Bojan Kurajica

Bojan Kurajica (born 15 November 1947 in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia) is a Croat-Bosnian chess grandmaster (GM).

Bojan Kurajica
Kurajica (Hoogovens, 1977)
CountryBosnia and Herzegovina
Born (1947-11-15) November 15, 1947
Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
TitleGrandmaster
FIDE rating2508 (February 2021)
Peak rating2595 (July 1995)

Kurajica grew up in Split.[1] He earned the International Master (IM) title in 1965 by winning the World Junior Championship. He moved to Zagreb in 1966 to study Italian and English at the Faculty of Philosophy, graduating in 1972.[1]

Kurajica was awarded the GM title in 1974. He played chess in Zagreb until 1979, when he relocated to Sarajevo in order to play for ŠK Bosna.[1] He played for Yugoslavia in Chess Olympiads at Valletta 1980 (won team bronze medal) and Thessaloniki 1984.

One of his notable tournament successes was joint 3rd/4th place (together with Mikhail Tal whom he beat in their individual game) at the 1976 Wijk aan Zee (Fridrik Olafsson and Ljubomir Ljubojević won).[1] In 1979, Kurajica shared the win at the traditional Bosna tournament in Sarajevo. In 1981, he won the strong Lugano Open (first with best tie-break score).

After the collapse of Yugoslavia, he represented Bosnia and Herzegovina ten times between 1992 and 2012 (won team silver medal at Moscow 1994), in total 12 Olympiad appearances.[2] Since 2019. he represents Croatia, as he did between 2006 and 2009.

In December 2005 Kurajica won the 13th Salona GM Invitation Tournament in Solin as clear first.[3] In the same year Kurajica was awarded the title of FIDE Trainer.[4] As of 2006, he shared his residence between Sarajevo and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.[1]

On the September 2016 FIDE list his Elo rating is 2529.

References
  1. Kalanj, Mirko (28 October 2006). "Povratak šahovskim korijenima" (PDF). Vjesnik (in Croatian). Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  2. Bartelski, Wojciech. "Men's Chess Olympiads: Bojan Kurajica". OlimpBase. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  3. Crowther, Mark (19 December 2005). "TWIC 580: 13th Salona Tournament". London Chess Center. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  4. "Arbiters - Trainers: Bojan Kurajica". World Chess Federation. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
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