Ljubomir Ljubojevic

    

The year 1972 was big, really big. President Nixon made an unprecedented eight-day visit to Communist China and met with Mousy Tongue. Eleven Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich were killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist group invaded Olympic Village; five guerrillas and one policeman were also killed.
     Racist Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama was shot by Arthur H. Bremer at a political rally in Laurel, Maryland. Wallace was left in a wheelchair the rest of his life. 
     Five men were caught by police in attempt to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex beginning the start of the Watergate scandal which ultimately resulted in President Nixon’s resigning. 
     In other news Time Inc. transmitted HBO, the first pay cable network. The National Institute of Mental Health and the surgeon general issued a report that claimed exposure to violence on television fosters aggression in children. The hit television show M*A*S*H premiered and Atari introduced the arcade version of Pong, the first video game. The home version came out in 1974. In the Netherlands the video disk was introduced by Philips Company and e-mail was introduced. 
     The year 1972 was also a big one in chess. The Olympiad at Skopje ended in victory for the USSR, ahead of Hungary and Yugoslavia. The United States team of Lubosh Kavalek, Pobert Byrne, Pal Benko, Arthur Bisguier, William Martz and George Kane finished 9th out of 16 teams in the finals. 
     Bill Church sponsored the Church's Fried Chicken tournament in San Antonio, Texas. Newly crowned world champion Fischer and deposed champion Spassky were invited, but declined. Fischer approved of the playing conditions, but, as usual, wanted more money. The final result was a three-way tie between Tigran Petrosian, Lajos Portisch and Anatoly Karpov. 
     Svetozar Gligoric won the 2nd Statham Masters in Lone Pine. Communist authorities in Czechoslovakia finally allowed Ludek Pachman to leave the country, but he was forced to pay $1,880 for passports for his family. Mikhail Tal recovered sufficiently from his poor health to dominate the Soviet Chess Championship ahead of Vladimir Tukmakov. Tal also had several successes in international tournaments. 
     Robert Byrne, Samuel Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek tied for first in the US Championship. They each won $1,316.67. In one incident William Lombardy, who tied for 6th place with Greg DeFotis, got in a snit when he threw away a perpetual check against Larry Evans in round 11 due to time pressure, which he later blamed on not being told his clock was running while he was away from the board. Did I mention 1972 was the year Fischer won the World Championship? 
     Yugoslav GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic (born November 2, 1950) began making a name for himself in the 1970s. Taught to play chess by his father, who served as an officer in the merchant navy, his hero was Mikhail Tal who had an effect on Ljubojevic’s play. Style-wise he wa a strong tactician with a penchant for opening experiments. 
     In 1970 Ljubojevic paid for his own trip to the Olympics in Siegen where he spent entire days playing blitz in the foyer, impressing everybody with his results. 
     Ljubojevic was born in Titovo Uzice, Yugoslavia (now Uzice, Serbia) and was awarded the IM title in 1970 and the GM title in 1971. He was Yugoslav co-champion in 1977 and won it outright in 1982. He won the 1974 Canadian Open Championship. He played for Yugoslavia in twelve Olympiads, nine times on top board. 
     Although he has defeated almost every top GM active during his career and in 1983 was ranked third in the Elo rating list, he never succeeded in reaching the Candidates Tournament stage of the World Championship. 
     A battle developed between him and the old guard Svetozar Gligoric as to who was the best player in Yugoslavia. In 1979, it was settled when Ljubojevic edged Gligoric in a match. In the Match of the Century of 1984 he played for the World Team on the 4th board and broke even against Vasily Smyslov and Vladimir Tukmakov.
     Even though he managed to defeat the world’s best players, in the Inter-zonals he suffered from bad luck.  At Petropolis in 1973, he refused to accept a draw in a dangerous position against David Bronstein who was in severe time trouble and at Manila in 1976, he made a gross blunder in his game against Florian Gheorghiu which prevented him from becoming a candidate. 
     Ljubojevic was philosophical about it, saying, “...the life of a chess-player does not end if he doesn’t become the world champion. World champions are special people who are born that way. I, on the other hand, lived happily and I’m very pleased with my career, I loved my life and it did not matter to me if I became the world champion or not.” 
     By the end of the 1980s he regularly had impressive results, but no longer competed for the world championship. Asked why he never wrote a book, he replied, “... you should commentate on matches right after they finish, not after a certain while. No one will be able to remain absolutely truthful and correct in these commentaries. He will surely try to mask the truth! He will say “I did not fear that.” But he did! He will say “I saw that.” But he never saw it during the match.” “It is easy to analyze after the match. But commentary on the match should take place during a game, so that everyone could see. Like warm bread out of the oven. Only then should you write it down, that is the most genuine! You can’t disguise anything there." You can read an interview with Ljubojevic at Chess News HERE.