Serbia continues to amaze on the European chess scene. After Aleksandar Indjic won EICC 2024 and Teodora Injac conquered the gold at the European Women Individual Chess Championship, now the Serbia teams come back with a gold in blitz and silver in rapid from the ICCD European Deaf Team Chess Championship 2025 crowns the winners.
Dragan Zivic from team Serbia commented for Chessdom, “If someone had offered us gold in blitz and silver in rapid before the European Championship, we would have been overjoyed.”
Throwback: Children’s Chess Week in Nis – simul by FM Dragan Zivic
Dragan Zivic about the medals of Serbia
If someone had offered us gold in blitz and silver in rapid before the European Championship, we would have been overjoyed. This way, we regret the gold medal in rapid, because after 6 initial victories, we were alone at the top of the table and a draw against Ukraine was enough for the gold round before the end. And that match of the penultimate round went well for our team, because Miloš Tonić had a clear pawn more and a strategically better position, on the second board. On the fourth board, Dragan Moldovanović had a clear positional advantage. On the first board, Jovan Pavićević had an equal position, only Dragan Živić, was slightly weaker, on the third board. And then the Goddess of Chess Caissa generously gifts the Ukrainians: Moldovanović loses the game with a series of bad moves, Tonić only drew, as did Pavićević. There was hope that Živić would turn around the weaker position, but, although he played to force a win, after a pawn oversight and eternal check, a draw was made. Thus, we were defeated by Ukraine, which won the gold medal. There was drama in the last round, against Croatia, because if we lost, we would have been in a 2-4 place division, probably second or third in the end. The first to draw was Moldovanović, on the fourth board. Živić refused a draw, then accepted it because he did not see a continuation that would suit him better. However, on the second board, Miloš Tonić ran into difficulties and suffered a defeat. On the first board, the young Jovan Pavićević had to squeeze dry oak, against the experienced IM Vujaković. In a double-sided black note, Joca played a filigree, precise endgame of a knight against a knight, won the pawn and won the game, bringing us the silver medal. The third place was won by the Polish team.
Results of our national team players: Jovan Pavićević (Lazarevac) 6.5 points from 8 games. Miloš Tonić (Pirot) 5 from 8. Dragan Živić (Niš) 6.5 from 8. Dragan Moldovanović (Stari Banovci) 3.5 from 5. Đerđ Tapai (Kikinda) 2.5 from 3.
