Remembering Svetozar Gligoric (Part one)

Jean-Luc Oesch of Belgrade, Serbia, wrote us: "Thanks to your nice article on Gliga, I was alerted and had the privilege to attend Mr. Gligoric' funeral. It was attended by around 300 people, amongst whom the new Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, the new Minister of Youth and Sport (and chess champion Alisa Maric) and many personalities such as basketball legend and former Lakers star Divac.

It was a nice day, very sunny and nice speeches were telling stories about Gligoric, not only about his chess life, but also, as your article rightly pointed out, about his other passion: music. A great man and sad loss for the chess community. Jean-Luc Oesch, Deputy Head of Swiss Embassy in Belgrade and (modest) chess player."

Remembering Svetozar Gligoric

By Kiril Penušliski

For a kid growing up in Yugoslavia there was no greater chess hero then Gligoric. Kasparov was an opponent. He was the man who I imagined sitting across the board from me. He was the one who was going to crumble under my stare and wince because of my moves. But, Gligoric? Gligoric was the example I wanted to follow. Gligoric was my teacher, a mentor whose games taught me how to play chess and hopefully, when I finally got around to beating Garry, my trusted second who was going to guide me with his wisdom and his knowledge.

Perhaps I had a slight preference for the torrential quality of Borislav Ivkov’s best games, but Gliga... it was impossible not to love him. I don’t think I ever saw a photograph of him where he wasn’t smiling. One look was enough to realize that you had a good person in front of you; someone who is kind and noble.

As a chess player, for twenty years he was a member of the elite, the very best. It’s not only his results which impressed me, his successes at the candidates tournaments, the wins he gathered for the Yugoslav Olympic team, or the fact that he won the Yugoslav championship almost every time he felt like it. It is the kind of chess he played. There is a wonderful lucidity to his best games. As a player whose style was a curious mixture of Rubinstein and Capablanca, he was extremely objective and never bogged down by chess dogma. All those things we ordinary mortals aren’t supposed to do, you will find them all in his games! But always as a part of a sound plan, and never as a whimsical frivolity.

Although his name is still spoken with the upmost respect everywhere chess is played, most people don’t know enough of his games. As a rule, his win over Petrosian from the 1970 Rovinj Zagreb tournament is used as an example of his play. A sacrificial King’s Indian versus one of the best defenders in the history of our game. But here I would like to show you a few other games, some well known, others less so. The games are all presented with already published analysis, which I hope will better illustrate not only his playing style and strength, but also Gligoric’s modesty and clear chess logic.

Game one, Gligoric-Keres,

This comes from one of the Yugoslavia vs USSR matches (1958, Zagreb). Usually the powerful Soviets would win; the only question was what the score would be like. But this time the match on board one (Gligoric-Keres) was a 2-2 draw. The game we have chosen is a Rubinstein Nimzo-Indian. Later people will finally learn that playing a Nizo-Indian versus Gliga was not good for your health; a lesson Keres hadn’t mastered yet. The game is presented with Gligoric’s own comments, very humble and to the point.

Game two, Gligoric-Botvinik

This game comes from the 3rd Euro Team Championship, which took place in Hamburg 1965. The tournament was a ten board double round robin. The first game between the two ended in a draw in 72 moves. Interestingly, this was a fight on board two, as Ivkov was playing board one for the Yugoslav team (it was his year, he won a number of tournaments and progressed to the Candidates finals where he unfortunately and somewhat surprisingly lost to Larsen). But Gligoric had the best result of all the Yugoslav players and also the best result on board two, 7/10.

The first time I saw the game I was very impressed by white’s logic, especially in the opening. He was willing to switch from one idea, one plan to the next without any hesitation. I particularly found the sequence of good moves 12.Qa4! 13.h3! 15.Nd4! very impressive. The comments are by Gligoric and they show his modesty. He just beat one of the best players in history, but there is nothing to suggest that. There is no reference to Botvinik; truly a case of ‘I play against the pieces’.

Kiril Penušliski is a Macedonian art historian with tempestuous hair, an expert in Italian Renaissance art and is supposedly writing his doctorate (the last pages), but can on most nights be found playing on the Playchess.com server. He learned to play chess at age six and formerly played second board for the Penušliski family team (comprising of: first board Dr. Kiril Penušliski (now deceased), second board Kiril Penušliski Jr., third board Ilija Penušliski and fourth board Ilija Penušliski Jr.). His most lofty goal and ambition in life is some day to learn how to avoid making mouse slips. See also: The Contemporary Chess Art of Ilija Penušliski, by Kiril Penušliski

Copyright Penušliski/ChessBase