Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
This tournament was an unmitigated triumph for the firebrand player Alexei Shirov, who hails from Latvia but now lives in Spain. Alexei scored six wins with no losses in the tournament. The final score was 7.5 out of nine, a point and a half ahead of his nearest rival, Sergei Movsesian. Third and fourth were Ivan Sokolov and Viktor Bologan, both at 5.5/9.
For the other Super-GM in the field, Nigel Short, things went drastically wrong. Nigel lost two games and drew all the rest for a dismal 2525 performance. After a number of spectacular wins in recent tournaments the former world championship challenger had raised his Elo to a lofty 2712.
The official web site is well-maintained and brought us all the results and games, including live coverage. The latter was occasionally a bit shaky, which is not surprising in a country that is still being repaired after a decade of war. There are also a lot of pictures on the official site, but as in other tournaments (except Tomsk) they are given without any captions. Here is a small selection. All pictures, unless otherwise stated, are the property of the organisers. The photographer was Sead Bicevic.
A classical quartet providing a musical background to a chess tournament? It
was just for the opening ceremony...
Nigel Short was pressing hard in his game against Shirov. He was on the verge
of awarding the tournament winner his only defeat in the tournament.
Alexei defended tenaciously and retained his unblemished record. After the
game GM Suat Atalik (right) watches the two analyse its course.
Second place went to 25-year-old Sergei Movsesian
Third was Ivan Sokolov, who hails from Bosnia but now lives in Holland. This
picture was taken during the Wijk aan Zee tournament in January.
An ex-patriot vs a resident of Bosnia and Herzegovina
One of the key battles for a place behind Shirov
The trio at the top: Movsesian, Bologan and super Shirov
Alexei with a bunch of admirers
... and with an unknown friend, at the end of the tournament
As we said: no captions on the photo pages of the official web site. We haven't
the faintest idea who these ladies are.
| Year | Winner(s) | |
| 1957 | Stojan Puc | |
| 1958 | Dr Petar Trifunovic and Borislav Ivkov | |
| 1960 | Ludek Pachman and Stojan Puc [Table] | |
| 1961 | Svetozar Gligoric and Ludek Pachman | |
| 1962 | Svetozar Gligoric and Lajos Portisch | |
| 1963 | Lajos Portisch | |
| 1964 | Lev Polugaevsky and Wolfgang Uhlman | |
| 1965 | Aleksei Suetin | |
| 1966 | Mihail Tal and Dragoljub Ciric [Table] | |
| 1967 | Leonid Stein and Borislav Ivkov | |
| 1968 | Dragoljub Ciric and Anatoly Lein | |
| 1969 | Viktor Korchnoi | |
| 1970 | Ljubomir Ljubojevic and Bruno Parma | |
| 1971 | David Bronstein, Milan Matulovic and Milko Bobocov | |
| 1972 | Laslo Sabo (ahead of Tigran Petrosian) [Table] | |
| 1976 | William Hartston | |
| 1978 | Vladimir Raicevic | |
| 1979 | Bojan Kurajica, Milorad Knezevic and Ivan Farago | |
| 1980 | Vlastimil Hort | |
| 1981 | Lev Psakhis | |
| 1982 | Aleksander Beliavsky (record number of points) | |
| 1983 | Predrag Nikolic | |
| 1984 | Viktor Korchnoi and Jan Timman | |
| 1985 | Smbat Lputian | |
| 1986 | Lajos Portisch, Lev Psakhis and Kiril Georgiev | |
| 1987 | Predrag Nikolic | |
| 1988 | Josif Dorfman, Bogdan Lalic and Emir Dizdarevic | |
| Ten-year pause due to Balkans conflict | ||
| 1998 | Viktor Korchnoi | |
| 1999 | Garry Kasparov [Table] | |
| 2000 | Garry Kasparov | |
| 2001 | Kiril Georgiev | |
| 2002 | Movsesian Sergei | |
| 2003 | Ivan Sokolov | |
| 2004 | Alexei Shirov | |
We have added cross tables for some of the tournaments. As far as we can see the highest score (in number of points) was achieved by Alexander Beliavsky in 1982 – 12.5 point in 15 rounds. The highest rating performance was by Garry Kasparov in 1999 – with 7/9 and plus five the world champion chalked up a sizzling 2914 performance.
