Milan Matulović was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was born on June 10, 1935 in Belgrade, Serbia, and passed away on October 9, 2013. Matulović was a key figure in Yugoslav national team's successes in the late 1960s and 1970s, participating in a series of Chess Olympiads and European Team Chess Championships.
Prior to achieving Grandmaster status in 1961, Matulović won the Yugoslav Championship in 1965, and in 1967, he shared first place with Viktor Korchnoi and Albin Planinc in an international tournament held in Sarajevo. He represented his national chess team playing for Yugoslavia three times in Chess Olympiads (1966, 1970, and 1972) and twice in European Team Chess Championships (1970 and 1977). The Yugoslav team won numerous medals in these competitions.
Matulović was also known for controversy due to his wrongdoings on the chessboard. He was famously associated with the term "Matulović rule" or "Matulović's law"; which came from an incident in 1967 when he moved a piece to a wrong square then retracted the move, but remained unpunished. The arbitrary and different interpretations of the rule where a player cannot take back their move once they loosen their grip on their piece is an issue that was named after Matulović due to many similar incidents involving him.
Additionally, Matulović once withdrew from a tournament in order to allow a compatriot to advance. His behavior led to ostracization from several key tournaments. Despite his negative reputation, Matulović was an accomplished and strong chess player on the international level.