Biography

I was born on the 12th of June 1979 in Belgrade, Serbia. Since my early childhood I have lived in Nis, where I graduated from college with a Law degree. I passed the Bar exam and I currently work as Senior Expert Assistant at Court of Appeals Nis. I have a daughter, Masa and a son, Uros. My 9-year-old son has achieved multiple Serbian Championship accolades in the under 8's and under 10 divisions.

I started to play sports at the age of 8 when I chose karate. I then moved on to football, training for seven years in the top division club, Radnicki Nis. I was first introduced to chess at the age of 12, my brother taught me how to move the pieces and that is how my chess career began. I must also mention that my family has a long chess tradition: My father is a Candidate Master, International Arbiter and long-time delegate, while my brother is a 1st category player. Even my ex-wife, Miljana was the best player for her age as a junior. They all provided me with invaluable support in my chess development.

My first chess success was winning the city and regional junior championships with a perfect score. I followed this by placing 3rd in Serbia and 2nd in Yugoslavia in the U14 national championships. After that I became a one-time champion and four-time vice-champion of Yugoslavia in classical chess for my age. Also, as a blitz and rapid specialist I ended up winning numerous tournaments in the faster time controls. I began to represent Yugoslavia internationally from 1997 when I participated in the World Junior Championship in Armenia and again at the 1999 European Championship in Patra.

My first major success after my junior career was complete came in 2000 when I became the champion of Central Serbia. After achieving FM (FIDE Master) at the beginning of 2003, I then went on to earn the International Master title 6 months later after scoring an unprecedented 7 IM (International Master) norms! I shifted my focus mainly to university and coaching but I am still an active and improving tournament player, working hard to fulfil my chess dream of becoming a Grandmaster.

I started coaching in 2005 and couldn’t even imagine the many successes that my students would go on to achieve. Since coaching almost 1000 students, from 94 countries and five continents, I established myself as one of the most successful and sought-after trainers, achieving an FST – FIDE Senior Trainer (the highest coaching title).

In more recent years...

I started an educational chess channel on YouTube in 2019 with the assistance of my friend, Craig Ellison. We still work together constantly to try to improve chess understanding all over the world.

In 2023 I coached Serbia to win Gold at the European Team Championship in Montenegro.

Some of my top students include:

GM Eric Hansen
GM Denis Kadric,
GM Milan Zajic,
WGM Jovana Rapport,
Multiple World Youth Medalist IM Richard Wang,
World Youth champion U14 WGM Qiyu Zhou,
2012 World Junior champion GM Alexander Ipatov.

Along with many up and coming future champions.

I am fluent in English, French, and Serbian and as a trainer I am available on the world’s leading platforms: PlayChess, ICC, Chess.com, lichess and Chessdom.com, where I am also a member of the commentators team.