R.I.P. Chess Legend Svetozar Gligorić is No More

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

Svetozar Gligorić (2 February 1923 — 14 August 2012)/www.chess-news.ru 

This is sad news that the legendary chess Grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić is no more. He passed away in Belgrade on Tuesday. He would have turned 90 in February 2013. Svetozar Gligorić (Serbian: Светозар Глигорић, 2 February 1923 — 14 August 2012) was a Serbian and Yugoslavian chess grandmaster. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is considered the best player ever from Serbia. In 1958, he was declared the best sportsperson of Yugoslavia.

A tribute in Chess-News states: Most recently, at the age of 88 years Gligoric released his first musical album. He had said at the presentation that music was his first love and he had decided to learn to play the piano in old age.

During the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of the top ten players in the world, also among the world's most popular, owing to his globe-trotting tournament schedule and a particularly engaging personality that is reflected in the title of his autobiography, 'I Play Against Pieces' (i.e., with no hostility to the opponent, or 'playing differently for "psychological" reasons against different players; playing the board not the man). As a tribute to the legend replay this fantastic game with Chess King that GM Svetozar Gligorić played against Petrosian in 1970.

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