Milan Vukić (born 19 August 1942,

Sanski Most Sanski Most ( sr-cyrl, Сански Мост, ) is a town and municipality located in the Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of the Sana River in northwes ...

) is a Bosnian Serb chess Grandmaster. He has been a champion of

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and of the former state of

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, both during its constitution as a Socialist Federal Republic (SFRY) and as a Federal Republic (FRY).

Biography

Vukic only started to play chess as a young man, having been occupied with other sports during his teenage years. Once hooked on the game, his progress was rapid. Earning the title

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 ...

in 1967 and Grandmaster in 1975, he first won the

Yugoslav Chess Championship The Yugoslav Chess Championship was an annual chess tournament held to determine the Yugoslav national champion and Yugoslavia's candidates for the World Chess Championship. It was first played in 1935 in Belgrade, the capital of Kingdom of Yugosl ...

(SFRY) in 1970 and added further victories in 1971 and 1974. In the midst of the Balkan war hostilities (1992–1995), it was not uncommon for passionate chess players, like Vukić, to ignore the dangers and carry on playing in scheduled competitions. A fourth (this time FRY) championship win came his way in 1994. Later, after his country had endured yet more political upheaval, he won the first ever Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2005). Organisers ensured this tournament comprised a mix of Serbian and Bosnian players in the spirit of friendship. Vukić was himself a registered Serbian player at the time, but has since switched Federations. A regular on the international tournament circuit of the 1970s, he enjoyed considerable success. Notably, there were outright or shared first places at the

Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

Open 1972 and 1973 (the latter shared with Janos Flesch), at the inaugural

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city in Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is the tr ...

tournament 1974 (ahead of

Vlastimil Hort Vlastimil Hort (12 January 1944 – 12 May 2025) was a Czech and German chess grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the World Chess Championship 1978, 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for ...

and

Gennady Kuzmin Gennady Pavlovich Kuzmin (, ; January 19, 1946 – February 28, 2020) was a Ukrainian chess player and trainer. He reached his peak strength in the early to mid-1970s and in 1973, was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE, the ...

, other notable players included

Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...

Borislav Ivkov Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. As one of the most decorated players in the history of Chess Olympiad, Ivkov was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal t ...

István Csom István Csom (2 June 1940 – 28 July 2021) was a Hungarian chess player who held the FIDE titles of Grandmaster and International Arbiter. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1967 and the Grandmaster title in 1973. He was Hun ...

, James Tarjan) - maybe his biggest success, and at

Bajmok Bajmok ( sr-Cyrl, Бајмок; , ) is a village located in the municipality of Subotica, in the North Bačka District, Vojvodina, Serbia. The village is ethnically mixed and its population numbered 7,414 inhabitants as of 2011 census. Name In S ...

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

(both 1975),

Vukovar Vukovar (; sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, , ) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern Regions of Croatia, regions of Syrmia and Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka (river), Vuka and the Danube. Vukova ...

1976 and

Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; ) is a Subdivisions of Belgrade, municipality in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown ...

1980 (shared with

Dragoljub Velimirović Dragoljub Velimirović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб Велимировић; 12 May 1942 – 22 May 2014) was a Serbian (formerly Yugoslav) chess grandmaster, born in Valjevo. Biography Velimirović was introduced to chess at the age of s ...

). Since then, he has remained fairly active as a tournament player and continues to record the occasional win, such as his shared first place at Hotel Opatija (

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

) in 2002. In team chess he has represented Yugoslavia at student and full national level. Commencing with the World Student Team Championships of 1967 and 1968, he contributed solid plus scores, but the team failed to excel. At the

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

, he played in 1970 and in 1980, taking home an individual bronze medal on the second outing. He was part of the Bosnia & Herzegovina Euro team in 2007, but played only one game. Surprisingly for a multiple national champion, he has never represented his country at the

Olympiad An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the Ancient Olympic Games, ancient and Olympic Games, modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Archaic Greece, Greece ...

. As a player of regular league chess, Vukić has had a long affiliation with the club ''Željezničar Sarajevo'' and was a team member at the finals of European Club Cup. He also has a fine reputation as a practitioner of

blitz chess Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. A ...

.Chesslodge - Chess News and Events
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Notable games

- GM Milan Vukić Banja Luka 1974
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 h5 5.Ne2 e6 6.Ng3 Bg6 7.Be2 c5 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.Nc3 Nc6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Qd2 Nb4 12.Bd1 Rc8 13.a3 Nc6 14.Bxe7 Ngxe7 15.f4 a6 16.Be2 Na5 17.Rc1 Nf5 18.Nxf5 Bxf5 19.Qd4 Nc4 20.Nd1 Qa5+ 21.c3 g6 22.Kf2 b5 23.Re1 Qd8 24.Rh1 Na5 25.Qb4 Qb6+ 26.Ke1 Nc6 27.Qb3 Nd4 28.Qa2 Nxe2 29.Kxe2 Bg4+ 30.Kd3 Rc4 31.g3 Bxd1 32.Rhxd1 Qf2 33.Rg1 Re4 34.Rcf1 Qe2+ 0-1

GM Milan Vukić - GM Gyula Sax Banja Luka 1981
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c5 6.O-O Nc6 7.Ne5 Bd7 8.Nxc6 Bxc6 9.Bxc6+ bxc6 10.Qa4 cxd4 11.Qxc6+ Nd7 12.Qxc4 Bc5 13.b4 Bb6 14.a4 O-O 15.Bb2 e5 16.Nd2 a5 17.b5 Rc8 18.Qd3 Nc5 19.Qc4 d3 20.Ba3 Re8 21.Ne4 Nxe4 22.Qxe4 d2 23.Rfd1 Bd4 24.Rab1 Bb6 25.Rb3 f5 26.Qxf5 e4 27.e3 Rc2 28.Kg2 Qc7 29.Rb2 Rc3 30.Rbxd2 Rxa3 31.Rd7 Qe5 32.Qf7+ Kh8 33.R1d5 1-0

GM Milan Vukić - GM

Vlastimil Jansa Vlastimil Jansa (born 27 November 1942) is a Czech chess player. He was awarded the titles of International Master, in 1965, and Grandmaster, in 1974, by FIDE. Life and career Jansa was born on 27 November 1942 in Prague. He learned chess whil ...

Bor 1985
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.O-O Nb6 8.Nc3 Nc6 9.e3 e5 10.d5 Ne7 11.e4 Bg4 12.h3 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 c6 14.Rd1 cxd5 15.Nxd5 Nbxd5 16.exd5 Nf5 17.d6 Rb8 18.d7 Nd4 19.Qd5 Qe7 20.h4 Rfd8 21.Bh3 Kh8 22.Rxd4 exd4 23.Bf4 f5 24.Bxb8 Rxb8 25.Rc1 Rd8 26.Rc8 Bf6 27.Bf1 Kg7 28.Rxd8 Qxd8 29.Qxb7 a5 30.a4 Kh6 31.Bd3 f4 32.Kg2 fxg3 33.fxg3 Qe7 34.b4 axb4 35.a5 b3 36.a6 Qe3 37.Qf3 1-0

GM Milan Vukić - GM Igor Miladinović (chess player), Igor Miladinović Tivat Yug-ch 1994
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 b5 3.c3 Bb7 4.a4 e5 5.axb5 e4 6.Nd4 h5 7.Bg2 h4 8.d3 h3 9.Bxe4 Nxe4 10.dxe4 Bxe4 11.f3 Bb7 12.e4 a6 13.Be3 axb5 14.Rxa8 Bxa8 15.Nxb5 Be7 16.c4 O-O 17.N1c3 Na6 18.O-O f5 19.Nd4 fxe4 20.Nxe4 Nc5 21.Nf2 Bg5 22.Qd2 Bxe3 23.Qxe3 Qb8 24.Nxh3 Qxb2 25.Ng5 Qb6 26.h4 d5 27.cxd5 Bxd5 28.Re1 Nd7 29.Kh2 Nf6 30.Nf5 Qxe3 31.Rxe3 Bf7 32.Re7 Nd5 33.Rd7 c6 34.g4 Nf6 35.Rc7 Nh7 36.Ne7+ 1-0

References

External links

Vukić's games at Chessgames.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vukic, Milan 1942 births Living people People from Sanski Most Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Chess Grandmasters Bosnia and Herzegovina chess players Serbian chess players Yugoslav chess players