Remembering Milan Matulović
"Today in Chess History" saw the births of six Grandmasters:
- Milan Matulović of Serbia, born 1935 GM 1965, died 10/9/2013.
- Bernal Gonzalez Acosta of Costa Rica, born 1973 GM 2015.
- Alexey Kislinsky of the Czech Republic, born 1984, GM 2008.
- Sergei Yudin of Russia, born 1986, GM 2009.
- Zeng Chongsheng of China, born 1993, GM 2013.
- Johan-Sebastian Christiansen of Norway, born 1998, GM 2018.
Milan Matulović (10 June 1935 – 9 October 2013) was a chess grandmaster who was primarily active before 1977, but remained an occasional tournament competitor until 2006.
He won the Yugoslav Chess Championships of 1965 and 1967 and was a prolific competitor on the international tournament scene during the 1960s and 1970s. Probably his best result was equal first at Skopje 1969 ahead of former World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Other first-place finishes during this period, either shared or outright, included Netanya 1961, Vršac 1964, Novi Sad 1965, Belgrade 1965, Reggio Emilia 1967/68, Athens Zonal 1969, Belgrade 1969, Sarajevo 1971, Birmingham 1975, Bajmok 1975 (and in 1978), Majdanpek 1976, Vrbas 1976, Belgrade 1977 and Odzaci 1978. From the 1980s his tournament victories became less frequent, but included Osijek 1980, Borovo 1980, Helsinki 1981 and Vrnjacka Banja 1985. He repeated his Vrnjacka Banja success in 1990.
He had excellent results in the Chess Olympiads. He played 78 games in six events for Yugoslavia, with the overall result of 46 wins, 28 draws and four losses, for a 76.9 percent score, the 10th all-time best Olympic performance.
