Chess Legend Turns to Music
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
He was one of the world's leading chess players in the 1950s and 1960s and
the Yugoslav player of the 20th century. After nearly seven decades playing
chess, the legendary grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric turned to music.
Last month, shortly after his 88th birthday, Gligoric presented his first music
album in Belgrade. How I survived the 20th century is a collection
of twelve compositions, mostly jazz, blues and rap. Gliga or Gligo, as his friends
call him, wrote the music and texts and invited some known Serbian musicians
to perform with him. The central theme of his work is expressed in the song
Life is all we have. Gligoric pointed out the similarity between music
and chess: "Each note is like a chess move and from these elements you
create your own architecture within known rules."
Music was always Gligoric's passion. He loved it even before he knew how to
read or write. He had an enormous collection of musical recordings and sometimes
played guitar, but it was only at the age of 80 when he decided to get actively
involved a began to take music theory and piano lessons. The album is a remarkable
achievement for a man who spent most of his life in chess.
Gligoric won the Yugoslav championship twelve times and belonged among the
world's Top Ten for two decades (1950s and 1960s). He played in 15 chess olympiads,
mostly on the first board. During his tenure, Yugoslavia won one gold, six silver
and five bronze medals. He won five Zonal tournaments and took part in two Candidates
tournaments, in Zurich in 1953 and in Yugoslavia in 1959. In 1967 he qualified
for the Candidates matches from the Interzonal tournament in Sousse, Tunisia.
Gligoric rarely turned down an invitation to an international tournament, circled
the globe and amassed an impressive record.
His style of play was classical: he cherished a strong pawn center, a pair
of bishops and did not like to play passively. He was a big threat to Soviet
players and defeated the world champions Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov,
Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian more than once. He also scored victories against
Max Euwe and Bobby Fischer. He didn't believe in psychological warfare in chess.
"I play against pieces," he said simply and made it the title of his
biography.
Although he was 20 years older, he treated our generation well. He became a
friend and mentor to young Bobby Fischer. In 1978 he ran for the post of FIDE
president because he wanted Bobby to return to chess. In 1979, I invited Gligoric
to be the chief arbiter at the Tournament of Stars in Montreal. Gligo not only
fulfilled his duty, but wrote notes to the games. The players joined in, creating
a unique tournament bulletin with commentaries appearing the next day.
Working with Gligo in Montreal in 1979
Gligoric was a prolific chess journalist and author. His book Fischer
vs. Spassky, The Chess Match of the Century came out the day after the
match finished and sold 400,000 copies.
It is not an accident that the games in his biography are sorted according to
openings. Gligo was one of the most knowledgeable opening experts. His monthly
theoretical articles were translated into many languages. Many strong players
benefitted from Gligo's opening ideas, including Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov.
He was always well prepared for the games. If he got caught by surprise, he
used his instinct to get out of difficulties. The following King's Indian game
against one of the world's best defenders, Tigran Petrosian, is a good example.
The knight sacrifice is of a positional nature, far from clear. It resembles
sacrifices of Gligo's second Dragoljub Velimirovic, leaving the verdict up in
the air. It was played in the Rovinj-Zagreb tournament in 1970. The knowledge
of this game helped me five years later.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.
Original
column here – Copyright
Huffington Post
Solutions to the King Tut puzzles
Last week
we presented three problems with a slightly different "King Tut motif."
Here are the solutions:
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