foto · Gerhard Hund · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Portrait · WGM
Milunka
Lazarević
Eleven Yugoslav women's titles, a place in the world title race and a distinctive voice in chess journalism.
Years
1932-2018
Title
WGM
City
Belgrade
FIDE ID
910490
Rating peak
2320 (1971)
Games in the archive
1
Milunka Lazarevic (1932–2018) was one of Yugoslavia's leading women players. Born in Šantarovac near Jagodina, she won eleven national titles and reached the final stages of the world championship cycle. Alongside her competitive career, she made a lasting contribution as a chess writer.
At the 1955 Candidates Tournament in Moscow, Lazarević had White against the experienced Sonja Graf, three years after winning her first Yugoslav title.
Milunka Lazarević - Sonja Graf-Stevenson · Candidates Tournament (women), Moscow, 1955.10.06
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Lazarevic–Graf, Moscow 1955: an active bishop and rook keep creating threats after the queens have been exchanged.
She won her first Yugoslav women's title in 1952 and played in the 1955 Candidates Tournament in Moscow. With White against the experienced Sonja Graf, she reaches an open position. Watch her bishop travel from c4 through b5 to c6, deep in Black's position.
She came closest to a world title match in Sukhumi in 1964, sharing first place in the Candidates Tournament with Alla Kushnir and Tatiana Zatulovskaya. Kushnir won the playoff, but Lazarevic's result remains a major achievement in Yugoslav women's chess.
At Rijeka in 1963, Lazarević faced reigning world champion Nona Gaprindashvili, with Black.
Nona Gaprindashvili - Milunka Lazarević · Yugoslavia - USSR match, Rijeka, 1963.06.03
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Gaprindashvili–Lazarevic, Rijeka 1963: the rooks break through on the c-file and draw White's king out, before queen and bishop continue the attack.
A year earlier, in Rijeka in 1963, Lazarevic beat reigning women's world champion Nona Gaprindashvili with Black. Both sides attack the opposing king. While White's pawns advance on the kingside, Black's rooks gather on the c-file.
Lazarevic wrote about chess with the experience of a player familiar with both calculation at the board and life around the tournament hall. She also served as an arbiter. Her writing and commentary gave readers another way to share her love of the game.
These two games highlight the value of pieces working together. Against Graf, bishop and rook continue without queens; against Gaprindashvili, the rooks clear a path for queen and bishop. Such ideas keep her games interesting long after the events where they were played.