Dragoljub Velimirović

Dragoljub Velimirović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб Велимировић) (born 12 May 1942) is a Serbian and former Yugoslav chess grandmaster, born in Valjevo.^[1]

Biography

He was introduced to chess at the age of seven by his mother Jovanka Velimirović (1910–1972), who was one of Yugoslavia's leading women chess players before World War II. He has lived in Belgrade since 1960.

FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1972 and Grandmaster title in 1973. He has won the Yugoslav Chess Championship three times, in Vrnjacka Banja 1970 (with Milan Vukić), in Novi Sad 1975 (outright) and in Nikšić/Belgrade 1997 (also outright).

Velimirović was selected for the Yugoslav national team many times, one of the earliest occasions being for the USSR vs Yugoslavia match at Ohrid 1972, during which he notably defeated Rafael Vaganian in the first round. At the European Team Championship between 1970 and 1977 he excelled, winning a number of silver and bronze medals, both for individual and team performances. At the Chess Olympiad in Nice 1974, he took two silver medals (one team, one individual). A further silver medal followed from his participation at the World Team championship in Lucerne 1989.^[2]

In World championship cycles, he was the winner of Zonal tournaments in Praia da Rocha 1978 and Budva 1981. He participated at three Interzonal tournaments in Rio de Janeiro 1979, Moscow 1982 and in Szirák 1987, but was never able to qualify for the Candidates phase.

Velimirović is noted for his attacking style of play and possesses a great gift for visualizing sacrificial possibilities. Whilst spectacular chess has made him popular with onlookers, each game requires a great effort and this has handicapped his quest for international tournament success. His early tournament results included Skopje 1971 (2nd=, behind Lev Polugaevsky, equal with Albin Planinc), Vrnjacka Banja 1973 (1st),^[3] Novi Sad 1976 (2nd, behind Jan Smejkal, ahead of Vlastimil Hort and Svetozar Gligorić) and Albufeira 1978 (1st, ahead of Ljubomir Ljubojevic). He sustained the effort into the 1980s and early 90s, adding further victories at Titograd 1984, Vršac 1987 and Niksic 1994.

Theory

In the theory of chess openings there is a sharp and popular variation of the Sicilian Defence called the Velimirović Attack, which is identified by the sequence of moves: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Be3 Be7 8. Qe2 ... intending 9. 0-0-0. It is like the Yugoslav Attack, but not quite as powerful or risky because black's bishop isn't on the long diagonal.

References

1. ^ Gaige, Jeremy (1987). Chess Personalia, A Biobibliography. McFarland. p. 443. ISBN 0-7864-2353-6. 
2. ^ Olimpbase team chess records
3. ^ Golombek, Harry, ed (1981). The Penguin Encyclopaedia of Chess. Penguin Books. p. 501. ISBN 978-0140464528. 

External links

• FIDE rating card for Dragoljub Velimirovic
• Dragoljub Velimirovic player profile at ChessGames.com