Milan R. Vukcevich (born Milan Radoje Vukčević; March 11, 1937 – May 10, 2003) was a

Serbian-American Serbian Americans () or American Serbs (), are Americans of ethnic Serb ancestry. As of 2023, there were slightly more than 181,000 American citizens who identified as having Serb ancestry. However, the number may be significantly higher, as ...

chemist, a grandmaster of

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is t ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

and writer.

Biography

Milan Radoje Vukčević was born in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. In 1955 he won the Yugoslav junior championship, drawing a six-game match with

Bent Larsen Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-Soviet Union, Soviet player, behind ...

in the same year. In 1960, he played for

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 ...

at the

Chess Olympiad 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 FIDE Onli ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

and had the second-best overall score at the Student Chess Olympiad in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. In 1963 he moved to the US, settling in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, and westernising his surname. Vukcevich decided on a career in science rather than chess, and in the year he moved to the United States he entered

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. He was an instructor at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

for six years before leaving to work for

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

, where, from 1989, he served as Chief Scientist. He published two books on science. Vukcevich continued to play chess. In 1969 he was joint winner of the U.S. Open Chess Championship, along with

Pal Benko Pal Charles Benko (; July 15, 1928 – August 25, 2019) was a Hungarian and American chess grandmaster, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems. Early life Benko was born on July 15, 1928, in Amiens, France, where his ...

and Robert Byrne. In 1975 he finished third in the U.S. Championship, ahead of

Samuel Reshevsky Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid 1930s to the late 1 ...

, Robert Byrne, Larry Evans and

Arthur Bisguier Arthur Bernard Bisguier (October 8, 1929April 5, 2017) was an American chess player, chess promoter, and writer who held the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). Bisguier won two U.S. Junior Championships (1948, 1949), three U.S. Open Chess Cham ...

among others. From 1976-79, he played in the National Telephone League, scoring 16.5 from 22 games, including wins against Bisguier,

Yasser Seirawan Yasser Seirawan (; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States Chess Championship, United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess au ...

Nick De Firmian Nicholas Ernest de Firmian (born July 26, 1957) is an American chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1985. He is a three-time U.S. chess champion, winning in 1987 (with Joel Benjamin), 1995, and 1998. He also tied f ...

and Leonid Shamkovich. Vukcevich died in 2003 in

Shaker Heights, Ohio Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's population was 29,439. Shaker Heights is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland, abutting the eastern edge of the c ...

and is buried in Evergreen Hill Cemetery in

Chagrin Falls Chagrin Falls is a village in eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,188 as of the 2020 census. The village was established around the eponymous Chagrin Falls on the Chagrin River. A suburb of Cleveland, it is part ...

. His son, Marko, is a former guitar player in the band

Mushroomhead Mushroomhead is an American heavy metal band from Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1993 in the Cleveland Warehouse District, the band is known for their avant-garde sound and horror film-inspired imagery which features masks and costumes as well as ...

from Cleveland. The "Vukcevich Super Cup" was created in his honor soon after his death.Vukcevich Super Cup
''Vivacity Chess''.

Chess compositions

Vukcevich is better known as an author of

s than as a player, however, being the first American resident to be awarded the title of International Composition Grandmaster by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

. In 1981 he published ''Chess by Milan: Problems and Games of Dr. Milan R. Vukcevich'' and in 1998 was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame, becoming only the second person (after

Sam Loyd Samuel Loyd (January 30, 1841 – April 10, 1911) was an American chess player, chess composer, puzzle author, and recreational mathematics, recreational mathematician. Loyd was born in Philadelphia but raised in New York City. As a chess comp ...

) to be primarily inducted for their achievements in problem composition. Vukcevich's compositions were gathered together in ''My Chess Compositions'' (2003). He composed in all genres, including direct mates,

selfmate A selfmate is a chess problem in which White, moving first, must force Black to deliver checkmate within a specified number of moves. Selfmates were once known as sui-mates. Example The problem shown is a relatively simple example. It is a sel ...

helpmate A helpmate is a type of chess problem in which both sides cooperate in order to achieve the goal of checkmating Black. In a helpmate in ''n'' moves, Black moves first, then White, each side moving ''n'' times, to culminate in White's ''nth'' m ...

s, problems with fairy pieces and a small number of

endgame studies In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a type of chess problem that starts with a composed position—i.e. one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—where the goal is to find the essentially unique way for ...

. On the left is one of Vukcevich's famous problems. The key is 1. Bb6 with the threat 2. Qg6! and 3. Ne4# and 3. e4#. If 2. ... Rxf3 then 3. Rxf3#, which explains the choice of the key. In the main variations Black unpins the Queen, which can then form new batteries: 1. ... Rf5 2. Qf4!! (threat 3. Ne4#) Re5+ 3. Be4#; 2. ... Rxf4+ e4#. 1. ... Nf5! 2. Qh4!! (threat 3. Ne4#) Nxe3+ Rg6#; 2. ... Nxh4+ 3. e4#. Additional variation occurs after 1. ... e5 2. Qf5! Qxf5+ 3. e4#.

References

External links

Milan R Vukcevich
chess games at 365Chess.com * *
Biography

ChessBase ChessBase is a German company that develops and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases containing the moves of recor ...

Biographical sketch of Vukcevich
by Edward J. Covington

The Week in Chess ''The Week in Chess'' (TWIC) is a chess news web site. It was founded in 1994 and is based in the United Kingdom. ''TWIC'' has been edited by Mark Crowther since its inception in 1994. It began as a weekly Usenet Usenet (), a portmante ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vukcevich, Milan 1937 births 2003 deaths Serbian chess players Chess players from Belgrade American chess players American people of Serbian descent Yugoslav chess players 20th-century Serbian scientists Serbian chemists Yugoslav emigrants to the United States Chess composers Serbian chess writers American chess writers American male non-fiction writers General Electric people Grandmasters for chess composition Case Western Reserve University faculty 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers

Biography

Chess compositions

Further reading

References

External links