Serbia’s Klasan shows true grit winning the World Men’s title

Vladimir Klasan had to portray his fighting qualities in fending off formidable opposition en-route to the Men’s Individual title. He did not have his own way thus showed plenty of character as demonstrated in his games.

First to take him on was Bosnia’s Kasumovic who played brilliantly in holding a comfortable draw in the first game but the Serb overpowered him in the second. Next was the unpredictable Iranian, Reza Garmsiri but he had no answer against the Serb’s destructive chess. The semi-final match against Hungary’s Balasz Mate was a different story for the Hungarian pounced on Klasan’s uncharacteristic errors.  Klasan made amends by winning the second. In the blitz play off Klasan was clinical in his 2-0 win.

In the other half, the Croatian Grandmaster Klaric endured a tough ordeal against the fast improving Lithuanian player, Jankunas. The match went to the wire with Klaric winning the third blitz game.  The chess was sensational.

So the final saw a battle of the 2 Ks – Klaric versus Klasan.   It was an intriguing battle that ended a win apiece so it went to the blitz play-offs. It was like a penalty shoot-out but the Serbian’s dynamic play eventually wore out the Croatian. Klasan admitted afterward that the Croatian GM had made him work hard for his win; the games were the hardest of them all. But Klasan proved just as resilent as Novak Djokovic, Serbia’s most famous sportsman and tennis player who did know know how to lose!

A brilliant chess tournament superbly marshalled by the arbiters, Dragan (Serbia), and Kovalenko (Ukraine); thanks to the players who made it a great success.

Full results can be found in the ICCD website chessdeaf.org.  Medals, diplomas, certificates and titles will be made in 2022 at Warsaw, Poland.

 Gold Medal Winner: Vladimir Klasan (Serbia)

1st round: Beat  Kasumovic (Bosnia & H) 1.5 – 0.5

2nd round: Beat  R. Garmsiri (Iran) 2-0

Semi-Final: Beat B. Mate (Hungary) 3 – 1

Final:  Beat Z. Klaric (Croatia) 3 – 1

 

Silver Medal Winner – Zlarko Klaric (Croatia)

Bronze Medal Winner – Balasz Mate (Hungary) 

Bronze Medal Winner – Tomas Jankunas