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Two days with the chess legend, GM Svetozar Gligoric - 19-20 september 2003 Gothenburg
 The City Museum of Gothenburg, Sweden
Serbian grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric (born 1923, Belgrade) is one of the major figures of 20th-century
chess. Circa 1945-1970 he was not only the best player in his own country, winning its
championship 11 times, but he also had excellent results internationally, playing in more than 70 tournaments
and taking about 20 first prizes. Along with Fischer, Larsen, Portisch, and a small handful of others he was one of the
few non-Russians who could hold his own against the Soviet Empire at the height of its power, notching
numerous wins against their top GMs and ranking among the worlds top 10 through much of the 1950s and 60s.
He played in seven FIDE Interzonals and was a Candidate three times, in 1952, 1958, and 1968. In a career spanning
over 50 years, he has played every world champion from Euwe to Kasparov, and has about two dozen victories
against them collectively. Elos The Rating of Chessplayers puts his 5-year peak rating at 2620, and
Divinskys Life Maps of the Great Chess Masters lists him among the top 50 players of all time.
He had, for example, an even lifetime score (+2 2 = 6) against Botvinnik, was nearly
even (+6 7 =25) with Smyslov, defeated Fischer four times (a number exceeded only by Geller and Spassky),
and beat the unbeatable Petrosian seven times, which is exceeded only by Korchnoi, Spassky, and Fischer. At his
peak, circa 1956-1959, he may well have been #3 in the world, according to David Bronstein.
In 1970 he was still strong enough that he played 5th board for the Rest of the World team in the historic match against the USSR.
Secondly, few chess figures could write more interesting memoirs than Gligoric, who for five decades had major
roles as a player, journalist, and FIDE administrator. Yet for autobiography we get hardly more than an
encyclopedia article. A pity.
Gligoric was, for example, on the appeals committee of the 1981 Karpov-Korchnoi
world championship match and for Fischer-Spassky 1992, and was chief arbiter for 12 FIDE Candidates matches and
the aborted 1984-85 Karpov-Kasparov match.
The games receive better and far more detailed treatment. Gligoric has a great store to draw from, having played
probably more serious games than anyone else of his generation except Korchnoi. As he himself notes In the
period 1945-1975 I travelled and played perhaps more than anyone else. He also played quite well: his victims
here include Tal, Fischer, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Euwe, Keres, Petrosian, Geller, Taimanov, Najdorf, Ivkov,
Larsen, Portisch, Szabo, Hort, Unzicker, Miles, Andersson, Timman and many other top-echelon GMs.
"High in Quality, Low on History" by Taylor Kingston - Book reviews, The chess cafe
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