Dr. Petar Trifunović

   Following in the footsteps of Steinitz,  Petar Trifunović, a strong Yugoslavian player from the 1930s through the 1960s, evolved from a fearsome attacker into a staunch defensive/positional player capable of drawing against almost anyone. 

   Born in Dubrovnik in 1910, Trifunović studied law in Zagreb and earned his doctor of jurisprudence in 1933.  He had taken up chess around 1926 and soon became a proficient blindfold player and solver of chess problems.  He took third place in the 1935 Yugoslavian championship behind Vasja Pirc and  Borislav Kostic.  Ten years later, Petar moved to Belgrade and won his first of 5 Yugoslavian Championships.  He also played in numerous Olympiads.  When Yugoslavia won the 1950 Olympiad at Dubrovnik, Trifunović played 3rd board scoring +8=4-1.   He was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 1953, a time when the number of GM titles were very limited.

   Dr. Trifunović was elected President of the Chess Federation of Serbia and his legacy involved that of a teacher, coach and organizer.  He was also a prodigious chess journalist/correspondent who contributed numerous articles to "Chess Review."  Most of his articles covered chess events in eastern Europe and parts of the Soviet Union, but occasionally he would send in photographs and less serious information. Petar Trifunović died  in 1980.

   Below is a fun article he sent to "Chess Review" that appeared in May, 1964  (right-click,view-image for a larger image) :

"Chess Review" listed Trifunović in it's list of editors:

https://www.chess.com/games/view?id=99347

"Trifunović played 3rd board scoring +8+4-1."

batgirl, im assuming this should read +8=4-1?

Thanks. I'll change the typo.

A example of a Trifunović headline:

Thank you for this post, batgirl. You are a grandmaster of bringing fascinating classical chess information to this site.

Yes, thank you batgirl from possibly the only other Trifunovic watcher (apart from Mike) on chess.com. Always a joy to read your posts.

Karpark, I find it enjoyable to look at the games of lesser known stars of the chess world, especially those who are practically unknown today. Another is Salo Flohr, who was a contender for the world championship before WWII. In his career, he had wins against Euwe, Botvinnik, Keres, Capablanca, Lasker, Bronstein, and Petrosian. Not a bad piece of work. Then there is Carl Schlechter, who drew a world championship match with Lasker.

Going back to your comment on the thread about Bled, the Trifunovic-Fischer game in Fischer's book is the one from that tournament, and in the intro to the game Larry Evans does mention Trifunovic's reputation for being able to secure a draw against almost anyone.

A friend of mine, Dwight Weaver of the Memphis Chess club, has an entry in his Memphis Chess Club blog about Trifunovich's visit to the city during a US tour.  It has some photos and even Trifunovich's own word about his tour.  Read it and leave a nice message - he'll really appreciate it.
http://memphischessclub.blogspot.com/2011/02/grandmaster-trifunovich-invitation-to.html

Thanks Mike. Must try and find my Fischer book. In a box somewhere in the house, I think!

#10 is scanned from the Fischer book.

Trifunovich 1950 :

Thanks for another fascinating article, batgirl.

 I would like to make one correction: Gligorich defeated Trifunovich twice, at Budapest in 1948 and at Buenos Aires in 1955. Trifunovic did come out on top in their meetings, +3-2=25.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=15349&pid2=19236

concurs with what OldPatzerMike states.

 Eye Candy from 1950:

batgirl, chessgames.com was the source for my information, but I was afraid of violating this site's terms of service by citing it.

Urk, Trifunovich was a very strong GM who devoted too much time to other interests to achieve the chess results he might otherwise have had. Against Tal, he was +1-1=3. He was also +2-1=3 against Bent Larsen.