Bojan Kurajica (born 15 November 1947) is a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster (GM). Kurajica grew up in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

. He earned the

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(IM) title in 1965 by winning the World Junior Championship. He moved to

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

in 1966 to study Italian and English at the Faculty of Philosophy, graduating in 1972. Kurajica was awarded the GM title in 1974. He played chess in Zagreb until 1979, when he relocated to

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

in order to play for

ŠK Bosna ŠK Bosna, or Šahovski klub Bosna is a chess club from Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club is part of the University Sport Society USD Bosna ( bs, Univerzitetsko sportsko društvo Bosna). This club has achieved considerable success ...

. He played for Yugoslavia in

Chess Olympiads The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

at Valletta 1980 (won team bronze medal) and Thessaloniki 1984. One of his notable tournament successes was joint 3rd/4th place (together with

Mikhail Tal Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal; rus, Михаил Нехемьевич Таль, ''Mikhail Nekhem'yevich Tal' '', ; sometimes transliterated ''Mihails Tals'' or ''Mihail Tal'' (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player ...

whom he beat in their individual game) at the 1976 Wijk aan Zee ( Fridrik Olafsson and

Ljubomir Ljubojević Ljubomir Ljubojević (; born November 2, 1950) is a Serbian chess grandmaster. He won the Yugoslav Chess Championship in 1977 (tied) and 1982. Life and career Ljubojević was born on 2 November 1950 in Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia (now Užice, S ...

won). In 1979, Kurajica shared the win at the traditional Bosna tournament in

. In 1981, he won the strong

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label= Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Lugano has a populat ...

Open (first with best tie-break score). In 1991, Kurajica broke the Guinness World record for playing a simultaneous game on the largest numbers of boards up until that moment. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, he represented Bosnia and Herzegovina ten times between 1992 and 2012 (won team silver medal at Moscow 1994), in total 12 Olympiad appearances. Since 2019. he represents Croatia, as he did between 2006 and 2009. In December 2005 Kurajica won the 13th Salona GM Invitation Tournament in Solin as clear first. In the same year Kurajica was awarded the title of

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

Trainer. , he shared his residence between Sarajevo and

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its ad ...

. On the September 2016 FIDE list his

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved c ...

is 2529.

References

External links

* *
Bojan Kurajica at 365Chess.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurajica, Bojan 1947 births Living people Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Croatian chess players Bosnia and Herzegovina chess players Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Yugoslav chess players World Junior Chess Champions Chess coaches Sportspeople from Ljubljana