Abhimanyu Puranik clinches Serbia First League for the second time for ZMAJ Beograd

by Shahid Ahmed - 26/10/2024

GM Abhimanyu Puranik scored an unbeaten 7.5/10 to ensure his team ZMAJ (Beograd) win the Serbian First League 2024. This was the second time Abhimanyu won this event for the same team. Previously he won it in 2022 scoring 8/11. Both Abhimanyu and IM Mihajlo Radovanoic scored the same 7.5/10, only Abhimanyu remained undefeated. ZMAJ - Beograd scored 24/33, finished a full points ahead of the runner-up, SLOVEN (Ruma) 23/33. JUGOVIĆ (KAĆ) scored 22/33 to finish third. The eleven day, eleven round Round-Robin team league was organized by Šahovski savez Srbije (Chess Federation of Serbia) from 27th September to 7th October 2024 at Hotel Cepter Drina in Bajina Bašta. This is Abhimanyu's third triumph of the year. Photo: Šahovski savez Srbije

Abhimanyu performs at 2706

GM Abhimanyu Puranik, GM B Adhiban, GM Vignesh N R and GM Visakh N R were the four Indians taking part in this event. He won this event for the second time and bettered his previous performance by scoring an unbeaten 7.5/10 at a performance of 2706. He also gained 10 Elo rating points, one point away from 2650.

Champion - ZMAJ - Beograd 24/33 | Photo: Šahovski savez Srbije

Runner-up - SLOVEN (Ruma) 23/33 | Photo: Šahovski savez Srbije

Second Runner-up - JUGOVIĆ (KAĆ) 22/33 | Photo: Šahovski savez Srbije

Individual performances of ZMAJ - Beograd

Abhimanyu - Sarana, Round 9

Position after 25.Rxd6!

GM Abhimanyu Puranik (2639) made a fantastic exchange sacrifice 25.Rxd6! Bxd6 26.Qxd6 White did not gain anything immediately. However, the queen preventing the black king from castling is a big thorn which GM Alexey Sarana (2713) had to get rid of. 26...f6 27.e5! White does not care about his g5-bishop as it is trapped anyway. Instead, he is aiming for the knight at c6. 27...Ncb8 28.Bxf6 gxf6 29.Bxa8 Qxa8 30.Rd1 Bxb3 31.exf6 Rh7 32.Rg1 Qa7?? Black just blundered into a mate in five. 32...Nxf6 would have kept the game going. 33.Rg8+ Kf7 34.Rg7+! true to the essence of the game, checkmate is unstoppable.

GM Abhimanyu Puranik with his ZMAJ - Beograd teammate - GM Alexandr Predke before one of the rounds | Photo: Šahovski savez Srbije

GM Abhimanyu Puranik scored five wins and five draws, remained undefeated, performed at 2706 and gained 10 Elo rating points

Inaugural first move is being made on GM Abhimanyu Puranik's board | Photo: Šahovski savez Srbije

The tournament hall at Hotel Cepter Drina in Bajina Bašta, Serbia | Photo: Šahovski savez Srbije

A total of 12 teams took part in a round-robin tournament. Only six out of 6-9 could play in each round. The tournament took place at Hotel Cepter Drina in Bajina Bašta, Serbia from 27th September to 7th October 2024. The time control was 40 moves in 90 minutes+ 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move.

Replay all available games

Final standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2
1	4	ZMAJ (BEOGRAD)	11	7	3	1	24	41
2	12	SLOVEN (RUMA)	11	6	5	0	23	39,5
3	2	JUGOVIĆ (KAĆ)	11	6	4	1	22	38
4	1	JELICA PEP (GORAČIĆI)	11	5	5	1	20	38,5
5	6	PTT (BEOGRAD)	11	6	2	3	20	34,5
6	9	NAFTAGAS (ELEMIR)	11	5	3	3	18	37,5
7	8	NOVOSADSKI ŠAHOVSKI KLUB (NOVI SAD)	11	4	4	3	16	33,5
8	10	365.rs POŽEGA (POŽEGA)	11	3	4	4	13	32,5
9	7	RUDAR (KOSTOLAC)	11	2	2	7	8	28
10	5	KRUŠIK (VALJEVO)	11	2	2	7	8	26
11	11	SPARTAK (SUBOTICA)	11	1	1	9	4	27,5
12	3	LAJOŠ SEGI (BAJŠA)	11	1	1	9	4	19,5