Vrnjačka Banja International 1973
Incomplete record. This archive holds 55 games of this event; the others are missing, and the number played is not established. The archive preserves 55 scores. Contemporary reports describe additional played games whose scores are unavailable; the actual total played has not been independently established.
Dragoljub Velimirović scored 11/15 to finish half a point ahead of Győző Forintos. Milan Vukić took third with 9½. Contemporary participant Pal Benko described an event that helped Velimirović and Forintos secure grandmaster norms.
A grandmaster norm at stake
The spring tournament was the principal event in the spa town’s chess programme. Benko’s contemporary report describes six grandmasters in the field and ambitious masters seeking their own title norms.
Forintos and Vukić entered the last round needing a win for a grandmaster norm. Forintos won their long Benko Gambit game and finished second. Velimirović drew with Messing to secure first place.
Published final standings
Benko’s firsthand report and Delo’s final report agree on the complete final totals. Equal totals are displayed as shared places; no additional played tiebreak is established.
| Place by points | Player | Points | |---|---|---| | 1 | Dragoljub Velimirović | 11 | | 2 | Győző Forintos | 10½ | | 3 | Milan Vukić | 9½ | | 4–5 | Georgi Tringov | 9 | | 4–5 | Nikola Padevsky | 9 | | 6 | Vlastimil Jansa | 8½ | | 7–8 | Pal Benko | 8 | | 7–8 | Milan Matulović | 8 | | 9–11 | Hrvoje Messing | 6½ | | 9–11 | Slavoljub Marjanović | 6½ | | 9–11 | Radoslav Simić | 6½ | | 12 | Levente Lengyel | 6 | | 13–14 | William Martz | 5½ | | 13–14 | Božidar Ivanović | 5½ | | 15–16 | Dragoljub Janošević | 5 | | 15–16 | Predrag Ostojić | 5 |
Surviving games
The collection contains 55 approved archive scores. Contemporary reports also describe played games whose full scores are unavailable, including Ivanović–Velimirović in round 12 and Simić–Ivanović in round 13. The historical total actually played has not been established from a complete result or default ledger.
The surviving records retain their original partial April dates and known or unknown rounds, although the tournament ended in early May. Two scores filed only under Yugoslavia have not been assigned here without evidence identifying their full mainlines.
Jansa–Ostojić survives as a 12-move opening record with an unfinished result. No complete approved score or source proof establishes a correction. A newspaper’s third-round opponent and move-count report conflicts with Benko’s complete firsthand score of his win over Martz. The archive preserves its 47-ply game; external prose does not supply replacement moves.
Result
The complete published standings appear below; the surviving scores do not support a full computed table.