The Svetozar Gligoric Legacy

[Wayne Komer]

The Svetozar Gligoric Legacy

June 20, 2016

The FIDE site has an illustrated article on the gift of Gligoric’s personal memorabilia and library to the Pancevo chess club on his passing.

https://www.fide.com/component/conte...ic-legacy.html

From his obituary:

Legendary Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric passed away in Belgrade at the age of 90 on August 14, 2012 after suffering a stroke.

Gligoric was the best Yugoslav and Serbian chess player, having won a record 12 national championships and 13 medals in Chess Olympiads (2 gold, 6 silver, 5 bronze). From the European championships he won 4 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze medal.

He was three-times Candidate for the World Championship (1953, 1959 and 1968).

Gligoric was born on 2 of February 1923 in Belgrade. He attended elementary school, "King Peter", the first male high school, and Technical school. He started playing chess at the age of 11. he made his first set by carving the caps from wine bottles. He won his first tournament at age of 15, when he won the competition at the Belgrade Chess Club. He earned the master title at the age of 16, but the competitions ceased with the Second World War.

In 1975 Gligorić received the prestigious national AVNOJ award. He also received the high Order Bratstva i Jedinstva with golden wreath (Yugoslavia) and Nemanja Medal of the First Order (Serbia). His book about the match of the century between Spassky and Fischer in Reykjavik 1972 was translated from English into several languages, reaching a circulation of several hundred thousand copies.

Serbia's best chess player of all time devoted his final years to studying music. Last winter he published his first music CD entitled "How I survived the 20th century", with 12 compositions of various genres. after suffering a stroke, RTS reported.

https://www.fide.com/component/conte...-gligoric.html
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Chess club Svetozar Gligoric - Gliga meets in its 250sqm premises in the centre of Pancevo, 20km from Serbian capital Belgrade.

While the left room is holding rows of chess tables for games, the space on the right is reserved for the personal belongings of the late Grandmaster.

And this is only a part of the collection - consisting of magazines, bulletins, books, framed photographs, newspaper excerpts, analyses and various other memorabilia.

The more valuable items are currently stored in the apartment of the club president, IO Miladin Mitrovic, until a proper space is arranged for the real "Gligoric Museum".

The chess club is holding a fund-raising concert on 21st June at the Cultural Centre in Pancevo, to collect donations for the establishment of Museum.

Enquiries in English about the collection and Museum can be sent to

http://www.serbiachess.net
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The photos that accompany the article:

1. shelves of chess magazines
2. the entrance to the chess club
3. the oldest photograph of Gligoric
4. certificates
5. plaques, trophies and medals
6. photo with wife Dana
7. shelves of magazines and yearbooks
8. bulletin from Saint John 1988
9. newspaper clipping from 1939, when Gligoric became a national master
10. his collection of sketches of other players
11. material he prepared for Bobby Fischer before the 1992 match against Boris Spassky
12. Taimanov and Keres material
13. the playing section of the chess club Svetozar Gligoric

A personal view of a great player and a fine human being.

[Hans Jung]

Re: The Svetozar Gligoric Legacy

This is nice to see.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: The Svetozar Gligoric Legacy

In the 1960s Chess became eligible for Charitable status in Canada, in part due to a British law case where a man left money in his Will to a chess club and his family sued to get the money back. The case hinged on whether chess was an Educational activity. The court held that it was, and the bequest went through. At least three chess organizations in Canada became Charitable Organizations, eligible to give tax receipts. Later, the CFC's Charitable status was annulled, and the wording made it sound like chess was no longer eligible. Be that as it may, a Library is eligible, and so are "Friends of" Xyz Library organizations. While Canada doesn't have a single player of the stature of Svetozar Gligoric, we do have our own chess heroes who have donated books (and perhaps even papers) to the CFC, which was never properly set up to display them, so much the less in 2016. There has been interest in setting up a national chess library (to rival perhaps even the Pancevo Chess Club's !) for almost four decades, but never a Critical Mass, sufficient to make it happen.

I remember Svetozar Gligoric from 1988 Saint John where he was the Chief Arbiter of the Candidates Matches (and I was one of his two assistant arbiters), and from the 2000 Keres Memorial in Vancouver where he played. In good times and in bad times, he was a fine human being.

PS: Oh yes, I also typeset a couple of his opening theory articles for Inside Chess. What an organized mind !