GM Aleksandar Matanovic, the oldest residing chess grandmaster, one of many nice gamers throughout the golden age of Serbian chess, and co-founder of Chess Informant, died on Wednesday on the age of 93.

Matanovic was born on Could 23, 1930 in Belgrade, Serbia (then Yugoslavia). He received the junior championship of his nation in 1948 and earned the grandmaster title in 1955. He was a three-time Yugoslav champion, successful the match in 1962 (tied), 1969, and 1978 (tied), whereas being the runner-up in 1951, 1956, 1959, and 1967.

Early in his profession, Matanovic received a number of tournaments, similar to Opatija 1953, Hamburg 1955, Beverwijk 1957, Buenos Aires 1961 (tied), Zevenaar 1961, Titovo Uzice 1966 (tied), and Unhealthy Pymont 1970 (tied). He earned second place in Belgrade in 1954, Jerusalem in 1964, the Vrnjacka Banja zonal match in 1967, and Houston in 1974. 

Matanovic represented Yugoslavia in 11 Chess Olympiads (1954-72, 1978), taking part in alongside huge names similar to GMs Svetozar Gligoric, Borislav Ivkov, and Ljubomir Ljubojevic. He received 5 silver and 4 bronze medals along with his staff in addition to one gold, two silver, and one bronze particular person board medals.

He participated in 4 interzonal tournaments; his finest consequence was seventh place in Portoroz, Slovenia, in 1958. That one was received by GM Mikhail Tal with 13.5/20, however the future world champion’s solely loss was towards Matanovic. The Dutch GM Hein Donner wrote: “Solely Matanovic managed to carry his personal towards him. He fought him along with his personal weapons. The Yugoslav unleashed such concentrated violence that Tal caved in. It was among the best and likewise one of many longest video games of the match.”

Over his profession, Matanovic defeated many different legendary gamers, together with Efim Bogoljubov, Savielly Tartakower, Gligoric, Paul Keres, Efim Geller, Bent Larsen, Lajos Portisch, Leonid Stein, Vlastimil Hort, Fridrik Olafsson, Lev Polugaevsky, Tigran Petrosian, Ljubojevic, Ulf Andersson, Jan Timman, and Ivkov. You’ll find these video games, together with the one talked about towards Tal, under:

It has been instructed that Matanovic, who was additionally a radio announcer and producer, might have been an much more profitable participant if he hadn’t began writing and publishing. That, nonetheless, was his largest legacy for the chess world.

In 1966, along with Milivoje Molerovic, Matanovic based the corporate Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator in Serbian) and began publishing books with the identical identify twice a yr. It was a revolutionary new product in a time with out the web, chess databases, or engines. For the primary time, you could possibly get your fingers on massive collections of latest top-level video games, usually annotated by the gamers themselves. For the subsequent 20 years, skilled gamers would compromise on the quantity of garments they’d convey to tournaments to maintain room of their suitcases for a number of Informants.

Because the variety of occasions began to develop, Chess Informant went from two to 3 points a yr in 1991–2011 and since 2012, 4 Informants a yr. GM Garry Kasparov famously stated: “We’re all youngsters of Informant.” 

Ranging from the Seventies, the publishing home issued extra publications, such because the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO), specialised opening monographs, books on ways, endgames, and extra. Matanovic served as its editor-in-chief for greater than 20 years. Later, he turned the top of the administration board.

In regards to the monumental affect Chess Informant had on chess, Matanovic stated: “[L]ittle did we all know that we had been trailblazing a path in the direction of an period but to return—the data period.”

IN MEMORIAM
Grandmaster Aleksandar Matanovic (1930-2023), Chess Informant co-founder. Thanks in your kindness, dedication, legacy and love for the royal sport. pic.twitter.com/7MlqkHhxVX

— Chess_Informant (@Chess_Informant) August 9, 2023

Matanovic performed his final official video games in 2007 when a revival of the well-known USSR-Yugoslavia matches from the Fifties-Eighties was organized in Moscow. He drew his two video games with GM Mark Taimanov. The “USSR” staff additionally had GMs Viktor Korchnoi, Yuri Averbakh, Evgeny Vasyukov, and Yuri Balashov whereas GMs Gligoric, Ivkov, Dragoljub Velimirovic, and Nikola Karaklajic had been Matanovic’s teammates for Yugoslavia. The ultimate rating was 11-9 for the USSR.

In February of this yr, Matanovic attended a chess ceremony in Belgrade’s Veterans’ Membership in honor of Gligoric’s a hundredth 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 had been mischievous, opponents on the chessboard, associates for 64 years. These 64 black and white squares introduced us collectively and determined each his and my life path.”

Matanovic was the oldest residing grandmaster because the passing of Averbakh on Could 7, 2022. The oldest grandmaster now could be GM Yair Kraidman of Israel, who was born in 1932.