foto · Stefan64 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Portrait · GM
Aleksandar
Predke
Serbia’s first board in the team’s 2023 European title win. Two victories from Budva show the variety of challenges an endgame can present.
Years
1994
Title
GM
City
Belgrade
FIDE ID
24107581
Rating peak
2696 (November 2020, world No. 40)
Alexandr Predke, born in 1994, became a grandmaster in 2016. He has represented Serbia since March 2023 and played first board when the team won the European Team Championship in Budva that autumn.
Two wins from that event offer an introduction to his play: one requires a long stretch of manoeuvring, while the other ends with a short mating threat.
In Budva in 2023, Predke scored 4½ points from eight games in a nine-round event. In round three he had White against Vincent Keymer.
After the queens come off on move 51, rooks remain alongside White’s knight and Black’s bishop. Watch Predke activate his king and reposition the rook as he looks for progress. The game lasts 98 moves.
Aleksandar Predke - Vincent Keymer · European Team Championship, Budva (round 3, board 1), 2023.11.13
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?! inaccuracy? mistake?? blunder
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Predke–Keymer, Budva 2023: 94.Nxf6 Rxf6 leads to a rook endgame. White’s king enters via h4 and h5; Black resigns after 98.Kxh5.
In round six against Haik Martirosyan, the ending takes a different shape. Black has a passed a-pawn, but White’s h-pawn is already on h7 beside the king on h8.
After 49...a2, Predke plays 50.Ne5. The knight does not cover a1: it threatens Ng6 mate. An immediate 50...a1=Q would meet 51.Ng6#. An attack on the king can outweigh an opposing promotion.
Aleksandar Predke - Haik M. Martirosyan · European Team Championship, Budva (round 6, board 1), 2023.11.17
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0/99 · ← →
?! inaccuracy? mistake?? blunder
Move listSAN
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Predke–Martirosyan, Budva 2023: the final 50.Ne5 threatens mate on g6. The line 50...a1=Q 51.Ng6# explains why promotion does not solve Black’s problem.
Serbia and Germany finished with 15 match points. The tiebreak favoured Serbia, bringing the country its first European team title. Predke’s wins against Keymer and Martirosyan contributed to that collective result.
In Belgrade in 2025, Predke won the Serbia Open, taking first on tiebreak among seven players with 7 points from nine games.
In the Budva examples, notice how the task changes once the queens leave the board. King and rook activity matter against Keymer; against Martirosyan, the decisive motif comes from the knight and h-pawn.