Predrag Nikolić (born 11 September 1960 in Bosanski Šamac) is a Bosnian

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 dist ...

grandmaster.

Biography

He first competed for the Yugoslav Championship in 1979, taking a share of second place. The following year and again in 1984, he went one step further and became the Yugoslav national champion. He was awarded the

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 ...

and Grandmaster titles in 1980 and 1983 respectively. The GM title was earned from his 1982 performances in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

(third) and

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(second after Mikhail Tal). He was a winner at Sarajevo in 1983, at

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the P ...

in 1984 and at Reykjavík two years later. 1986 was also the year that he shared second place behind Nigel Short at Wijk aan Zee. He returned to winning ways at Sarajevo in 1987 and at the

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Interzonal, narrowly failed to qualify for the

Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The w ...

(sharing fourth place behind Korchnoi, Ehlvest and Seirawan). In 1989, he won at Wijk aan Zee (jointly with Anand, Ribli and Sax) and took first place at Portorož/

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(the Vidmar Memorial tournament). There followed the 1990 Interzonal in

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, where once more he shared fourth place, but qualified this time for the 1991 Candidates tournament. In his 'final 16' encounter with Boris Gelfand, he was just edged out in a rapid play-off, having drawn the match 4-4. Later, he journeyed to

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for a match with

Henrique Mecking Henrique Costa Mecking (born 23 January 1952), also known as Mequinho, is a Brazilian chess grandmaster who reached his zenith in the 1970s and is still one of the strongest players in Brazil. He was a chess prodigy, drawing comparisons to Bobb ...

and secured victory by a score of 3.5-2.5. A tournament win in

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

saw him complete an eventful year. While playing the

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tournament of 1992 (where he finished second), war broke out in his home country and for a while he was domiciled in the Netherlands, along with the Bosnian Ivan Sokolov. There were more tournament victories to come; first at Wijk aan Zee in 1994 and as winner of the national Dutch Chess Championships of 1997 (equal with Jan Timman but winning the play-off) and 1999. In 2004, he shared a major success with Vassily Ivanchuk when they tied for first place at the European Individual Chess Championship, held in

Antalya la, Attalensis grc, Ἀτταλειώτης , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 07xxx , area_code = (+90) 242 , registration_plate = 07 , blank_name = Licence plate ...

, although he lost the play-off for the title. Between 1980 and 2002, he was, with the exception of 1982, an ever-present member of the Yugoslav and then Bosnian Chess Olympiad teams, winning one medal of each colour - team silver, team bronze and individual gold. He also participated regularly at the European Team Chess Championship and in 1983, took team silver and individual gold medals. He has played for many years in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

for club side SG Aljechin Solingen. At the start of the 2006/7 season, he was their highest rated player and listed as number 2 behind Artur Yusupov. In 2007 he won the Bosnia and Herzegovina Chess Championship ahead of

Borki Predojević Borki Predojević ( sr-cyrl, Борки Предојевић; born 6 April 1987 in Teslić) is a Bosnian chess grandmaster, the youngest ever from his country. He is the No. 1 ranked player of Bosnia and Herzegovina as of February 2021. Early ...

. In 2015 he won the World Senior Championship's over-50 (+50) section in Acqui Terme. Predrag Nikolić is now living in the Netherlands near Leiden, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Notable games

Predrag Nikolic vs Georgy Timoshenko, GMA-qual f 1990, King's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Immediate Fianchetto (E60), 1-0

Predrag Nikolic vs Jeroen Piket, Corus 2000, Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Rubinstein Variation Flohr Line (D62), 1-0

Mikhail Krasenkow vs Predrag Nikolic, Bled Olympiad 2002, Slav Defense: Winawer Countergambit (D10), 0-1

Predrag Nikolic vs David Navara, FIDE World Cup 2005, Benoni Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Hastings Defense (A63), 1-0

References

*
Olimpbase - Olympiads and other Team event information

External links

Predrag Nikolic
chess games at 365Chess.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nikolic, Predrag 1960 births Living people Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Bosnia and Herzegovina chess players Yugoslav chess players People from Šamac, Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina World Senior Chess Champions