Vasja Pirc

Vasja Pirc [ pirts ] ( born December 19, 1907 in Idrija, † June 2, 1980 in Ljubljana) was a Yugoslav chess player and historian.

Life

His first big sporting success dates back to the year 1929, when he shared the third place with Geza Maroczy in the tournament of Rogaska Slatina ( it won Akiba Rubinstein against Salo Flohr ). In 1938, he won two tournaments: Bad Harzburg (before Efim Bogolyubov ) and Łódź (before Savielly Tartakower ). Pirc played for Yugoslavia from 1931 to 1954 at six Chess Olympiads. In 1950 he was with his compatriot Olympic champion, 1952 and 1954, he won the silver medal. Between 1935 and 1953, he was five times Yugoslav champion. In 1948, he managed to keep a match against former World Champion Max Euwe in a draw (5-5).

1953 awarded the FIDE Pirc the title of Grand Master.

His best historical Elo rating was 2680th This he achieved in September 1939. He was also for a time among the " Top 10" players in the world.

According to him, the Pirc Defense Ufimtsev, often simply Pirc Defence named: 1 e2- e4 d7 d6 2.d2 -d4 Ng8 - f6, g7- g6 and besides Bf8 - g7. In the Russian language area this opening is named after the local champion player Anatoli Ufimtsev.