Echesspedia

The capital of Serbia has hosted many outstanding tournaments.
The first international tournament was organized in 1952 and has been won by Pilnik, 1954 David Bronstein, 1959 Mikhail Tal, 1961 Evgeni Vasiukov, 1962 and 1963 Svetozar Gligoric, 1964 Boris Spassky, 1965 Gheorghiu & Matulovic, 1967 Ratmir Kholmov, 1968 Martinovic, 1969 Lev Polugaevski, Ivkov, Svetozar Gligoric & Milan Matulovic, 1977 Milan Matulovic, Jan Smejkal & Ulf Andersson, 1979 Marjanovic, 1982 Georgy Agzamov, 1984 Ian Rogers, 1986 Viacheslav Eingorn & Bozidar Ivanovic and 1987 Ljudomir Ljubojevic. In 1970 Belgrade hosted the 1st USSR-Rest of the World.
The Belgrade Grandmaster’s Association 1988 tournament had 100 grandmasters participating, a world record for the number of Grandmasters in one tournament. This was the strongest Swiss of all time up until then. The winner was Krunoslav Hulak. Investbanka then became one of the main sponsors of chess in Yugoslavia. Their first tournament was won by Ljubojevic in 1987 and the last by Vasily Ivanchuk & Vishy Anand in 1997.
Few Candidates’ matches were also organized in the capital like Svetozar Gligoric – Mikhail Tal in 1968 and Viktor Korchnoi- Boris Spassky in 1977. Belgrade was also the women’s chess metropolis. Thirty one tournaments were organized from 1965 until 1997.