Milan Matulović (10 June 1935 – 9 October 2013) was a chessgrandmaster who was the second or third strongest Yugoslav player for much of the 1960s and 1970s behind Svetozar Gligorić and possibly Borislav Ivkov.[1] He was primarily active before 1977, but remained an occasional tournament competitor until 2006.
Career
Matulović on a 2020 stamp of Serbia
Matulović was born in Belgrade. In 1958 he played a four-game training match with Bobby Fischer, of which he won one, drew one and lost two.[2] He achieved the International Master title in 1961 and became a Grandmaster in 1965.
He had excellent results in the Chess Olympiads. He played 78 games in six events for Yugoslavia, with the overall result of 46 wins, 28 draws and four losses, for a 76.9 percent score, the 10th all-time best olympic performance.
His pursuit of the world championship was less successful, as he never advanced to the Candidates stage of the process for selecting a challenger for the title. He played in the 1970 "USSR versus Rest of the World" match on eighth board against Botvinnik, losing one game and drawing the other three. A controversy attended this pairing,[3] as Matulović had a 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 in order to take advantage of this.
Matulović was involved with controversial incidents. Over the board he played on in hopeless positions when grandmaster etiquette called for a resignation, allegedly in the hopes of reaching adjournment (suspension of a game for resumption on a later day, common in tournament play at the time) so that the news reports would read "Matulović's game is adjourned" rather than "Matulović lost."[4][5]
More seriously, after the 1970 Interzonal tournament at Palma de Mallorca, he was accused of "throwing" his game against Mark Taimanov in return for a $400 bribe, thus allowing Taimanov to advance to the Candidates matches,[6] where Taimanov was defeated by Bobby Fischer 6–0. The accusations centered on Matulović's conduct during the game[7] and the alleged feebleness of his resistance. It has also been suggested that he was simply uninterested in the game, however, having been eliminated from contention for the Candidates matches. The score of this game follows:
Perhaps Matulović's most notorious transgression was against István Bilek at the Sousse Interzonal in 1967. He played a losing move but then took it back after saying "j'adoube" ("I adjust" – spoken before adjusting pieces on their square, see touch-move rule). His opponent complained to the arbiter but the move was allowed to stand. This incident earned Matulović the nickname "J'adoubovic".[8][9][10][11][12][13] This reportedly happened several times, including in a game against Bobby Fischer.[14]
Matulović was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and served nine months in prison for a car accident in which a woman was killed.[15]
^Fox & James, p. 226. Levy, 1975, says the amount was $300.
^Wade, Robert G.; Blackstock, L. S. (1970), International Chess Tournament - Palma De Mallorca 1970, Chess Player, ISBN0-900928-37-9
^Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1984), The Oxford Companion to Chess, Oxford University Press, p. 252, ISBN0192175408, ... he played in the Sousse Interzonal in which, after a little cheating (see j'adoube), he came ninth." p. 185 (the "j'adoube" entry) says: "... withdrew a losing move saying "Ich spreche j'doube"; this ruse went unpunished ..."
^Lombardy, William; Daniels, David (1975), Chess Panorama, Stein and Day, p. 104, ISBN0-8128-2316-8, Matulovich withdrew a move so blatantly that his colleagues nicknamed him "J'aboubovich", is a cherished piece of chess lore.
^Radojcic, pp. 500–01, "... in the interzonal in Tunisia he even took back one of his moves pretending that this bad move was only yet another j'adoube."
^Fox & James, pp. 225–26: "... Milan has more than once been caught trying to get away with stuff that would get him thrown off any primary school chess team. Against Bilek at Sousse in 1967 he, not liking his position, took a move back, saying as he did so "J'adoube". Bilek's jaw dropped, but the arbiter hadn't seen the outrage and Matulović went on to win. ... for a while, Matulović was known on the tournament circuit as J'adoubovich."
^Evans, Larry (2009), This Crazy World of Chess, Cardoza, p. 307, ISBN978-1-5804-2237-6, .. shocked spectators saw ... Matulovic lift a piece and put it back after discovering that moving it would cost him the game. He stuttered, J'adoube, and moved another piece instead, which is commonly known as cheating. Bilek squawked, but the referee took no action because he didn't see the incident. The game was eventually drawn.
^Saidy, Anthony; Lessing, Norman (1974), The World of Chess, Ridge Press, p. 24, ISBN0-394-48777-X, In a tournament game between Matulovic and Bilek in 1970, the former moved a piece, then saw that it would entail the loss of the game. He quickly said "J'adoube" and calmly proceeded to make another move. The astounded Bilek was too stunned to protest and Matulovic went on to win the game. The chess masters who witnessed the incident thereafter referred to Matulovic as 'J'adoubovic'.
^Brady, Frank (2011), Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness, Crown, pp. 95–96, ISBN978-0-307-46390-6
