Milan Matulović

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Milan Matulovic (b. 10 June 1935) is a chess grandmaster who was the second or third strongest Yugoslav player for much of the 1960s and 1970s behind Svetozar Gligoric and possibly Borislav Ivkov. He was primarily active before 1977 but has remained an occasional tournament competitor as recently as 2003. He is nicknamed "J'adoubovic".

Matulovic was born in Belgrade and followed a fairly typical progression to the ranks of the grandmasters, achieving the International Master title in 1961 and becoming a grandmaster in 1965. He won the Yugoslav chess championships of 1965 and 1967 and had a number of successes in international tournaments, possibly his best result being equal first with Gligoric, Ivkov and Lev Polugaevsky at Skopje 1969 ahead of former world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik among others. His pursuit of the world championship was rather less successful, as he never advanced to the Candidates stage of the process for selecting a challenger for the title. He played in the celebrated 1970 "USSR versus Rest of the World" match on eighth board against Botvinnik, losing one game and drawing the other three. A certain controversy attended this pairing, as Matulovic was well known for his "Botvinnik complex" and a long history of poor results against the Soviet player; there were accusations that the Soviet team captain had placed Botvinnik on a lower board than his stature would warrant, to take advantage of this history.

Controversy in actions both over and away from the board was nothing new to Matulovic. He served a brief prison term for vehicular homicide. Over the board he was known for playing out hopeless positions long after grandmaster etiquette called for a resignation, allegedly in the hopes of reaching adjournment (suspension of a game for resumption the next day, common in tournament play at the time) so that the news reports would read "Matulovic's game is adjourned" rather than "Matulovic lost!" More seriously, in the aftermath of the 1970 Interzonal tournament at Palma de Mallorca, he was accused of "throwing" his game against Mark Taimanov in return for a bribe, thus allowing Taimanov to advance to the Candidates matches, where he was famously annihilated by Bobby Fischer 6-0. The accusations centered around Matulovic's conduct during the game and the alleged feebleness of his resistance. The score of the notorious Taimanov-Matulovic game follows, from which the reader can draw his or her own conclusions. Taimanov-Matulovic, Queen's Gambit Accepted: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Bxc4 e6 6.Nc3 Nbd7 7.h3 Bh5 8.O-O Bd6 9.e4 e5 10.dxe5 Nxe5 11.Be2 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Nxf3+ 13.Qxf3 Qe7 14.Bf4 Be5 15.Bxe5 Qxe5 16.Qe3 O-O 17.f4 Qe7 18.e5 c6 19.Rfe1 Rfe8 20.Qf3 Qc5+ 21.Qf2 Qxf2+ 22.Kxf2 Nd5 23.Nxd5 cxd5 24.Red1 Red8 25.Rac1 Rd7 26.Ke3 Rad8 27.Kd4 Kf8 28.f5 Ke7 29.Rd3 Re8 30.Rdc3 b6 31.Rc7 Rd8 32.R1c6 Ke8 33.g4 h6 34.h4 Rb8 35.g5 hxg5 36.hxg5 Rb7 37.Rc8+ Rd8 38.Rxd8+ Kxd8 39.Kxd5 a5 40.Rd6+ Ke8 41.Kc6 Re7 42.Rd5 1-0

Perhaps Matulovic's most notorious transgression, and one that is not mere accusation either, was against Istvan Bilek at the Sousse Interzonal in 1967. He put a piece en prise, and then took the move back after saying "j'Adoube". His opponent complained to the arbiter, but the move was allowed to stand. This incident earned Matulovic the nickname "J'adoubovic." [1]

Matulovic's sharp attacking play is shown in a more favorable light in this game against the Bulgarian grandmaster Georgi Tringov from the 1970 Chess Olympiad at Siegen. Matulovic-Tringov, Pirc Defense: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Bd3 Nbd7 7.O-O e5 8.fxe5 dxe5 9.d5 c6 10.dxc6 bxc6 11.Kh1 Qc7 12.Be3 Nb6 13.a4 a5 14.Qe1 Nfd7 15.Rd1 Qd8 16.Qf2 Rb8 17.Nd2 Qe7 18.b3 Kh8 19.Ne2 f6 20.Ng3 h5 21.Nc4 Nxc4 22.Bxc4 Rb4 23.Rd3 Re8 24.Rfd1 Rb8 25.Nf5 gxf5 26.Qh4 Nf8 27.Qxh5+ Nh7 28.Bc5 Qxc5 29.Rh3 Bh6 30.Qxe8+ Qf8 31.Rd8 fxe4 32.Qxf8+ Bxf8 33.Rxf8+ Kg7 34.Rg8++