15-year-old Bobby Fischer, pictured in Yugoslavia in 1958 with a journalist from 'Belgrade TV'.
(📷via borba-online.rs.) #chess

Previous followers of 'Chess Informant' may wish to note that its account has been replaced; the new one is @chessinformant1.

Have long been familiar with the 11th game of the Tal-Botvinnik return match (an Exchange Slav, won by the ex-World Champion), but it was only today that I learned that it took place on the same day as the famous 'Vostok' space flight by Yuri Gagarin - 12th April, 1961.

Chess on the front page. Svetozar Gligorić is voted 'Sportsman of the Year' for 1958, by the Yugoslav newspaper 'Sport'.
Lower down, a report on the friendly match between 'Partizan' (Belgrade) & 'Eintracht' (Braunschweig). ⚽️
(📷via novosti.rs.)

The famous Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić (1923-2012), pictured c. 1950.
(📷via rts.rs.) #chess

Before the Candidates I wrote: 'I think that Gukesh has good chances'. He lived up to it. Congrats, Gukesh!

A quarter of a century ago (6th-17th April 1999). Quite a result for Michael Adams.

(The key line is 26.Rxe8+ Qxe8 27.Bh6 Nf3+ 28.Kg2 Qe5 (28...Ne5 29.f4) 29.Ra8! Nd7 30.Rxb8+ Nxb8 31.Qa8!, etc.)

A remarkable blunder from the game Petrosian-Gligorić, Yugoslavia v. USSR, Belgrade 1956.
After 26.Rxe8+ Qxe8 27.Bh6, White is clearly winning.
The game instead continued 26.Bh6?? Rxe1+ 0-1. According to Alatortsev ('Chess in the USSR', No. 9/1956), White was not in time trouble.

Yugoslav GM Krunoslav Hulak (1951-2016), pictured at the 1977 IBM tournament in Amsterdam. Hulak was runner up in this event, behind Miles, but ahead of Kavalek, Torre, Sosonko, Panno, Timman & others.
(📷: K. Suyk / ANEFO, via nationaalarchief.nl.) #chess

40 yrs ago today - a draw v. future GM Keith Arkell from the Harrogate Open. I was 17, Keith 23...
I had the black pieces. White's opening puzzled me but after the game Keith explained that he was trying to play a Caro-Kann Exchange with colours reversed.
images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/game-g…

Vilnius, 1984. Ex-World Champion Vasily Smyslov is seen in play v. Garry Kasparov in their Candidates' final match. Scheduled for 16 games, it ended in Kasparov's favour with the score 8½:4½.
(📷: B. Kaufman, Novosti Press.) #chess

17th & final round, FIDE Zonal Tournament, The Hague, 7th Oct 1966. Hungarian GM István Bilek is in play v. Guy Mazzoni (France). Bilek won this game to finish 2nd behind Yugoslav GM Svetozar Gligorić, who looks on.
(📷: J. van Bilsen / ANEFO, via nationaalarchief.nl.) #chess

Did have the feeling that there have been a lot of decisive games at the #FIDECandidates and it seems to be true.
Toronto 2024 - 45.8% (so far)
Madrid 2022 - 41.1
Yekaterinburg 2020 - 44.6
Berlin 2018 - 35.7
Moscow 2016 - 28.6
Khanty-Mansiysk 2014 - 39.3
London 2013 - 44.6.

Two things that are no longer with us: Yugoslavia, with its fantastic #chess tradition, and the days of 19-round-all-play-all national championships lasting nearly a month.

Minsk, December 1979. 16-year-old International Master Garry Kasparov (Baku) is in play v. GM Yuri Razuvaev (Moscow) in the 8th round of the 47th USSR Championship final. Tamaz Georgadze & Yuri Balashov look on.
(📷: M. Rabkin, via dspace.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/14….) #chess