Indjic Wins European Chess Championship, 20 Qualify For 2025 World Cup

Four-time Serbian National Champion GM Aleksandar Indjic convincingly won the 2024 European Chess Championship with 9/11 and a performance of 2820. The champion, undefeated, led the tournament from round six all the way to the end, at one point scoring five victories in a row. He takes home €20,000, while 20 players also qualify for the 2025 FIDE World Cup, a knockout tournament that is part of the next world championship cycle.

Final Standings | Top 33

The tournament, held at the Hotel Palas in Petrovac, Montenegro on November 9-19, featured 388 players in total—305 titled players, including 119 grandmasters. Top seeds were 2700-GM Vladimir Fedoseev and others who had previously crossed the 2700-mark, like GMs Bogdan-Daniel Deac, Jorden van Foreest, Haik Martirosyan, David Navara, Ivan Saric, and Nikita Vitiugov. The list of star players is too long to enumerate here, but to give you an idea: you'd have to scroll down to the 108th seed to find a player rated below 2500.

Each game in the 11-round Swiss was played at a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by an additional 30 minutes, plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. It was all Indjic starting from round six, and his five-game winning streak between rounds three and seven set him up for success in the later rounds.

But until round five, Indjic was just one of the pack. The last two players on a perfect score were GMs Maksim Chigaev and Frederik Svane, at the end of round four. When they drew each other in round five, Indjic and Deac caught up.

Chigaev's win over GM Matthias Bluebaum in round four was a rare example of White castling long in an Italian Game. 20.e6 came like a wrecking ball to the black king's residence.

Ultimately, Chigaev, Svane, and Deac finished in a group of players on 8/11, all three making it into the top-20 by the tournament's end. One of Svane's nicest wins was in round nine against the youngest player to reach 2600, 13-year-old Turkish prodigy GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, with the black pieces. He found the only move for an advantage, 17...f5! and entombed the dark-squared bishop. White did manage to free the bishop later, but at the cost of allowing a devastating sacrifice.

Indjic was the player who gave Chigaev his only loss in the tournament, in round six—after which, for the first time, he took the sole lead of the tournament, a status that would not alter. 

GM Aleksandar Indjic has taken the sole lead of the European Championship on 5.5/6! In round six, his opponent's knight never escaped its captivity on the a8-square. https://t.co/pjOgnWHcaX pic.twitter.com/tcjq6ayKXe

— chess24 (@chess24com) November 13, 2024

The round after that, he defeated the highest-rated player of the tournament, Fedoseev, by making the most of his knight on d3. A minor piece on the opponent's third rank, firmly supported by a pawn, can be called a "bone in the throat," and Indjic demonstrated exactly why:

Indjic scored another win, against another former 2700-GM Ivan Cheparinov, in round nine, but otherwise made draws in his final four games. GM Daniel Dardha, half a point behind in the final round, was his last hurdle before becoming champion, but a draw in that last game determined Indjic's title.

Dardha finished in sole second, on 8.5/11, with a 26-point gain and a performance of 2814. His handling of heavy-piece endgames allowed him to score his two most impressive wins, against GMs Jaime Santos and Navara. The quip "all rook endgames are drawn" turned out to be true in round nine against Santos, but in practice holding the pawn-down endgame was much too difficult.

"This is probably the best result in my chess career so far, especially individually," said Indjic, who's also one of the world's tallest GMs at 203 cm (6' 7"). He said he could thank "dozens" of grandmasters who have helped him in his chess journey but named two: GMs Milos Perunovic and Alexander Morozevich. As for how he will spend the prize money, he shared that he's wanted to travel to Japan for a long time and that this might be the plan for next year. 

This is probably the best result in my chess career so far.

—Aleksandar Indjic

As for incredible performances outside of the top finishers, a few stand out. WFM Dana Kochavi rose almost 200 rating points in this tournament alone, which means that she will break the 2300-barrier and should earn the FM title. Serbian IM Teodora Injac, who also scored 6.5/11, won the top women's prize on tiebreaks, which came with €1,200, while €900 went to second.

Dana Kochavi (b. 2007) gains an impressive 186 rating points, skyrocketing from World Junior Girls #83 to #11! This significant leap is thanks to the K-factor of 40. Her performance at the European Championship was 6.5/11 with a TPR of 2509.https://t.co/flv1cPZyfZ

📸Michal… pic.twitter.com/gkDHBFfzQt

— 2700chess (@2700chess) November 19, 2024

Another astronomical rise was by a Turkish player Yigit Karaca, who arrived at the tournament with a 2006 FIDE rating but gained 188 rating points, with a 6/11 score.

Ukrainian GM Ihor Samunenkov won the €1,000 prize for top junior under 18, and Ukrainian GM Valeriy Neverov won the same amount for the first Over 50 prize.

The 2024 European Chess Championship was an 11-round Swiss that determines the European champion. The top 20 players also qualify for the 2025 FIDE World Cup. The tournament took place at the Hotel Palas from November 9-19 in Petrovac, Montenegro. The time control was 90+30 with an additional 30 minutes after move 40. The prize fund was €100,000.