Predrag Nikolić

Who is Predrag Nikolić?

Predrag Nikolić is a Bosnian chess grandmaster.

He first competed for the Yugoslav Championship in 1979, taking a share of second place. The following year and again in 1984, he went one step further and became the Yugoslav national champion. He was awarded the International Master and Grandmaster titles in 1980 and 1983 respectively. The GM title was earned from his 1982 performances at Sarajevo and Sochi.

He was a winner at Sarajevo in 1983, at Novi Sad in 1984 and at Reykjavík two years later. 1986 was also the year that he shared second place behind Nigel Short at Wijk aan Zee. He returned to winning ways at Sarajevo in 1987 and at the Zagreb Interzonal, narrowly failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.

In 1989, he won at Wijk aan Zee and took first place at Portorož/Ljubljana. There followed the 1990 Interzonal in Manila, where once more he shared fourth place, but qualified this time for the 1991 Candidates tournament. In his 'final 16' encounter with Boris Gelfand, he was just edged out in a rapid play-off, having drawn the match 4-4. Later, he journeyed to São Paulo for a match with Henrique Mecking and secured victory by a score of 3.5-2.5. A tournament win in Bled saw him complete an eventful year.