Serbian and Yugoslavian chess player Svetozar Gligorić was born on 2 February 1923 in Belgrade. His peak rating according to Chessmetrics is 2743. His peak World Ranking is 6th (in 13 different months between October 1958 and April 1960). He was one of the best 10 players of the World between 1957 and 1961. According to his recollection he started learning about chess watching the patrons of a neighbourhood bar playing. He started to play chess wen a tenant taken up by his mother started to teach him. As he did not have his own chess set, he made one for himself from wine bottle corks.

He never won the World Championship title, and his achievements in Candidates matches were mixed. He was a regular competitor in Interzonals and Zonals. He was outstanding in the 1952, 1958 and 1967 Interzonals therefore he qualified for the Candidates Tournaments. Here he was not very successful he had average results in 1953 and 1959. He lost against Mikhail Tal in the 1968 Candidates match.

He represented Yugoslavia in 15 Chess Olympiads between 1950 and 1982. With his contribution the Yugoslavian team won medals 12 times: gold medal in 1950, six silver medals in 1956, 58, 62, 64, 68 and 74, and five bronze medals in 1952, 54, 60, 70 and 72. He won individual gold medal in 1958.

He died on 14 August 2012 in his hometown of stroke at the age of 89.