| Mijo Udovčić | |
|---|---|
 Mijo Udovčić, Amsterdam 1963 | |
| Full name | Mijo Udovčić |
| Country | Yugoslavia |
| Born | September 11, 1920 Stara Jošava, formerly Yugoslavia, now Croatia |
| Died | April 8, 1984 (aged 63) |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| Peak rating | 2460 (July 1971) |
Mijo Udovčić (September 11, 1920 – April 8, 1984) was a Yugoslavian chess player, who became the first Croatian Grandmaster in 1962. Jointly with Borislav Ivkov, he won the Yugoslav championships in 1963.
Udovčić gained the title of International Master in 1957 and became a Grandmaster in 1962. He was the first Croatian player to attain the Grandmaster title.
Chessmetrics gives his highest rating at 2618 in January 1953, which places him 39th in the world at that time. [1] As well as being a top chess player, Udovčić worked as a judge. [2]
Udovčić was part of the Yugoslavian team who won silver medals behind USSR at the 16th Chess Olympiad held in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1964. He played on the fifth board, scoring 5 points from 7 games. [3]
Udovčić also played for Yugoslavia in two European Team Chess Championships, scoring 7/10 in Oberhausen in 1961 and 6/9 in Hamburg in 1965. Yugoslavia won silver medals behind USSR in both events. [4]
| h | g | f | e | d | c | b | a | ||
| 1 |          | 1 | |||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| h | g | f | e | d | c | b | a | ||
Bird's Opening (ECO F03)
1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6 4.b4 Bg7 5.Bb2 O-O 6.Be2 Bg4 7.O-O Nbd7 8.Na3 c6 9.c4 e6 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Qe7 12.b5 Ne4 13.Bxg7 Kxg7 14.bxc6 bxc6 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.Nb5 Qb4 17.Rb1 Qxd2 18.Bxe4 Qxe3+ 19.Kh1 Qxe4 20.Nd6 Qe3 21.Rb7 Nf6 22.f5 Qe5 23.fxg6 hxg6 24.Qf3 Rad8 25.Nb5 a6 26.Na7 Rd7 27.Nc6 Qf5 28.Qe2 Rxb7 29.Rxf5 exf5 30.Qxa6 Rb1+ 31.Kh2 Re8 32.Qa7 f4 33.Ne7 Ng4+ 0-1
Larsen resigned as 34. hxg4 was forced, which would have been followed by 34. ... Rh8 checkmate. [8]
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish chess grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-Soviet player, behind only Bobby Fischer, for much of the 1960s and 1970s. He is considered to be the strongest player born in Denmark and the strongest from Scandinavia until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen.
Wolfgang Unzicker was one of the strongest German chess Grandmasters from 1945 to about 1970. He decided against making chess his profession, choosing law instead. Unzicker was at times the world's strongest amateur chess player, and World Champion Anatoly Karpov called him the "world champion of amateurs".
Gisela Kahn Gresser was an American chess player. She dominated women's chess in the United States, winning the U.S. Women's Chess Championship nine times from 1944 to 1969.
Vladimir Andreyevich Savon was a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1973.
Rosendo Carreon Balinas Jr. was a chess grandmaster from the Philippines. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1975 and the International Grandmaster title in 1976. He was Philippines' second chess grandmaster. Balinas was a lawyer by profession, as well as an award winning chess writer and journalist. He also unsuccessfully ran for representative of Rizal's 1st district in the 1994 special election.
Lev Osipovich Alburt is a chess Grandmaster, writer and coach. He was born in Orenburg, Russia, and became three-time Ukrainian Champion. After defecting to the United States in 1979, he became three-time U.S. Champion.
Milan Matulović was a chess grandmaster who was the second or third strongest Yugoslav player for much of the 1960s and 1970s behind Svetozar Gligorić and possibly Borislav Ivkov. He was primarily active before 1977, but remained an occasional tournament competitor until 2006.
Wolfgang Uhlmann was a German chess grandmaster. He was East Germany's most successful chess player between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s, reaching the 1971 Candidates Tournament. During his career, Uhlmann played many of the top players of the time and won the East Germany Chess Championships 11 times. Uhlmann continued to play chess into his later years, before dying at the age of 85 in Dresden.
Vadim Zvjaginsev is a Russian chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1994. He played for the gold medal-winning Russian team in the 1997 World Team Chess Championship and in the 1998 Chess Olympiad.
Anatoly Yakovlevich Lein was a Soviet-born American chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1968.
The World Chess Championship 1886 was the first official World Chess Championship match contested by Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. The match took place in the United States from 11 January to 29 March, the first five games being played in New York City, the next four being played in St. Louis and the final eleven in New Orleans. The winner was the first player to achieve ten wins. Wilhelm Steinitz won the match 10–5, winning his tenth game in the twentieth game of the match. There were five draws.
The World Chess Championship 1889 was the second official World Chess Championship, and was between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin. It took place in Havana, Cuba. Steinitz defended his world title, and was the first of the two players to reach 10½. He won the match 10½-6½.
Stojan Puc was a Slovenian-Yugoslavian chess master.
Borislav Milić was a Yugoslav Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer, organizer, promoter, and administrator.
The 1978 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio, Philippines, from July 18 to October 18, 1978. Karpov won, thereby retaining the title.
The 1981 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Merano, Italy from October 1 to November 19, 1981. Karpov won with six wins against two, with 10 draws. The two players had already played against each other in the World Chess Championship match 1978 in the Philippines, when Karpov also won.
The Nadanian Variation of the Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
Milan Vukić is a Bosnian chess Grandmaster. He has been a champion of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of the former state of Yugoslavia, both during its constitution as a Socialist Federal Republic (SFRY) and as a Federal Republic (FRY).
The Semi-Italian Opening is one of Black's responses to the Italian Game. It begins with the moves:
The 1992 Fischer–Spassky match between former world chess champions Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky was billed as a World Chess Championship, though it was an unofficial rematch of their 1972 World Championship match. Fischer won 10–5, with 15 draws.