◈The games that made the legend
- 1931.07.18 Pirc, Vasja vs Winter, William 1-0 Prague Olympiad 1931, Pirc's first appearance on a world stage at twenty-four. Twenty-one moves: 16.e4 sacrifices the pawn to open the long diagonal, 18.d5 shuts the position down, and 19.Bxg7 Rg8 20.Bd4 exd5 21.Bxc5 collects the piece.
- 1932 Pirc, Vasja vs Bogoljubov, Efim 1-0 Bad Sliač 1932 against Efim Bogoljubow, twice a challenger for the world title. A King's Indian from the White side — the structure Pirc spent his life mapping from both directions — and a forty-six-move endgame in which the e-pawn walks to e7 and cannot be stopped.
- 1934.08.10 Stupan, Bogumir vs Pirc, Vasja 0-1 Maribor 1934, twenty moves with Black in his native Slovenia. Pirc gives the b-pawn for the initiative, plants a knight on f3 with 18...Nf3+ 19.Kh1 Nxh2, and 20.Qe2 Bg4 finishes the white king off.
- 1936.08.21 Pirc, Vasja vs Andersen, Erik Sr 1-0 Munich 1936 against Erik Andersen, the dominant Danish player of the period — fifteen moves, and the shortest win in the archive. 12.Ng5 offers the knight, 13.Bxb7 takes the rook's defender, and 14.Bxa8 leaves Black a full exchange down with nothing to show.
- 1938.06.16 Bogoljubov, Efim vs Pirc, Vasja 0-1 Noordwijk 1938, Bogoljubow again and this time with Black. Pirc breaks the position open with 44...e4, then finishes with the rooks and queen working together: 45.Qd8 Rxf1+ 46.Kg2 Rg1+ 47.Kh3 Qf1+ 48.Kg4 Qd1+, chasing the king into the open.
- 1946.11.19 Pirc, Vasja vs Gligoric, Svetozar 1-0 Yugoslav Championship final 1946 against a young Svetozar Gligorić, who would go on to dominate Yugoslav chess for thirty years. Pirc pushes the d-pawn to d7 and holds it there — 24...Rxd6 25.exd6 Ne8 26.d7 — then wins the queenside race after the queens come off.
- 1948 Pirc, Vasja vs Benko, Pal C 1-0 Hungary–Yugoslavia 1948 against Pal Benko, then twenty and later a Candidate and one of the great endgame composers. Eighteen moves: 13.Nd5 lands the knight in the middle, 16.Ng5 and 17.Qh5 g6 pull the king's cover apart, and 18.Nf6+ ends it.
- 1948 Bidev, Pavle vs Pirc, Vasja 0-1 Rogaška Slatina 1948, fifteen moves with Black. White wins a pawn and loses a rook: 11...Nc2+ 12.Kd1 Nxa1, and after 14.Ba3+ Kf6 15.Qf3+ Bf5 the checks run out with White a rook down.
- 1949.06.15 Pirc, Vasja vs Euwe, Max 1-0 From the 1949 match against Max Euwe, the former World Champion — the record books it +2−2=6, a drawn match against a man who had held the title. This is the first of Pirc's two wins: pure queenside pressure, 21.Rc6, 28.Rc7 and 30.Rxc7, and 35.Qxb6 picks off the knight.
- 1949.06.25 Pirc, Vasja vs Euwe, Max 1-0 The second win from the same Euwe match, ten days later and far sharper. 20.Nd7 forks the rook, and after 22.Nxf6+ Rxf6 23.Qxg5+ Qg7 24.Qxf6 Qxf6 25.Bxf6 the queens come off with Pirc a clear pawn and the bishop pair ahead.
- 1949.11.18 Pirc, Vasja vs Janosevic, Dragoljub 1-0 Yugoslav Championship 1949, eighteen moves. Pirc opens the f-file with 13.f5 and 14.fxg6, then sacrifices the knight outright: 15.Nxg6 fxg6 16.Qxg6, and 18.Rxf5 wins the rook back with the attack still running.
- 1951 Pirc, Vasja vs Bogoljubov, Efim 1-0 Staunton Memorial 1951, a third win over Bogoljubow nineteen years after the first. Fifty moves of technique: Pirc wins the b-pawn, escorts the passer with 44.b4, 46.b6 and 49.b7, and walks the king to a7 to shepherd it home.
- 1953.12.08 Pirc, Vasja vs Gligoric, Svetozar 1-0 Yugoslav Championship 1953, Gligorić again — and eighty-five moves, the longest game in the archive. Bishops of opposite colour with rooks, and Pirc keeps finding ways to make progress until 83.f7 Bf6+ 84.Ka3 Bg7 85.Bc3 leaves the pawn unstoppable.
- 1968.03.06 Baretic, Dragoljub vs Pirc, Vasja 0-1 Yugoslav Championship 1968, and the record names the opening for him: the Pirc Defense, Austrian Attack. He is sixty-one, playing the defence that carries his name, and he hunts the white king across the board — 14...Qh4+ 15.Kd2 Qf4+ 16.Kd3 Qe3+ 17.Kc4 Bxc3 18.bxc3 b5+ 19.Kxb5 Rb8+, the king dragged to b5 by move nineteen.