Alexey Vasilyevich Sarana (russian: Алексей Васильевич Сарана, ; born 26 January 2000) is a Russian-born Serbian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

grandmaster. He won the

European Individual Chess Championship The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis. Apart from determining the European champions (open and women's), ...

in 2023. His father is

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

and lives near

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. Sarana left Russia in March 2022, stating that he does not plan to return until the end of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Chess career

Born in 2000, Sarana earned his

international master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

title in 2016 and his grandmaster title in 2017. In February 2018, he participated in the

Aeroflot Open The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament; in 2013 it was converted to a rapid and blitz event, whil ...

. He finished forty-ninth out of ninety-two, scoring 4½/9 (+1–1=7). In March 2018, he competed in the

. He placed twenty-second, scoring 7½/11 (+4–0=7). In July 2019, Sarana won the Russian Championship Higher League with a score of 6½/9 (+4–0=5), qualifying for the Superfinals of 71st Russian men's Chess championship. In the Superfinal, he finished 9th with a score of 5/11(+1-2=8). In 2019, Sarana shared first place with

Alexandr Predke Alexandr Aleksandrovich Predke (russian: Александр Александрович Предке, ; born 5 January 1994) is a Russian-born Serbian chess grandmaster (2016). Biography Predke started playing chess at the age of seven. He is ...

in the Russian Championship Higher League (second on tiebreak) with a score of 6½/9 (+4–0=5). With this result he qualified for the Superfinals of the Russian men's Chess championship for the second year in a row. In 2023 he won the

.European Chess Union. Alexey Sarana wins European Individual Chess Championship 2023
/ref> In the

Chess World Cup 2023 The Chess World Cup 2023 was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 30 July to 24 August 2023. It was the 10th edition of the Chess World Cup. The top three finishers in the tournament qualified ...

, Sarana reached the round of 16 by defeating 6th seed

Wesley So Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and 3-time U.S. Chess Champion (in 2017, 2020, and 2021). He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ran ...

in the fourth round.

Notes

References

External links

* * * 2000 births Living people Russian chess players Chess grandmasters Sportspeople from Moscow {{Russia-chess-bio-stub