Variations Table

Creating a weakness on g6 that needs some attention. This move also led to the brilliant game by Svetozar Gligoric vs. Milko Bobotsov, Hastings, 1959. Giligoric’s queen sacrifice beginning with 12.e5 was true Double Exclam material. Gligoric went on to win the tournament with 7.5/9. Bobotsov finished in fourth place. Gligoric was a Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster (and musician!). He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is considered the best player ever from Serbia. In 1958, he was declared the best athlete of Yugoslavia. Not only was Gligoric one of the top players in the world, he was among the world’s most popular players as well, owing to his globe-trotting tournament schedule and a particularly engaging personality. Gligoric was born in Belgrade to a poor family. He was first exposed to chess as a small child, when he watched customers play at a neighborhood bar. He carved his first chess set from wine-bottle corks. Gligoric died on August 14, 2012, of a stroke, at the age of 89.