2008 Serbian Championship - Round 11

Many decided games, IM Milos Pavlovic earns GM norm

Serbian Individual Championship is taking place on 15-28 March in Mataruska Banja, near Kraljevo. After eleven rounds of spirited fighting, Dejan Pikula has singled out on the pole position, full point ahead of the competition. The seasoned Grandmaster has won six games, lost only one, and is already in huge rating gain.

IM Milos M Pavlovic has fulfilled 11-round GM norm. With 1.5 points from the remaining two games he could reach a "long" norm, thus already completing all conditions for the title. Milos had a fantastic run at the recent tournaments and is holding 60 FIDE points reserve for the April rating list. This will probably be the first time in the history of chess to have two Grandmasters with the same name. Serbia already has GM Milos Pavlovic, and he is exactly 20 years older than our challenger.

GM Dejan Pikula and IM Milos Pavlovic

FM Boban Bogosavljevic, who qualified for the event as Serbian junior champion, has to win both remaining games in order to obtain GM norm. He is scheduled to play Dejan Pikula in the last round, and we can expect to see some fireworks as both are inspired fighters.

A number of decided games is fascinating, some of them are presented bellow. The prize fund is 5.000 Euros, and all players have received stimulation prior to the competition.

Round 11 standings:

1. GM Dejan Pikula 2524 8.0
2-3. GM Bojan Vuckovic 2556 and GM Ivan Ivanisevic 2649 7.0
4-5. GM Igor Miladinovic 2604 and IM Milos M Pavlovic 2457 6½
6-8. FM Boban Bogosavljevic 2492, GM Aleksandar Kovacevic 2575 and GM Milos Perunovic 2570 6.0
9-10. GM Branko Damljanovic 2582 and GM Robert Markus 2575 5½
11. GM Nikola Sedlak 2568 5.0
12. GM Sinisa Drazic 2489 3½
13. IM Dejan Leskur 2468 2½
14. IM Sasa Velickovic 2401 2.0

GM Ivan Ivanisevic and GM Bojan Vuckovic

GM Aleksandar Kovacevic and GM Milos Perunovic

GM Robert Markus and GM Nikola Sedlak