did Margeir work on his chess?
35:04 – Why Fischer “pushed” Margeir out of chess
38:50 – Margeir’s banking career
42:40 – How Margeir ended up in Ukraine
49:55 – AD BREAK
50:54 – Did Margeir’s skill in chess translate to his banking career?
1:05:37 – Outro