Aleksandar Matanovic, a Serbian grandmaster who co-founded Chess Informant, a publishing firm that revolutionized how gamers discovered and studied the sport, died on Aug. 9 in Belgrade. He was 93 and the world’s oldest dwelling grandmaster.
His demise was introduced by the International Chess Federation, the sport’s governing physique.
Mr. Matanovic (pronounced ma-TAHN-o-vich) discovered play chess when he was 6, utilizing items his sister had long-established out of clay. Largely self-taught, he fell in love with the sport and, by the point he was 18, was his nation’s junior champion. Just a few years later, he was a grandmaster.
Mr. Matanovic based Chess Informant in 1966 with Aleksandar Bozic, one other grandmaster, and Milivoje Molerovic, a global grasp (the rank under grandmaster).
The goal of the corporate was to publish books of latest video games by prime gamers, typically with their very own annotations. Mr. Matanovic functioned as the corporate’s senior editor, serving to to pick which video games had been included. They picked video games that had been thrilling however that additionally had new or stunning opening sequences of strikes, thus advancing the collective understanding of chess.
The firm has bought greater than 4.5 million chess books so far, in line with Vitomir Bozic, the son of Aleksandar Bozic and the present normal supervisor of the Informant.
Garry Kasparov, who reigned as world chess champion from 1985 to 2000 and who was born two years earlier than Chess Informant started publishing, as soon as stated of his era of gamers, “We are all children of Informant.”
In the a centesimal Informant, printed in April 2008, Mr. Matanovic seemed again, noting how Informant turned the “Chess Bible.”
Before Informants had been printed, it was tough to search out up-to-date details about video games and tournaments. Once the books started to appear — two a yr till 1990, three a yr till 2011, 4 a yr since 2012 — they turned an important reference for all severe chess gamers, even nonprofessionals.
For a long time earlier than the web, it was widespread for gamers to journey to competitions lugging a number of Informants, and to see them feverishly learning the books between rounds. (Some gamers allotted extra space of their suitcase for Informants than for adjustments of clothes and must put on the identical outfit at a match for days.)
Chess Informant additionally created a system for annotating and classifying video games — notably the openings, which had beforehand been identified solely by their names. In a five-volume sequence known as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, first printed from 1974 to 1979, Informant grouped the openings collectively by letters and numbers, which made it simpler to seek for details about particular ones.
The annotation system additionally used a sequence of symbols, together with a plus signal to point that one participant was in test, and an arrow pointing to the fitting which means that one participant had a powerful initiative for an assault. In an electronic mail, Mr. Bozic, the overall supervisor, described Mr. Matanovic as “the brain” behind the annotation system.
Almost all chess books now use some or all the opening classifications and annotations created by Informant.
Aleksandar Matanovic was born on May 23, 1930, in Belgrade, which was then the capital of Yugoslavia. His father died when he was younger, and he discovered to play chess on the age of 6 from his older sister, who made a set from modeling clay as a result of they didn’t have items.
In 1944, after the Allies bombed German-occupied Belgrade, the household fled to Ostruznica, a village on the banks of the Sava river. There, on the seaside, individuals performed chess; Mr. Matanovic stated he found that he was higher than everybody else, which persuaded him to stay with the sport. After World War II ended, he started competing often; by 1948, he was Yugoslavia’s junior champion.
He turned a global grasp in 1951, and 4 years later he was awarded the title of grandmaster by the International Chess Federation.
He received the Yugoslavian nationwide championship thrice (1962, tied for first; 1969; and 1978, once more tied for first). He additionally completed runner-up 4 instances, in 1951, 1956, 1959 and 1967.
The outcomes had been formidable — on the time that Mr. Matanovic was competing, Yugoslavia was among the many world’s strongest chess-playing nations. From 1954 to 1978, he was a part of 11 Yugoslavian nationwide groups within the biannual Chess Olympiads. His groups received 5 silver and 4 bronze medals, with Mr. Matanovic personally taking house 4 medals, together with one gold, for his performances.
He additionally loved success in particular person worldwide competitions, successful or tying for first in 5 tournaments and putting second in two others.
Over the course of his profession, he beat a few of the world’s greatest gamers, together with the world champions Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian.
Mr. Matanovic met his future spouse, Vesna Kostrencic, in Zagreb, and so they had been collectively for 74 years. She survives him. His survivors additionally embrace his son, Aleksandar; three grandchildren; and 4 great-grandchildren.
Though the web has made Informants and the chess encyclopedias much less important, they proceed to be well-liked, and the corporate has branched out and now publishes different forms of chess books. The 157th quantity of Informant, which is now additionally bought on DVD, can be launched in September.
Speaking to the Serbian newspaper Politika in May, Mr. Matanovic recalled {that a} Serbian economist advised him within the Seventies, “The two products we export the most are berries and Chess Informant.”
Source: www.nytimes.com