FM (2000); IM (2002); GM (2004); European U12 Champion (1999); European U14 Champion (2001); World U16 Champion (2003); FIDE Trainer (2016).
Borki Predojevic was born in the town of Teslic (Теслић) in Bosnia and Herzegovina in an area now known as Republika Srpska. He learned to play chess when he was eight years old and arose to claim the IM and GM titles while still a teenager. He soon became the strongest player his country has produced in recent times. He reached a peak soon after he crossed the 2600 mark, receiving invitations to high level tournaments, but apart from a brief stint in the top 100 and some good tournament results, his ratings and rankings have plateaued. Time will tell when this talented player will take another leap in development.
Master norms
He won an IM norm when he won the Third Saturday IM tournament in March 2002 with 9/12, ahead of a field that included 3 IMs. Another IM norm came at the First Saturday IM event in July 2002. His third IM norm came with his 7.5/11 result at the 15th Belgrade "Obrenovac" Open which wound up on 28 November 2002. He was therefore 15 years 7 months and 22 days old when he won his title.
It is unclear when Predojevic acquired his first GM norm, but his second - a 20 game norm - was acquired for his results at the 36th Olympiad (2004). He therefore fulfilled all the criteria for a GM title on 30 October 2004 when he was 17 years 6 months and 24 days old.
Championships
<Age> Predojevic competed in the European and World U12 Championships in 1998. In 1999, he competed in the World U12 Championship and won the European U12 Championship. In 2000, he competed in the World U14 Championship and in 2001, he again competed in the World U14 Championship and won the European U14 Championship ahead of Sergey Karjakin and Sergiy Zavgorodniy. In November 2003, he won the World U16 Championship staged in Kallithea Halkidiki in Greece.
<Junior> In 2001, he scored 8/13 to place equal fourth in the 53rd Yugoslavian Junior Championship and in January 2002, he was runner up to Veljko Jeremic in the 54th Yugoslavian Junior Championship. The following year he was third behind Jeremic and Nikola Djukic respectively at the 55th Yugoslavian Junior Championship. He competed in the World Junior Championship (Boys) (2005) scoring 7.5/13.
<National> He first competed in the national championship when he participated in the Serbian Championship of 2002, scoring 4.5/8 against rated players, and probably 5.5/9 for a likely =5th placement. (1) At the end of 2007, he was runner up to Predrag Nikolic in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Championship.
<Continental> Predojevic first competed in a continental championship when he participated in the 7th European Individual Championship (2006), scoring 5.5/11. He also competed in the European Individual Championships (2007), scoring 6.5/11. He repeated that score in the following two years at the European Individual Championship (2008) and the European Individual Championships (2010). At the European Individual Championships (2010), he scored 6/11.
Team Events (2)
<Olympiads> Predojevic has played for Bosnia and Herzegovina in all Olympiads from 2004 to 2010, and in 2014. His best results were in 2004, when he earned the Grandmaster title after scoring 8 points from 11 games and in 2008 when he scored 8.5/11 on board two toplace fourth for his board. His complete tally in Olympiads to date is 36.5/57 (+21 =31 -5) for a 65% result.
<Other National Team Events> He played reserve for Yugoslavia in the 2002 European U18 Team Championship, helping his team to fifth place in the event. He played one game for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European Team Chess Championships (2007).
<Continental and National Leagues> He first played in the Yugoslavian Team Championship in 1998 and in the European Club Cup (ECC) in 2004 when he played a game as second reserve for the ŠK Bosna Sarajevo club in the 20th European Club Cup (2004). To date, he has played three more seasons in the ECC, for the same club, in 2007, 2008 and 2011. His game tally in the ECC is 13.5/22 (+7 =13 -2) for a 61.4% overall result. Predojevic has also played in the Bosnia and Herzegovina league, starting in 2003, the Serbian League and North Bundesliga, starting in 2006, the Croatian League starting in 2007, the Hungarian League in 2008, the Slovenian National League in 2009, the Austrian Bundesliga and the Norwegian Eastern League in 2012, the Norwegian Premier League in 2013 and the German Oberliga Wuerttemberg in 2015.
Tournaments
<2002-2005> In 2002, he won the Third Saturday IM tournament held in Novi Sad in Yugoslavia in July of that year, also winning his first IM norm. Later that year he was equal first at the First Saturday IM tournament in July, winning his second IM norm. His 7.5/11 result at the 15th Belgrade "Obrenovac" Open which wound up on 28 November 2002 earned him his third IM norm. Predojevic's first experience of a super-tournament was at the category 15 XXXIV Bosnia (2004), where he scored a par-for-rating 3/9. In the following year he scored 4/9 at the XXXV Bosnia GM International (2005). He was equal second at the Pula Open in 2005 with 7/9.
<2006-2007> Predojevic won the 13th Metalis International Open that was held in Croatia in February and early March 2006 and then placed fourth at Bosna Sarajevo Tournament (2006). Later in the year in September, he took equal first at the Lausanne Young Masters (2006) alongside Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Koneru Humpy. He was equal first at the Zagreb Open 2007 alongside Filip Ljubicic and Miso Cebalo. In May 2007, he scored 5.5/10 at the Sarajevo International. In June 2007, he scored 6/9, a half point from the lead, at the 35th Annual World Open held in the USA.
<2008-2009> Winner of the HIT Open 2008 in Slovenia in February 2008 and the strong 24th Acropolis tournament (Greece) in August 2009. Fifth at Bosnia Sarajevo Tournament (2008). Equal second with 7/9, half a point behind Ivan Saric, at the Open 'Mediterranean 2017' Rijeka 2008 held in Croatia. Equal second with 5.5/9 at Bosnia (2009) behind Pavel Eljanov and alongside Wang Hao. He scored 6.5/9, half a point from the lead, at the Kavala Open staged in Greece in August 2009. Predojevic placed equal second, half a point from the lead, at the 3th Open Mediterranean 2017 Rijeka 2009 that was staged in Croatia in late November and early December.
<2010-2014> Equal third at the 40th International Tournament Bosnia 2010, half a point behind the winners Wang Hao and Zahar Efimenko. A year later at the 41st edition of that tournament, Predojevic placed =2nd with 7/9, half a point behind the winner Baadur Jobava. Winner of Zadar Open 2012 and equal first at the Zadar Open 2013 alongside Ivan Saric, Robert Zelcic and Andrey Sumets.
<2015> Equal third at Zadar 2015, half a point behind Sasa Martinovic and Zdenko Kozul.
Match
In April 2008, Predojevic played a four-game match against Nikola Djukic, winning by 2.5-1.5 (+2 -1 =1). In June 2013, he played in a curtain raiser to the Norwegian Championship, narrowly losing the Carlsen - Predojevic Rapid Match (2013) by 1.5-2.5 (-1 =3). The match was organized by the "Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue" to celebrate the long-standing relationship between Lillehammer and Sarajevo. (3)
Ratings
Predojevic breached the 2600 rating mark in April 2007 and has remained on or above 2600 since. His peak rating to date was 2652 in April 2009 when he was ranked #76 in the world. Conversely, his peak ranking to date was world #68 in April 2008 when he was rated 2651.
Predojevic was a leading junior in 2006 and 2007, ranked in the top 20 from April 2006 to October 2007, peaking at world junior #7 in October 2007. He graduated to the top 100 players in the world in July 2007 and remained there until September 2008. After a brief hiatus, he re-entered the top 100 in January 2009, remaining there until January 2011. (4)
References
Wikipedia article: Borki Predojević
Sources
(1) http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_...; (2) http://www.olimpbase.org/playersc/u...; (3) http://www.peace.no/index.php?optio...; (4) https://ratings.fide.com/top_files....
Kibitzing
