Petar Trifunović

Petar Trifunović (31 August 1910 – 8 December 1980) was a Yugoslav and Serbian chess player, who was awarded the international grandmaster title, and was a five-time Yugoslav champion.

Chess career

Yugoslavia was for many years the world's second strongest chess nation. Trifunovic came 3rd in the first Yugoslav championship (1935), 2nd in 1936, 1937 (shared with Mirko Breder and Boris Kostić) and 1938 (shared with Milan Vidmar and Lajos Asztalos) and won in 1945, 1946, 1947 (shared with Svetozar Gligorić), 1952, and 1961. In total, Trifunović was among the top three players in the Yugoslav chess championship 16 times, which is an all-time record (tied with Svetozar Gligorić). The young Trifunovic was also an excellent scholar, obtaining a law degree in 1933, followed by a doctorate.

He had a reputation as an attacking player in the 1930s, when he was known as 'Typhoonovic'. Later, he concentrated more on positional play and defensive technique, his style becoming less adventurous but difficult to refute. As a result, he drew many games. For example, his drawn match with Miguel Najdorf at Opatija 1949 included ten drawn games (+1 −1 =10), and at Leipzig in 1965 he drew all 15 of his games.

His international tournament successes included: Zlín 1945 (first), Prague 1946 (tied for second after Najdorf), Lima 1950 (first), Cheltenham 1951 (tied for second after Gligorić), Belgrade 1954 (third after Bronstein and Matanović, but ahead of Gligorić and Petrosian). At Netanya 1961 he tied for first with Matulović and Czerniak. At Prague 1961 and Beverwijk 1962 he came outright first and at Sarajevo, also in 1962, third after Gligorić and Portisch. Trifunović tied for first with 10 players at the 1962 Oklahoma City Open after drawing with Ken Smith and drawing with Bob Potter, a little-known expert from Dallas. At Noordwijk in 1965 he finished second to Botvinnik (ahead of Flohr, Larsen and Donner).

FIDE awarded him the international master title in 1950 and the grandmaster title in 1953 making him the third Serbian to become a grandmaster, after Boris Kostić (1950) and Svetozar Gligorić (1951). He played for his country in seven Chess Olympiads between 1935 and 1962. His best individual result was the event held in his birthplace, Dubrovnik, in 1950. A score of 10/13 won him the board 3 gold medal.

During his career, Trifunović won 8 team and board medals at Chess Olympiad, which makes him the fourth-most decorated Serbian and Yugoslav player of all time behind Aleksandar Matanović (13), Svetozar Gligorić (13) and Borislav Ivkov (14).

Legacy

He popularised and subsequently had his name associated with a variation of Alekhine's Defence. The Trifunovic Variation is identified by the move 5...Bf5 as a counter to White's Four Pawns Attack (1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4).

On September 23, 2020, the public company "Pošta Srbije" released a new postage stamps called: "Chess Giants of Serbia". In addition to Trifunović, Svetozar Gligorić, Boris Kostić, Milan Matulović and Milunka Lazarević were also given this honor. On that occasion, short biographies of the players depicted on these stamps were also published. The texts are given in Serbian and English, and their authors are: Trifunović's teammate from the national team and close friend, grandmaster Aleksandar Matanović and sports journalist Miroslav Nešić.https://sahmatlista.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/prof-dr-dragoslav-dukanovic-sahovski-velikani-srbije-nove-postanske-marke-srbije/

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Visa with photo 1953Visa with photo 1955

1910 births
1980 deaths
Chess Grandmasters
Chess Olympiad competitors
Yugoslav chess players
Chess theoreticians
Sportspeople from Dubrovnik
Serbs of Croatia
{{Yugoslav Chess Championship