After successfully playing the Interzonal Tournament in the Tunisian city of Sousse in 1967, where he tied for second, Svetozar Gligorić's rival in the quarterfinals of the Candidates Match was former world champion Mihail Talj.
The popular Gliga had been preparing meticulously for this match - daily analyses with his second from Susa, grandmaster Dragoljub Velimirović, and then a "friendly" match with Dutch grandmaster Doner. Gligorić won convincingly with 6,5:3,5, without losing a single game.
King's Indian Defence
Doner - Gligoric
Training sword 1968
Comments by Vm. D. Marović
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.d5 Nbd7 8.Be3
8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Sh5 11.h4 may not be objectively better, but in practice it yielded more.
8..Sg4 9. Lg5 f6 10.Lh4
Bd2 f5 is no better.
10..Sh6
Preparing the pedestrian performance.
11. Sd2 g5 12.Lg3 f5 13.ef5 Sf6 14.Sde4 Sxe4 15.Sxe4 Lxf5 16.f3?!
Black solved his opening problems and equalized. Donner, however, made mistakes with this and the next move and came under strong attack. 16Bd3 was necessary with equal play.
16..g4! 17.Bf2?
White moved f3 in an attempt to free his black-squared pawn, but now he is in too much of a hurry to finish the idea. He had to castling.
17…gf3 18.gf3
In all likelihood, White overlooked that 18.Bxf3 is not a good option here because of 18…Bxf4 19. Bxe4 Rxf2 with a win, so he is forced to this unfortunate solution.
18….Sg4 !
Now the demolition attack begins.
19. Ld3 Sxf2 20.Sxf2 Dh4 21.0-0
White would like to escape with the king to the other side, but 21.Qe2 breaks down on Bxd3 Qxd3 e4!
21..e4!
It frees up the e5 square for the bishop. A very nice pawn sacrifice to activate the pieces.
22. Sxe4 Lh3 23.Te1 Le5 24.De2 Kh8 25.Kh1 Txf3!
Gligorić leads the attack brilliantly.
26.Dxf3 Lg4 27.Df2 Lf3+ 28.Kg1 Lxh2+
White surrenders.
Bonus video:
