Chess - The Scotsman 16/08/2012

By JOHN HENDERSON
Published on 16/08/2012 00:00

CHESS is witnessing the passing of its own “greatest generation” who came of age after the Second World War and would reshape and dominate the game for decades. In the past few years, we’ve lost two world champions – Bobby Fischer and Soviet star Vassily Smyslov – and now tributes are being paid to another titan, Svetozar Gligoric, who died on Tuesday in Belgrade aged 89.

In a golden age when Grandmasters were truly Grandmasters, Gligoric was among the Top 10 for decades and stood out as the most consistent player outside of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was a three-time qualifier for the Candidates, doing badly in 1953, but sharing fifth place with Fischer in 1959. In 1968 he was eliminated in a close quarter-final match against Mikhail Tal.

Gligoric, though, almost gave up chess before he began to make an impact. In his book I Play against Pieces, he tells how he decided to quit the game to become a journalist after his poor showing at the 1953 Zurich Candidates Tournament. However he had agreed to play in one last major tournament, to be held the following year, in his hometown Belgrade, so decided he would delay his announcement until the end of what was to be his last tournament.

Gligoric only took an emotional change of heart at the very end of his “final” game, the reason being that the large partisan audience gave their local hero a rousing standing ovation following his spectacular win over Tigran Petrosian, shown in today’s game.

S Gligoric - T Petrosian

Belgrade (19), 1954

Czech Benoni

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e5 4 Nc3 d6 5 e4 Nbd7 6 Nf3 a6 7 Be2 Be7 8 0–0 0–0 9 Ne1 Ne8 10 Nd3 Nc7 11 a4 Rb8 12 Be3 Bg5 13 Qd2 Bxe3 14 Qxe3 h6 15 a5 b5 16 axb6 Nxb6 17 b3 Ra8 18 f4 exf4 19 Qxf4 f6 20 Nd1 Qe7 21 Ne3 g5 22 Nf5 Bxf5 23 Qxf5 Qh7 24 Qg4 Rae8 25 Rf5 Nd7 26 Raf1 Re7 27 b4 cxb4 28 c5 h5 29 Qg3 Rxe4 30 c6 Rxe2 31 Qxd6 Nb5 32 Qxb4 Nb8 33 Rxg5+ Kf7 34 Rxf6+! Kxf6 35 Qxf8+ Kxg5 36 h4+ 1–0