Serbian Chess Championship

First Serbian Chess Championship was held on 4-17 March in Vrsac. City Council has provided appearance fees and 5000 euros for prize fund. Exciting race has ended with GM Branko Damljanovic (2590), IM Mihajlo Stojanovic (2576) and GM Milos Perunovic (2547) sharing first place with 9.0 points each.

GM Branko Damljanovic

Tiebreak match should be arranged in next few months as Damljanovic is now going to Villa Cañada de Calatrava and Stojanovic is playing Sydney Open. IM Mihajlo Stojanovic also scored final GM norm, well done!

GM Ivan Ivanisevic - IM Mihajlo Stojanovic

Championship started with one DGT board stolen, so only 6 games were relayed live over the Internet. Organizers have called for help, and since DGT projects from Netherlands have no retailer in Serbia, FM Slobodan Adzic sent new board from Hungary. Two days later, missing board mysteriously appeared in Millennium hotel.

Serbian most popular portal B92 finally started reporting about chess. There is no English version for now, but this is progress.

Remember this name - FM Boban Bogosavljevic

Final standings:
1-3. GM Branko Damljanovic 2590, IM Mihajlo Stojanovic 2576 and GM Milos Perunovic 2547 - 9.0/13
4. GM Bojan Vuckovic 2551 - 8.0
5-6. FM Boban Bogosavljevic 2470 and GM Igor Miladinovic 2607 - 7.5
7. GM Dragan Solak 2564 - 6.5
8. GM Ivan Ivanisevic 2603 - 6.0
9-10. IM Branko Tadic 2496 and GM Miodrag R.Savic 2533 - 5.5
11. GM Dejan Pikula 2513 - 5.0
12. IM Slavisa Brenjo 2491 - 4.5
13-14. Jovan Todorovic 2381 and IM Zoran Arsovic 2457 - 4.0

GM Milos Perunovic

Games in PGN and other information on the tournament website. Photos by Pera Stajic.