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Dr. Milan Vukcevich
Renaissance Man of Chess
 | The Beauty of Bristol, Essay by Dr. Vukcevich from magazine Mat Plus, 1994. |
| IM Donaldson -- Great essay. |
| GM Kavalek - Washington Post column gives excellent annotated game. |
| Vukcevich Bio from Excalibur Hall of Fame Site |
| Obituary: Cleveland Plain Dealer -- Good summary. |
| David Sands has a good obituary in the Washington Times. |
| ChessBase Bio -- Part of this appears to be a word-for-word copy of this page, but link is included because ChessBase added a few things. |
"I cannot be
just a chess player or just a scientist. I have to be both."
--
Milan Vukcevich
Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
on March 11, 1937, Dr. Milan Vukcevich was a leading chess composer and International
Master of over the board chess play. He is the first United States citizen or resident ever to become a grandmaster of chess
composition.
After receiving the International Master title in 1958, and representing his native Yugoslavia in the 1960 Chess Olympiad, he emigrated to the U.S., where he has lived in northern Ohio for many years.
Dr. Vukcevich is a professor of metallurgy, and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His duties as a scientist limited his ability to play in chess tournaments. He won third place in the U.S. Championship at Oberlin, 1975, ahead of Reshevsky, Lombardy, R. Byrne, and many of the country's other top players. The photo at left shows Dr. Vukcevich at Hastings 1976/77.
Dr. Vukcevich is one of the world's most respected chess problem composers. He has been awarded the FIDE title Master of Composition and is an editor of StrateGems, the publication of the Society of U.S. Chess Problemists.
Dr. Vukcevich died on May 10, 2003 at his home in Shaker Heights, Ohio. In recognition of his significant contributions to American chess, Milan Vukcevich was inducted into the Chess Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C. in 1998.
Other Views of Vukcevich
- [Vukcevich] is a very imaginative player and is always ready in the post mortem to show the most extraordinary and complicated variations.
- -- IM Julio Kaplan, Chess Life (1977)
- He was an outstanding scientist and brought, above all, integrity and humanity to the company.
- -- CEO Philip M. Lynch, Northern Technologies International Corp., quoted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Chess players tend to be divided into over the board and correspondence players, problemists, and end game composers. Milan was the rare individual who excelled in all forms of the game.
-- IM John Donaldson