GM Velimir Ivic and WGM Irina Chelushkina win Serbian Chess Championship 2022

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GM Velimir Ivic and WGM Irina Chelushkina have been newly crowned Serbian Chess Champions.

20-year-old GM Velimir Ivic defended his 2021 national title after emerging as the sole Winner of the 16th Serbian Open Championship with 7.5/9 points. Ivic kicked off with fantastic 5.5/6 points, suffering a loss to a 6-time Serbian Champion GM Ivan Ivanisevic in the seventh round. Just a day after, Ivic faced GM Aleksandar Indjic in a direct encounter for first place and scored the needed win. It wasn’t all over as Indjic still had chances to catch his national teammate on the top. Ivic had to score in the last round as well, and he delivered against IM Nikola Radovanovic. Eventually, Aleksandar Indjic needed to settle for the silver medal with 7 points, and GM Aleksandar Kovacevic claimed bronze with 6 points.

61-year-old WGM Irina Chelushkina won the Women’s event scoring 7/9 points. Chelushkina had a slow start, losing the first round to WFM Milena Vujcic, but managed to bounce back and scored impressive 7 points in the remaining 8 rounds to emerge as the sole Winner. Interestingly, this is Chelushkina’s national title in the fifth country. She had previously won the Soviet Union Championship, Ukrainian Championship, Yugoslavian Championship, Championship of Serbia and Montenegro, and finally the Serbian Championship.

WIM Marina Gajcin trailed by half a point and clinched silver medal, while WGM Maria Manakova won bronze with 5 points thanks to a direct-encounter victory against WGM Jovana Eric who had the same score.

The 2022 Serbian Chess Championships took place from 6-15 December in Bajina Basta. The events were played as 10-players round-robin tournaments, with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus 30 seconds increment for each move, starting from move one. The total prize fund of the Open event was $7280 and the prize pool of the Women’s event was $2730. Detailed information to be found on the official website.

Final standings:

Rk.		Name	Rtg	Pts.
1	WGM	Chelushkina Irina	2189	7
2	WIM	Gajcin Marina	2188	6.5
3	WGM	Manakova Maria	2201	5
4	WGM	Eric Jovana	2236	5
5	WFM	Vujcic Milena	2048	4.5
6	WIM	Drljevic Ljilja	2175	4.5
7	WIM	Srdanovic Jovana	2190	4
8	WFM	Bojicic Andjela	2112	4
9		Grozdanovic Anastasia	2009	3.5
10	WCM	Dimitrijevic Andjela	2021	1

Rk.		Name	Rtg	Pts.
1	GM	Ivic Velimir	2572	7.5
2	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2636	7
3	GM	Kovacevic Aleksandar	2480	6
4	GM	Ivanisevic Ivan	2535	5.5
5	GM	Perunovic Milos	2541	5.5
6	GM	Bogosavljevic Boban	2518	4.5
7	IM	Radovanovic Nikola	2414	3
8	IM	Perunovic Miodrag	2417	2.5
9	FM	Martic Ivan	2270	2
10	IM	Djordjevic Vuk	2394	1.5