Bojan Kurajica
Encyclopedia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n-Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
n (formerly Yugoslavian) chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
grandmaster (GM).
Kurajica grew up in Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
. He earned the International Master (IM) title in 1965 by winning the World Junior Championship
World Junior Chess Championship
The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament organized by the World Chess Federation ....
. He moved to Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
in 1966 to study Italian and English at the Faculty of Philosophy, graduating in 1972.
Kurajica was awarded the GM title in 1974. He played chess in Zagreb until 1979, when he relocated to Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
in order to play for ŠK Bosna
ŠK Bosna
ŠK Bosna, or Šahovski Klub Bosna is a chess club from Sarajevo, Bosnia. The club is part of the University Sport Society USD Bosna . This club has achieved considerable success at competitions on the international stage....
. He played for Yugoslavia in Chess Olympiads at Valletta 1980
24th Chess Olympiad
The 24th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 20 and December 6, 1980, in La Valletta, Malta.-References:* OlimpBase...
(won team bronze medal) and Thessaloniki 1984
26th Chess Olympiad
The 26th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 18 and December 5, 1984, in Thessaloniki, Greece.-References:...
. One of his notable tournament successes was joint 3rd/4th place at the 1976 Wijk aan Zee
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
.
After the collapse of Yugoslavia, he represented Bosnia and Herzegovina eight times between 1992 and 2006 (won team silver medal at Moscow 1994).
In December 2005 Kurajica won the 13th Salona Tournament in Solin
Solin
Solin is a town in Dalmatia, Croatia. It is situated northeast of Split, on the Adriatic Sea and the river Jadro.Solin developed on the location of ancient town of Salona which was the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia and the birthplace of Emperor Diocletian...
. In the same year he was awarded the title of FIDE Trainer. , he shares his residence between Sarajevo and Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital , second-most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the 21st largest city in Spain, with a population of 222,417 in 2009...
.
On the May 2010 FIDE list his Elo rating is 2548.