I Play against Pieces - Gligoric.pdf - _Gligorić - andzinus

I Play against Pieces

Svetozar Gligoric

Translated by

Bijana and Zoran li c

B.T. Batsford Ltd, London

First published in 2002

Reprinted 2003

Foreword

ISBN 0 7134 8770 4

n invitation to write for

the respected Russian

series 'Famous chess

players of the world',

which included books

on world champions and

other top grandmasters in history,

was an honour one could not reuse.

And in 1981, my book with 105

selected games was published in

Moscow with a printing of 100,000

copies. It was called I Play Against

Pieces-words taken from an

interview I gave to the editor.

The unusual title referred to chess

as an art and a clean struggle of

ideas, thereby trying to ignore the

less dignified influence of psychol

ogy and personal conlicts.

The second updated edition in

Serbo-Croat (with 120 games)

appeared in Belgrade in 1989, with

a printing of 3,000 copies.

Now here is a urther enlarged

edition in English with 130 selected

games, covering the period 1939-

2001. To make the reader's task

easier, the games are classiied by

openings, in chronological order.

This is to help the reader utilise the

commentaries more effectively and

hopeully also gain a deeper under

standing of the opening lines under

discussion.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

reproduced, by any means, without prior penission

of the publisher.

Printed in Great Britain by

Creative Print and Design (Wales), Ebbw Vale

for the publishers

B T Batsford

The Chrysalis Building

Bramley Road

London WIO 6SP

An imprint of ChysalifsookS Group pic

A BATSFORD CHESS BOOK

Contents

Age makes it a Time to Talk:

A Chess Autobiography

Age makes it a Time to Talk: A Chess Autobiography

King's Gambit

Vienna Game

Petroff Defence

Ruy Lopez

French Defence

Pirc Defence

Sicilian Defence

Caro-Kann Defence

Queen's Gambit Accepted

Tarrasch Defence

Queen's Gambit Declined

Slav Defence

Semi-Slav Defence

Queen's Pawn Game

Queen's Indian Defence

Bogoljubow Indian Defence

Catalan Opening

Nimzo-Indian Defence

Budapest Gambit

King's Indian Defence

Old Indian Defence

Grinfeld Defence

Modem Benoni Defence

Czech and Old Benoni Defences

English Opening

Bird's Opening

Dutch Defence

My Theoretical Contributions to the Openings

Index of Games

108

109

III

114

117

15 1

153

198

200

226

252

257

265

266

267

287

Born: On the 2nd February 1923

in Belgrade, the only child.

Europe heading for catastrophe);

outdoor sports (I stopped playing re

creational football as a 'youngster'

of 76); crazy about chess between

the ages of 13 and 15.

Family: Poor. My father Dragoje

Gligoric ( 32 ) died when I was 9, my

mother, Ljubica, bon Rakic ( 37),

when I was 17. I was let on my

own some ive months before Hit

ler's surprise attack on Yugoslavia.

Beginnings: My parents knew

nothing about chess. I was late in

leaning the rules of the game and

started to compete a little when I

was 13. The following year, in

1937, I became the champion of

Belgrade for juniors under 14, and

in 1938, when 15, for juniors under

18. At the beginning of 1939 I won

the adult championship of the

Belgrade Chess Club, the strongest

in the country. This resulted in the

publication of my schoolboy photo

in the leading daily. Pleased with

my excellent academic results at

school-which was the thing she

cared for-my mother paid no

attention to my new found fame and

reacted equally indifferently when I

created another sensation in those

days by winning the national master

title at 16, in Zagreb, in summer

1939. Ater two years of illness her

life was cut short on November I,

1940.

My early hobbies: Reading

world literature; devouring

Hollywood ilms and musicals (a

welcome contrast to the reality of

Survival: In November 1940,

alone and in the inal class of the

middle school, I was given shelter in

the family of University professor

Dr.Niko Miljanic. Like the oldest of

his three sons-this warm-hearted

surgeon played chess and knew me

well.

In early spring 1941, the whole

big group of us, male and female,

escaped from Belgrade. During the

short 'April War' in 1941, for

reasons of safety, we undertook an

adventurous jouney to Montenegro

where the 'Miljanic tribe' had its

origins. In August 1942, with the

growth of the resistance movement,

we left fo r the deserted mountain

region where there were no roads,

water, electricity...

In 1943, on my own inititiative, I

joined the guerrilla ighters. Being a

young intellectual with some know

ledge of mathematics and geometry,

the partisan superiors proclaimed

me an expert in 'semi-heavy'

weapons, and entrusted me with the

command of a small unit with a

heavy mine-thrower and machine

gun. With the good fo rtune of not

having been wounded, I ended my

military career with two war decora

tions and the rank of captain. In

8 A Chess Autobiography

A Chess Autobiography 9

1945, I felt happy to retun to

normal life in my home town after

four years absence.

at their best, in whatever calling,

between the ages of 33 and 36.

In 1960 I let 'NfN' and went to

work in Radio-Belgrade to have

more time for chess. I used my legal

right to retire and receive a pension

in 1978.

My long career: In the period

1945-1 975 I travelled and played

perhaps more than anyone else. If

one counts eveything from 1938 till

2002, the number of my tounament

games is probably four times higher

than that of world champions such

as Capablanca or Fischer. I am not

proud of it, this is damaging to

consistent high class play. The

remarkable writer and chief editor

of the Yugoslav chess magazine, the

late Vladimir Vukovic, made an

amazing revelation saying that

"Gligoric is in the group of world

grandmasters with the largest

number of anthology games".

Without the knowledgeable intena

tional master from Zagreb, I would

be left unaware of such a consola

tion for a lifetime's creative work.

In addition to my exaggerated

chess activity, I sent jounalistic

reports from intenational compet

itions (Larsen used to do the same)

and occasionally lost games on

Sundays as a result of feeling

indisposed ater very prolonged

phone calls to Belgrade media late

on Saturday nights.

Like many of my colleagues,

before 1972 I frequently gave

tiresome simultaneous displays to

compensate for low tounament

prizes. In 1952 I visited 16 towns

(having twice faced the record

numbers of 59 and 61 players) in

the USA, another time in Holland I

gave 26 exhibitions one after the

other, and in 1959 in Switzerland I

played a total of 220 simultaneous

games with the result +167, = 14,

-12, which gives a picture of my

past lifestyle.

among other things, I won a touna

ment in Warsaw in 1947 (7 wins,

two draws), as it happened two full

points ahead of the second-placed

giants-Smyslov and Boleslavsky.

In 1950 I was irst in the traditional

intenational at Mar del Plata

(Argentina) and then the following

year I also won the zonal in Bad

Pyrmont (Germany) and the Staun

ton Memorial (England).

Nevertheless my theoy about

one's best years was proved: I

peaked in my chess career between

1956 and 1959. After a medium

success in the Olympiad in Moscow

1956 (+6, -3, =7 on top board), I felt

strangely self-conscious of only

having used just a part of my chess

strength. Indeed, in the subsequent

strong Alekhine Memorial, also held

in Moscow 1956, I achieved a high

fourth placing, ahead of Bronstein,

Najdorf, Keres... In the USSR

Yugoslavia match, Leningrad 1957,

against well-known Soviet grand

masters I scored an 'impossible' 6

points from 8 games. Then in the

elite tounament at Dallas 1957 I

shared irst prize with Reshevsky

and in the Olympiad at Munich

1958 I had the best score on irst

board (12 points out of 15 games)

ahead of the world champion Bot

vinnik. In the Interzonal tounament

at Portoroz 1958 I was second, half

a point behind the winner Tal. All

this was crowned the same year

with my election (among all popular

sports) as Sportsman of the Year in

Yugoslavia. Bronstein claimed that I

was world No.3 player in that year.

In High Society: I was unable to

keep up the pace of such successes

for long, yet my respectable scores

in important tournaments allowed

me to be among the top 10-20

grandmasters in the coming years.

In chess-again: Back in early

1940 and 1941, I had won the

championship of the Belgrade Chess

Club a second and third time. But

after the ire of World War Two had

reached my country I did not have

the opportunity for the real

challenge of participating in the

national championship with masters

and grandmasters. Hitler's war

practically took away six years of

my chess career and later Tal said

that this had had a bearing on the

sporadic irregularity of my play in

the post-war years.

I began playing chess again in

1945 and took second place in Novi

Sad in the irst championship of

'greater Yugoslavia'. I must have

had a funny character then as after

each one of my ive defeats, over

and over again I vowed to win every

game for the rest of competition.

Marriage: When in the early

spring of 1947 I met in the street a

certain 18 year old girl whom I had

known since she was 10, being the

little sister of my schoolmate, I

surprised her with my sudden

inspiration to propose to her. I was

24, a very thin youngster who had

no reason to be vain, and took it for

kindness that she did not say no but

promised to give me the answer on

the next day. It happened that

Danica's mother liked me, and

when told about her son's friend's

wish to marry her youngest

daughter, she slapped her hesitant

girl twice (I hope-gently, Danica

had beautiful cheeks) saying:

"You've got to marry himl"

My future lady knew nothing

about chess, she thought I was just a

jounalist. She realised that J was

better known for something else

when I came back from the touna

ment in Warsaw and brought her

gifts. We married on June 3, 1947.

Her generous mother sufered much

from the miseries of war. In spite of

her hope to live with us, she died

soon, ive weeks ater the formal

ceremony where two obligatory

witnesses were our only company.

My wife was intelligent and very

friendly by nature, loved chess and

people in it, knew the rules sponta

neously but never played the game.

She was 65 when she died in 1994,

ater 47 years of having been my

life companion.

Journalism: After that champion

ship in 1945 I was promptly offered

a job in a well-known daily

newspaper. I wrote about anything,

not only chess. I worked there for

nine years. In 1954 I moved to the

leading weekly magazine as the

commentator on foreign news,

sometimes also writing travel

essays. In those seven years I was at

the peak of my jounalistic activity.

I was praised highly for my style by

our Nobel Prize winner for literature

Ivo Andric, who used to read

everything he laid his eyes on. At

the vey same time I had the best

period of my chess career. How did

I find the energy for two entirely

different jobs and to be among the

top ten in the world of chess? My

explanation is that many people are

At my best: Without any oficial

proposal, I was granted the grand

master title by acclamation at the

FIDE Congress in 1951.Before that,

10 A Chess Autobiography

A Chess Autobiography 11

In Zirich 1959 I was runner up to

Tal, ahead of Fischer, Keres,

Larsen, Unzicker etc. I won Hast

ings for the fourth time in 1960/61.

In Zurich 1961 I was third behind

Keres and Petrosian, in Bled 1961 I

shared third prize with Petrosian and

Keres, etc.

1970, West Berlin (West Gemany)

1971, Sparks open (USA) 1971,

Lone Pine open (USA) 1972, Los

Angeles (USA) 1974, Montilla

(Spain) 1977, Osijek 1978, Lone

Pine open (USA) 1979, Vienna

open (Austria) 1982, Sochi (USSR)

1986 (with Beliavsky and Vagan

ian), Donner Memorial in Amster

dam 1994 (with Smyslov and

Unzicker).

the first board together with Spassky

in the European Team Champ

ionship, Bath 1973; I played top

board for the Yugoslav national

team for 30 years.

Creator of the Mar del Plata

Variation and of many novelties in

the theory of chess openings (see

the article at the end of this book).

Author of more than twenty

books, including the world best

sell er about the Fischer-Spassky

match, Reykjavik 1972, in 400,000

copies, translated from English into

ive more languages. (My writing

may have been irrelevant to my

playing career but it did take a

significant part of my time and

energy.)

my regular habits and to spend 2-3

hours each moning in preparation

for the game in the aftenoon. It was

like a prophecy of how chess

players behave nowadays, where

preparation can offer a 90% guaran

tee of success.

I have always been a disciplined

fellow and also agreed to spend an

hour before lunch, in swimming

trunks, walking barefoot along the

endless sandy Tunisian beach. I was

tense but it enough to inish the

tounament as the only undefeated

player.

My tactics were like balancing on

the brink of a threatening abyss-if

1 lost a single game. It did happen in

my next match with Tal who, in

1968 said that for several reasons

Belgrade as a playing site was a

handicap to me. I was leading ater

ive games and both Tal and his

second Koblentz believed that I was

going to win the match (see Game

10 ) . Then in the 6th game, stupidly

iritated by journalistic comments

on the "monotony of our duel", I

shocked myself with a sudden

decision at the board to make a 3'd

move as White for which J was

unprepared. After that defeat I

collapsed. If one could explain it-I

must have been tired of the situation

with no tranquillity. Among other

things, the playing hall was across

the street from where I lived

downtown with my wife and this

was like an open invitation. to ben

evolent visitors to frequent our

place. However I was fortunate with

my temperament and did not regret

one bit my lost chance.

First prizes: To save space, here

is a list of tounaments where I took

first prize, or shared it:

Qualiying tounament for

Belgrade Chess Club 1938,

Belgrade 1939, Zagreb 1939,

Belgrade 1940, Belgrade 1941,

Soia (Bulgaria) 1945, Ljubljana

1945/46, Belgrade 1946, Warsaw

(Poland) 1947, Mar del Plata

(Argentina) 1950, Bad Pyrmont

(West Gemany) zonal 1951, Staun

ton Memorial (England) 1951, Hast

ings 1951/52, Hollywood (USA)

1952, Hastings 1952/53, Mar del

Plata 1953, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

1953, Montevideo (Uuguay) 1953,

Goteborg (Sweden) 1953, Stock

holm (Sweden) 1954, Hastings

1956/57 (with Larsen), Dallas

(USA) 1957 (with Reshevsky),

Bognor Regis (England) 1957,

Hastings 1959/60, Santa Fe (Argen

tina) 1960, Asuncion (Paraguay)

1960, Madrid (Spain) zonal 1960,

Hastings 1960/61, Leicester (Eng

land) 1961, Sarajevo 1961 (with

Pachman), Torremolinos (Spain)

1961, Belgrade 1962, Sarajevo 1962

(with Portisch), Hastings 1962/63

(with Kotov), Belgrade 1963,

Enschede (Holland) zonal 1963,

Copenhagen (Denmark) 1965 (with

Taimanov and Larsen), Hague

(Netherlands) zonal 1966, Tel Aviv

(Israel) 1966, Dundee (Scotland)

1967, Manila (Philippines) 1968,

Belgrade 1969, Praia de Rocha

(Portugal) zonal 1969, Belgrade

Championships of Yugoslavia,

won by me: Ljubljana 1947 (with

Dr.Triunovic), Belgrade 1948 (with

Pirc), Zagreb 1949, Ljubljana 1951,

Skopje 1956, Sombor 1957, Saraje

vo 1958 (with I vkov), ragujevac

1959, Ljubljana 1960, Vnjacka

Banja 1962, Titograd 1965.

An episode rom my tcomeback'

in 1967: After the Interzonal in

Portoroz 1958 I gave the impression

of being one of favourites in the

Candidates tounament 1959 of 8

participants, and I disappointed my

audience when I finished 5th.6th in

the company of a young grand

master by name of Bobby Fischer...

I continued my 'going down' in the

Interzonals at Stockholm 1962 and

Amsterdam 1964, failing twice to

qualiy for the Candidates stage.

When I went to Sousse in 1967,

nothing spectacular was to be

expected from me.

At that time, 1 had some new

ideas for a safe opening repertoire

and intended, as usual, to rely on

my intuition during play. My plan

was not to lose a single game and to

gain the minimum number of wins

necessay for qualification-and

that I thought I could do.

I was 44 and it surprised me when

my new second, young Velimirovic,

treated me like a novice in intena

tional chess. He forced me to break

Other memorable results: Mos

cow 1963 ( 3'd behind Smyslov and

Tal), Interzonal in Sousse 1967

( 2ndAt h with Korchnoi and Geller),

Rovinj-Zagreb 1970 ( 2n d ·5th, behind

Fischer), Vinkovci 1970 ( 2 n d A t h ,

behind Larsen), San Antonio 1972

( 4 th , ahead of Keres, Hort, Mecking,

Larsen etc.), Vidmar Memorial in

Portoroz-Ljubljana 1975 ( 2nd,

behind Karpov); I was the best 2 nd

board in the European Team Cham

pionships in Skara 1980 and in

Plovdiv 1983.

Best achievements: Warsaw

1947; Mar del Plata 1953 ( 16 points

out of 19 games); USSR-Yugoslavia

match in Leningrad 1957; Dallas

1957; Olympiad in Munich 1958;

Interzonal in Potoroz 1958; Inter

zonal in Sousse (Tunisia) 1967;

three times among World Cham

pionship Candidates in 1953, 1959

and 1968; 12 Olympic Medals (I

gold, 6 silver, 5 bronze); 5 Euro

pean medals, with the best result on

Public recognition: On the occa

sion of my 50 '1. birthday in 1973, the

mayor granted me the rare 'Golden

Sign of the Town of Belgrade'. In

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