A Journey through one brilliant career: collection of winning games and statistical data
Edited by Milan Bjelajac, 399pp. (Zofi Service, 2011)
From the publisher:
"By publishing the book “Ljubomir Ljubojević”, who was one of the best Serbian and Yugoslav chess player ever, I wanted to commemorate and honor his 60th anniversary together with 40 years since he was awarded the title of International Grand Master.
"Belonging to the same generation as his and being myself a long-range chess fan, I have believed that a fruitful creativity and a very successful chess carrier of one of the best World Grand Masters of his time could be presented in a picturesque way.
"This book reviews almost all chess tournaments from 1968-2010 in which Ljubojević took part. It covers over 150 tournaments, of which 32 were his triumphs.
"Ljubomir Ljubojević was born on November 2, 1950 in Titovo Užice. He got Grand Master’s title at the tournament at Vrnjačka Banja in Serbia in May 1971.
"The book “Ljubomir Ljubojević” is conceived in two parts. First part provides a tabular survey of all 32 tournaments, in which Ljubojević was the winner, starting with Sarajevo (1970) up to Wijk aan Zee (2008) when four contenders played double round tournament. In This part are shown all of his victories. Further on, the survey includes his match with Gligoric, Belgrade (1979)., which attracted an unseen interest of Yugoslav chess public until than in which the younger player did triumph!
"The publisher has had a dilemma in deciding where in the book to include several tournaments when Ljubojević did not win the first place, but which were superior to some of those when he did triumph. For instance, at the tournament in Tilburg, (The Netherlands), in 1986, where Ljubojević took the second place and was before Karpov and other best players of that time. The next examples may be either Milan (1975) or Linares (1989) and so on. However, it has been assessed that the first place represents a special value which deserves to be separated from all other tournament results, regardless to their objective strenght.
"It is useful to let readers know that all the games are assorted in a systematic way according to their openings, to enable a better comparison and to follow a progress itself of Ljubojević’s creativity.
"The games are commented by using the symbols from Chess Informant's System of Signs. The choice of a small number of photos is made due to a relatively limited space available. This is to acknowledge very valuable contribution of Mr. Milan Bjelajac, International master, who has gathered and selected a large chess material to make it ready for publishing."
