Stojan Puc

Stojan Puc (9 April 1921 – 29 January 2004) was a Slovenian-Yugoslavian chess master.

Stojan Puc
Country	Slovenia / Yugoslavia
Born	9 April 1921 (1921-04-09)
Died	29 January 2004 (2004-01-30) (aged 82)
Title	Honorary Grandmaster (1984) International Master (1950)

He won the Slovenian Chess Championship on four occasions: (1954 (joint), 1958, 1965 (joint), and 1967).

He tied for 5-6th at Ljubljana (Liberation) 1945/46 (Svetozar Gligorić won); shared 8th at Zagreb 1946 (Yugoslav Championship, Petar Trifunović won);[1] took 2nd at Rogaška Slatina 1948; shared 1st with Jan Foltys at Vienna 1949 (Schlechter Memorial);[2] took 14th at Bled 1950 (Miguel Najdorf won);[3] 5th-6th at Dortmund 1951 (Albéric O'Kelly de Galway won);[4] took 19th at Belgrade 1952 (Hermann Pilnik won);[5] tied for 2nd-4th at Krynica 1956 (Borislav Milić won); tied for 2nd-5th at Portorož 1957; he won the inaugural edition of the Bosna series (then an international invitation series of note) at Sarajevo in 1957 as clear first, and was first again, on better tie-break along with Luděk Pachman at Sarajevo (Bosna) 1960; tied for 7-8th at Ljubljana 1969 (1st Vidmar Memorial, Albin Planinc won) and tied for 17-18th at Ljubljana / Portorož 1973 (2nd Vidmar Memorial, Lajos Portisch won).[6]

Puc played for Yugoslavia as second reserve (+1 -1 =0) in the 9th Chess Olympiad at Dubrovnik 1950, as the team won the gold medal.[7]

He was awarded the International Master title in 1950, and an Honorary Grandmaster title in 1984.

The Puc Variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 c6) is named after him.[8]