Milan Velimirović

In Memoriam: Milan Velimirović (1952–2013)   Titel: Internationaler Großmeister für Schachkomposition & Internationaler Großmeister im Lösen von Schachaufgaben Lebensdaten: 21. April 1952 (Niš) – 25. Februar 2013 (Belgrad)   Zusammenfassung des Wirkens:
Milan Velimirović war eine der einflussreichsten Persönlichkeiten des modernen Problemschachs. Er gehörte zum exklusiven Kreis der „Doppel-Großmeister“, die sowohl die Kunst der Komposition als auch die Disziplin des Lösens auf Weltklasseniveau beherrschten. Meilensteine der publizistischen Arbeit:

• 1974–1984: Redakteur der Zeitschrift Mat, herausgegeben von der serbischen Kommission für Schachkomposition.
• 1994–1999: Übernahme und Leitung der Fachzeitschrift MatPlus, die er trotz wirtschaftlicher Widerstände als internationales Forum etablierte. In dieser Zeit entwickelte er den Mat Plus Librarian, ein wegweisendes Werkzeug zur Verwaltung von Schachproblemen.
• 2007–2013: Erfolgreiche Wiederbelebung von MatPlus und Einführung der MatPlus Review.
• 2012: Veröffentlichung der „Encyclopedia of Chess Problems: Themes and Terms“ (mit Kari Valtonen), die heute als das maßgebliche englischsprachige Standardwerk der Problemkunst gilt.

Besondere Würdigung:
In Fachkreisen wurde Velimirović nicht nur für seine mathematische Präzision und seine über 300 Kompositionen geschätzt, sondern auch für seinen unermüdlichen Einsatz, Wissen und Software der Gemeinschaft zugänglich zu machen. Der renommierte Studienkomponist und Publizist Siegfried Hornecker brachte ihm zeit seines Lebens höchste Wertschätzung entgegen und hob wiederholt Velimirovićs immense Bedeutung für die Bewahrung und theoretische Durchdringung der Schachkomposition hervor.   Vermächtnis:
Sein Werk verbindet die klassische Problemkunst des 20. Jahrhunderts mit den technologischen Möglichkeiten der digitalen Ära. Er hinterlässt eine Lücke als Brückenbauer zwischen Theorie, Praxis und Softwareentwicklung im Schach.

"Dear friends,
Milan Velimirović passed away this morning. The terrible news came much faster then a possible medical help he had avoided till the last days. His problems with health were obvious at the end of last year, soon after concluding the monumental work „Themes & Terms“, in a collaboration that he enjoyed so much, with his Finish friend Kari Valtonen. The last months he spent at home. In January, he had an idea to recover for his favourite solving competition ISC, but he couldn’t make it. Before that, in December, he participated in the last round of the Serbian League of Solvers 2012, that he won in a convincing way.
Only two weeks ago, Milan had a feeling of complete recovery and the plans to rearrange the Mat Plus website. However, he couldn’t stand sitting by computer. Instead, Milan enjoyed sports on TV, the game of Barcelona and Milan being among the last ones. With the complete care of his sister Vojka, it seemed he wasn’t suffering the pain, nor he was aware of the heavy illness. In this respect, his decision to avoid hospital helped him during the last days.
Milan Velimirović was born April 21st 1952. He used to say his first Lacny #2, in a high school, changed his life completely. Already as a teenager, he began working for a chess magazine MAT, and at 22 took over the problem part of it. As the main redactor, he created the high-class problem chess magazine MAT in the period 1974-85, offering new standards to the whole world.
Milan loved problem chess more than anyone else. His driving force was to reveal the beauty of chess and it’s art to everyone, from a visitor in a chess club to mature masters. With his articles in MAT, since 1974, he was the real creator of the contemporary problem chess in Serbia, and the successor of the work of Nenad Petrović in ex-Yugoslavia. This mission of his had been extended with Mat Plus, and many books he had edited, or completely redacted, always taking care of the smallest details, up to the final lay-out. The long list of his books began with the one devoted to his late friend Miroslav Stošić, 1979. His philanthropic motivation gave him more pleasure in publishing the complete work of one of his idols, Touw Hian Bwee, than presenting his own opus in chess composition – that he never did. In the yearly international gatherings of problemists Milan was a most prominent and a most loved participant.
Milan’s ideas had always run ahead of it’s time, and against the common opinions. This brought him many disputes, and often left him dissatisfied, without the social recognitions he deserved. And, there were too many accomplishments to assure him much wider recognition.
Milan was the first international master of chess composition, and the first grandmaster solver in Serbia. He was the key solver in many medals won by the national team in World Solving Championships, including the gold one, 1982.
As a grandmaster of chess composition, Milan aimed the highest goals and the crystal-clear mechanisms, crowned by the complex cyclic change, his Queen of the Themes. No wonder he composed the first 3x3 Lacny #3, and the first, miraculous, Lacny-Tura #3. The later one was composed in one of the periods of Milan’s dissatisfaction with the situation in problem chess, that lasted a whole decade, 1985-1994.
These periods were the reason his grandmaster title in composing came so late, but each comeback brought him a new enthusiasm. The last comeback, in 2007, began with his idea to live the rest of his life from the problem chess activities. Milan left the profession of a programmer and turned to various Mat Plus projects. He even accepted being director of both WCSC and ECSC, and not once. The road was rainy, especially after being a successful programmer, including a good work for IBM at the end of 90-es, but Milan loved chess composition so much.
His spirit lives transparently in the construction of Mat Plus website, created for the pleasure and education of the whole problem chess world. The world he wanted to be much better than it is now.
Our condolences go to his sister Vojka and so many chess friends around the world. This note is only the beginning of the Post on Milan’s site, to be completed by many of his friends and admirers, especially with the compositions that will make Milan live as long as good people and good chess compositions live."