View source for Boris Kostić

{{Short description|Yugoslav chess grandmaster (1887–1963)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox chess player
|image=Boris Kostić 2020 stamp of Serbia.jpg
|country=[[Austria-Hungary]] {{small|(until 1918)}}<br>[[First Austrian Republic|Austria]] {{small|(1918–1927)}}<br>[[Yugoslavia]] {{small|(1927–1963)}}
|birth_date=24 February 1887<ref name=r1>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160326200840/http://www.kosticmemorial.vrsac.com/sr/bora.html O životu Bore Kostića, prvog srpskog velemajstora]. kosticmemorial.vrsac.com (11 April 2016)</ref>
|birth_place=[[Vršac]], [[Austria-Hungary]]<ref name=r1/>
|death_date=3 November 1963 (aged 76)<ref name=r1/>
|death_place=[[Belgrade]], [[Socialist Republic of Serbia|PR Serbia]], [[SFR Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]<ref name=r1/>
|title         = [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] (1950)
}}
'''Borislav Kostić''' (24 February 1887 – 3 November 1963) was a [[Serbs|Serbian]] [[chess]] [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]] and a popularizer of the game. He was one of the best players in the world during the early part of the 20th century<ref>http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?Params=199510SSSSS3S068163192012141000000000000010100</ref> and in 1950 was among the inaugural recipients of the title [[Grandmaster (chess)|International Grandmaster]] from [[FIDE]].

== Life and chess ==
{{MedalTableTop}}
{{MedalCountry| {{flagicon|Kingdom of Yugoslavia}} [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] }}
{{MedalSport|Men's [[chess]]}} [[File:Chess pictogram.svg|30px]]
{{MedalCompetition|[[Chess Olympiad|Olympiad]]}}
{{Medal|Silver|[[2nd unofficial Chess Olympiad|1926 Budapest]]|Open team}}
{{Medal|Gold|[[3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad|1936 Munich]]|Individual board 6<ref>https://www.olimpbase.org/1936x/1936in.html</ref>}}
{{MedalBottom}}
Borislav Kostic was born in [[Vršac]], [[Kingdom of Hungary]], at the time part of [[Austria-Hungary]]. His father Dimitrije was a merchant and his mother was Emilija (née: Mandukić). He learned chess around the age of ten and made rapid progress while studying Oriental Trade in [[Budapest]]. He also spent time in [[Vienna]], the chess capital of the day, and this enabled him to get the high level practice necessary to take his game to the next level.

In 1910 he moved to [[Cologne]] and from there, travelled and toured extensively, mainly in the Americas, playing matches against local champions and [[Simultaneous exhibition|simultaneous]] [[blindfold chess]]. At New York in 1916, he once played twenty opponents without sight of a board and won nineteen games and [[draw (chess)|drew]] one, while engaging in polite conversation with opponents and spectators.  

Kostic played more formal matches against [[Frank Marshall (chess player)|Frank Marshall]], [[Jackson Showalter]], and [[Paul Leonhardt]], and won them all. At [[Havana]] in 1919 however, his winning streak ended with a 5–0 loss to [[José Raúl Capablanca|Capablanca]]. Capablanca wrote that his own career peaked with this match.<ref>https://www.chess.com/article/view/you-got-serbed</ref> Kostic also played tournaments while in the United States, including New York 1916, Chicago 1918 and New York 1918, where he finished second behind Capablanca.  

[[File:HoogovensChess1952-5.jpg|thumb|Boris Kostić (Hoogovens, 1952)]]
On the European circuit, he won at [[Stockholm]] 1913, finished second at Hastings 1919 and won at [[Hastings International Chess Congress|Hastings]] 1921/1922. At [[Trencianske Teplice]] 1928, he won ahead of [[Endre_Steiner|Steiner]], [[Friedrich_Sämisch|Sämisch]] and [[Rudolf_Spielmann|Spielmann]]. At [[Bled]] 1931, he finished in tenth place, but nevertheless outscored fellow chessmasters [[Géza Maróczy|Maróczy]], [[Edgard Colle|Colle]] and [[Vasja Pirc|Pirc]]. At [[Bucharest]] 1932, he won the title of [[Romanian Chess Championship|Romanian champion]]. At [[Belgrade]] 1935, he shared the title of [[Yugoslav Chess Championship|Yugoslav champion]] with Pirc, and went on to become sole champion in 1938. He won at [[Ljubljana]] the same year.

A strong player in his own right, Kostic is mostly famous not for his tournament results but for his chess world tours. From 1923 to 1926, Kostic travelled to Australasia, the Far East, Africa, India, and Siberia - places that were barely represented on the chess map of the time. In one match held in Africa at the [[equator]], Kostic was in the northern hemisphere, and his opponent on the southern.

In the late 1920s, he made another trip to the Americas. He represented [[Yugoslavia]] in four [[Chess Olympiads]] ([[1st Chess Olympiad|London 1927]], [[4th Chess Olympiad|Prague 1931]], [[6th Chess Olympiad|Warsaw 1935]], and [[7th Chess Olympiad|Stockholm 1937]]), and in two unofficial Chess Olympiads ([[2nd unofficial Chess Olympiad|Budapest 1926]] and [[3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad|Munich 1936]]).<ref name=r1/>

[[File:Споменик Бори Костићу.JPG|right|thumb|A monument to Bora Kostic in [[Vršac]]]]
During World War II, Kostić was imprisoned in a [[concentration camp]] by a Nazi SS commander (Schiller) because he declined to participate in tournaments called "Free Europa" and to glorify the Nazi regime. Afterwards, he played chess only in a more minor capacity. His final appearance was at the [[Zürich]] veterans tournament of 1962, which he won. Kostic was awarded the [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] title by [[FIDE]] in 1950, on its inaugural list. He was fluent in Russian, English, Hungarian, German, Spanish and Hebrew. He died in Belgrade in 1963, aged 76.<ref name=r1/>

On September 23, 2020, the public company "[[Pošta Srbije]]" released a new postage stamps called: "Chess Giants of Serbia". In addition to Kostić, [[Svetozar Gligorić]], [[Petar Trifunović]], [[Milan Matulović]] and [[Milunka Lazarević]] were also given this honor. On that occasion, short biographies of the players depicted on these stamps were also published. The texts are given in Serbian and English, and their authors are:  grandmaster [[Aleksandar Matanović]] and sports journalist Miroslav Nešić.<ref>https://sahmatlista.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/prof-dr-dragoslav-dukanovic-sahovski-velikani-srbije-nove-postanske-marke-srbije/</ref>

=== Lifetime scores against selected players ===
Kostić had the following record against some of the players he played against<ref>https://www.chessgames.com/</ref>:<br />
<small>{{em|Players who have been World Champions in boldface}}</small>

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* {{flagicon|Latvia}}/{{flagicon|Denmark}} [[Aron Nimzowitsch]] +1-0=4
* {{flagicon|Germany}} [[Siegbert Tarrasch]] +0-0=2
* {{flagicon|USA}} [[Frank Marshall (chess player)|Frank Marshall]] +2-0=7
* {{flagicon|Hungary}} [[Géza Maróczy]] +2-1=6
* {{flagicon|Russia}}/{{flagicon|Germany}} [[Efim Bogoljubow]] +2-1=1
* {{flagicon|Poland}} [[Akiba Rubinstein]] +1-2=1
* {{flagicon|Poland}} [[Savielly Tartakower]] +3-3=7
* {{flagicon|Kingdom of Yugoslavia}} [[Milan Vidmar]] +3-5=3
* {{flagicon|Austria}} [[Ernst Gruenfeld]] +1-2=2
* {{flagicon|Great Britain}} [[Fred Yates (chess player)|Fred Yates]] +4-0=1
* {{flagicon|Cuba}} '''[[José Raúl Capablanca]]''' +0-5=5
* {{flagicon|Russia}}/{{flagicon|France}} '''[[Alexander Alekhine]]''' +0-2=3
* {{flagicon|Netherlands}} '''[[Max Euwe]]''' +2-1=1
* {{flagicon|Hungary}}/{{flagicon|Kingdom of Yugoslavia}} [[Lajos Asztalos]] +2-0=3
* {{flagicon|Hungary}}/{{flagicon|Australia}} [[Lajos Steiner]] +2-1=1
* {{flagicon|Germany}} [[Friedrich Sämisch]] +0-2=3
* {{flagicon|Poland}} [[David Janowski]] +1-1=2
* {{flagicon|USA}} [[Jackson Showalter]] +4-0=2
* {{flagicon|Belgium}} [[Edgar Colle]] +1-1=4
* {{flagicon|Austria}} [[Rudolf Spielmann]] +1-1=5
{{div col end}}

==See also==
* [[Italian Game, Blackburne Shilling Gambit]]
* [[Svetozar Gligorić]]
* [[Dragoljub Velimirović]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{citation
 | last=Hooper | first=David | authorlink=David Vincent Hooper
 | last2=Whyld | first2=Kenneth | authorlink2=Kenneth Whyld
 | year=1992 
 | title=[[The Oxford Companion to Chess]] 
 | edition=2nd
 | publisher=Oxford University Press
 | isbn=0-19-280049-3 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050310064645/http://chess.vrsac.com/vrsac/BoraKosticE.asp Biographic Article at ''Chess.vrsac.com'']

==External links==
{{Commons category|Boris Kostić}}
*{{chessgames player|id=10619}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101231/http://www.kosticmemorial.vrsac.com/en/bora.html About Bora Kostic, the first serbian grandmaster]
*https://web.archive.org/web/20070221010007/http://www.rogerpaige.me.uk/index.htm
*http://www.olimpbase.org
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GJOA37i_q4 Muhlock vs Kostic – Koln 1912]
*[http://soloscacchi.altervista.org/?p=44467 Borislav Kostic by Paolo Bagnoli], Soloscacch, 17 febbraio 2015
*[https://www.nytimes.com/1918/12/19/archives/chess-match-for-2500-capablanca-accepts-challenge-of-boris-kostich.html CHESS MATCH FOR $2,500.; Capablanca Accepts Challenge of Boris Kostich The New York Times], 19 December 1918
*[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=CHP19240811.2.26 Paper Past: European Chess Master – Visit of M. Boris Kostich], Press, Volume LX, Issue 18148, 11 August 1924
*[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16143119 Chess Champion Welcomed in Sydney]
*[http://www.melbournechessclub.org/members/history/club-history/chapter-10-visitor-s-book  Visitor's book of Melbourne Chess Club] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102122449/http://www.melbournechessclub.org/members/history/club-history/chapter-10-visitor-s-book |date=2 January 2018 }}
*[http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/singfreepressb19251020-1.2.15.aspx The Serbian Chess Master M. Boris Kostich in Singapore], The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), 20 October 1925

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kostic, Boris}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Vršac]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from South Banat District]]
[[Category:Chess Grandmasters]]
[[Category:Chess Olympiad competitors]]
[[Category:Yugoslav chess players]]
{{Yugoslav Chess Championship}}