Aleksandar Matanović
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Aleksandar Matanović (; 23 May 1930 – 9 August 2023) was a Serbian
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
grandmaster, one of the leading Yugoslav players in the 1950s-1970s. In 1966 he founded the company
Chess Informant Chess Informant () is a publishing company from Belgrade, Serbia, that periodically (since 2012, four volumes per year) produces volumes of a book entitled ''Chess Informant'', as well as the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'', ''Encyclopaedia ...
, which publishes regular game collections from recent major tournaments and the ''
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' (''ECO'') is a reference work describing the state of Chess theory#Opening theory, opening theory in chess, originally published in five volumes from 1974 to 1979 by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugos ...
''.


Chess career

Matanović was junior champion of Yugoslavia in 1948 and awarded the GM title in 1955. He was Yugoslav champion in 1962 (joint with Minić), 1969 and 1978 (he took second place in 1950, 1956, 1959, 1963 and 1975). His most successful tournament results included first place at
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1953, second at Belgrade 1954, first at
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1955, first at Beverwijk 1957, tied for first at
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1961, first at Zevenaar 1961, second at
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1964 and second place at the Vrnjacka Banja zonal tournament 1967. Matanović participated in four interzonal tournaments, his best result being a tie for seventh place in
Portorož Portorož (; ) is a Slovenian Adriatic seaside resort and spa settlement located in the Municipality of Piran in southwestern Slovenia. Its modern development began in the late 19th century with the vogue for the first health resorts. In the earl ...
, Slovenia in 1958. In this tournament he was the only player to defeat the winner, future World Champion
Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one ...
. Dutch grandmaster Hein Donner wrote: "Only Matanovic managed to hold his own against him. He fought him with his own weapons. The Yugoslav unleashed such concentrated violence that Tal caved in. It was one of the best and also one of the longest games of the tournament." Matanović defeated many other leading players, including Efim Bogoljubov,
Savielly Tartakower Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...
, Svetozar Gligoric, Paul Keres, Efim Geller, Bent Larsen,
Lajos Portisch Lajos Portisch (born 4 April 1937) is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik". One of the strongest players from the early 1960s into the late 1980s, he participated in twelve c ...
, Leonid Stein, Vlastimil Hort, Fridrik Olafsson, Lev Polugaevsky, Tigran Petrosian, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Ulf Andersson,
Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...
and
Borislav Ivkov Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. As one of the most decorated players in the history of Chess Olympiad, Ivkov was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal t ...
. Matanovic represented Yugoslavia in 11 Chess Olympiads (1954-72, 1978) playing alongside some of the greatest players in the world such as GMs Svetozar Gligoric,
Borislav Ivkov Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. As one of the most decorated players in the history of Chess Olympiad, Ivkov was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal t ...
and Ljubomir Ljubojevic. This was during a golden age of Serbian chess, a period when Yugoslavia was usually among the top three chess countries. He won a total of nine team medals and four board medals during his career. * 1954 Amsterdam: board 2nd reserve, 6½/9 (+5 =3 −1), board bronze, team bronze * Moscow 1956: board 2, 11½/16 (+7 =9 −0), board silver, team silver * Munich 1958: board 2, 9½/13 (+7 =5 −1), team silver * Leipzig 1960: board 2, 10½/17 (+6 =9 −2), team bronze * Varna 1962: board 3, 8½/15 (+5 =7 −3), team silver * Tel Aviv 1964: board 3, 9½/15 (+6 =7 −2), team silver * Havana 1966: board 4, 10½ 14 (+7 =7 −0), board silver * Lugano 1968: board 3, 9/13 (+5 =8 −0), team silver * Siegen 1970: board 4, 10/12 (+8 =4 −0), board gold, team bronze * Skopje 1972: board 4, 7/12 (+3 =8 −1), team bronze * Buenos Aires 1978: board 3, 5/10 (+2 =6 −2) With 13 team and board medals at Chess Olympiad, Matanovic is the second most decorated Serbian and Yugoslav player of all time (tied with Svetozar Gligorić) behind
Borislav Ivkov Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. As one of the most decorated players in the history of Chess Olympiad, Ivkov was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal t ...
(14) and one of the 10 most decorated players in the Olympiad history. At the same time, his 9 team medals are the fourth-most all-time (tied with Vasily Smyslov) behind Borislav Ivkov (10), Tigran Petrosian (10) and Svetozar Gligorić (12). Matanović made his first appearance at the European team level in the inaugural event at
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1957, and was chosen on five further occasions. He won five team medals and one board medal in Euroteams events. *
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
1957: board 2, 2½/6 (+0 =5 −1), team silver; *
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1961: board 3, 7/10 (+4 =6 −0), team silver; *
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
1965: board 3, 5½/10 (+3 =5 −2), team silver; *
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
1973: board 4, 4/7 (+1 =6 −0), team silver; *
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
1977: board 3, 3/6 (+1 =4 −1), board silver, team bronze; Matanović also represented Yugoslavia 14 times in the USSR versus Yugoslavia matches held from the 1950s to the 1970s.


Chess Informant

Despite a distinguished chess career during which he was also a radio announcer and producer, Matanovic's most important achievement will always be the leading pre-digital chess publication of which he was a co-founder and its driving force. In 1966, together with Milivoje Molerovic, Matanovic founded the company
Chess Informant Chess Informant () is a publishing company from Belgrade, Serbia, that periodically (since 2012, four volumes per year) produces volumes of a book entitled ''Chess Informant'', as well as the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'', ''Encyclopaedia ...
(Шаховски Информатор in Serbian) and started publishing books with the same name twice a year. In a time without the internet, chess databases or engines, Informant provided access to large collections of recent top-level games to all chess players from both sides of the
Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...
. The bulk of the content consists of diagrams of positions and chess moves, annotated with symbols, many of them developed by Chess Informant. In that way Chess Informant pioneered the use of Figurine Algebraic Notation to avoid the use of initials for the names of the pieces, which vary between languages. The Chess Informant system of codes for the classification of chess openings, and its system of symbols have set the international standard for organizing chess information and communicating this information across language barriers. For two decades prior to the emergence of computer databases, ''Chess Informant'' publications were a leading source of games and analysis for serious chess players so much so that many professionals would carry more Informants than clothes in their luggage. Former world champion
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
asserted, "We are all children of ''Informant''" and then explained that his own development as a chess player corresponded with the ascent of ''Chess Informant''s popularity. Chess Informant was considered the chess bible by
Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
who pored over each issue, studying all the games - as shown in the famous "Bobby The Champ" photograph, taken in Reykjavik 1972. Other world champions, including
Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...
, Vladimir Kramnik, and Viswanathan Anand, attest that ''Informant'' is central to their tournament preparation. As the number of chess tournaments grew, so did the number of editions of the Informant. Two issues per year were published from 1966 to 1990, three issues from 1991 to 2011 and four issues since 2012. From millions of games played at some of the most important tournaments at the globe, more than 110,000 games have been published in first 112 volumes of ''Chess Informant'' series (1966–2011). Among contributors there were more than 5000 notable chess players including all the world champions from
Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...
to Anand. About the enormous influence Chess Informant had on chess, Matanovic said: " ttle did we know that we were trailblazing a path towards an era yet to come—the information era."


Later years and death

Aleksandar Matanović participated in the memorial tournament held in Moscow in 2007 to commemorate the great chess rivalry between the USSR and Yugoslavia. He drew his two games with GM Mark Taimanov which were the last two official matches of his career. The "USSR" team also had GMs
Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (, ; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Bor ...
, Yuri Averbakh, Evgeni Vasiukov and Yuri Balashov while GMs Svetozar Gligoric,
Borislav Ivkov Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. As one of the most decorated players in the history of Chess Olympiad, Ivkov was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal t ...
, Dragoljub Velimirovic and Nikola Karaklajic were Matanovic's teammates for "Yugoslavia". The final score was 11-9 for the USSR. In February 2023, Matanovic attended a chess ceremony held in Belgrade in honor of Gligoric's 100th birthday anniversary. He spoke about his 64-year-long friendship with Gligoric, from the early days of youth competitions to chess Olympiads, matches and tournaments: "We were opponents on the chessboard, friends for 64 years. These 64 black and white squares brought us together and decided both his and my life path." Following the death of Yuri Averbakh at the age of 100 on 7 May 2022, Matanović became the oldest living grandmaster. Aleksandar Matanović died on 9 August 2023, at the age of 93.Chessbase.com: Remembering Aleksandar Matanovic (1930-2023)
/ref>


Bibliography

* ''
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' (''ECO'') is a reference work describing the state of Chess theory#Opening theory, opening theory in chess, originally published in five volumes from 1974 to 1979 by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugos ...
'' (five volumes),
Chess Informant Chess Informant () is a publishing company from Belgrade, Serbia, that periodically (since 2012, four volumes per year) produces volumes of a book entitled ''Chess Informant'', as well as the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'', ''Encyclopaedia ...
* ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings'' (five volumes), Chess Informant * ''Chess as a Destiny''


Citations


References

* Adriano Chicco, Giorgio Porreca: ''Dizionario enciclopedico degli scacchi'', Mursia, Milano 1971.


External links

* *  ''(645 games)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Matanovic, Aleksandar 1930 births 2023 deaths Chess players from Belgrade Chess Grandmasters Serbian chess players Yugoslav chess players Serbian chess writers Chess Olympiad competitors