Two Who Gave Up Chess

    The following game was played by two great, but relatively unknown, players from a bygone era, both of who, gave up chess. The game was played in the 1955 Gothenburg Interzonal.The top nine players qualifying for the Amsterdam Candidates that was held the following year, 

    From 1955 until 1962 Dr. Miroslav Filip (1928-2009) qualified for the candidate tournaments twice. Filip's play was characterized as serious, solid and deep. Outside of chess he had no problem with the Soviet invasion of his country in 1968 and remained loyal to the authorities and managed to do very well. 

    Filip did not have a fanatical enthusiasm for chess and in 2002 he was invited to attend festivities for the 40th anniversary of the 1962 Candidates Tournament (im which Filip had finished last) that was held in Curacao, but he declined, saying he had pretty much lost interest in chess. 

    After a promising beginning his opponent in this game, Andrija Fuderer (1931-2011), ended up abandoning the game for his real passion, chemical engineering. His swansong was the 1959 Soviet Union vs. Yugoslavia team match where, at the age of 28 he showed what might have been by beating Bronstein, the victor at Gothenburg, by a score of 3-1. 

 

    In the late 1960s Fuderer left Yugoslavia for good, living in Spain and working as a chemical engineer in Antwerp. He only played in tournaments outside Yugoslavia in order to acquire consumer goods that he could sell when he returned home and use the profit to finance his university studies.