Chess Club Alkaloid holds rapid "Alkaloid 50 na 8 h 8" in Skopje

Chess Club Alkaloid marked its 50th anniversary with a new rapid chess event: the "Alkaloid 50 na 8 h 8" tournament, held in Skopje on October 3.

Top places decided after 11 rounds

After 11 rounds only Muhamet Aslani (Kosovo) finished on top with 9.5 points. IM Filip Panchevski secured 9 points and took the prize for second place after defeating VM Zvonko Stanojoski in the final round.

FM Andrej Veljanoski and IM Boroljub Zlatanović also reached 9 points; because Veljanoski had the weaker tiebreak he was ranked third, while Zlatanović was placed immediately after him.

IM Nikola Nikolovski and FM Endrit Uruci shared fifth place with 8.5 points. In the group of players who scored 8 points were VM Zvonko Stanojoski, IM Toni Kiroski, Filip Mihov, Stojancho Dimkovski and others. The best veteran prize went to FM Aleksandar Kralevski, and the top female finishes were claimed by Lea Eftovska and Aleksandra Dimitri.

Two special prizes were awarded to juniors from Alkaloid's chess schools: the club's young talent and under-12 youth champion David Atanasovski was named best player with a rating under 1799, while Akbijuik Fatih (16) won the prize for the best player in the 1800–1999 rating band.

During the event organizers presented an author’s preview of the club monograph prepared by IM Nikola Dimovski, ahead of its official launch at a later date.

The club's next major commitment is the European Club Cup in Montenegro (October 17–23), where Chess Club Multi Esens will also take part alongside Alkaloid.

Photo: press material from the event