At the time of writing of this article (June 11th), 412 participants from 41 national federations from all continents have applied to participate in the "Serbia Open 2021". Among them are 55 grandmasters and 15 participants with a rating of 2600 and higher.

Who are the best ranked participants at the moment? The honorary place belongs to the Russian national team member Vladimir Fedoseev with a rating of 2696, followed by the Azerbaijani Olympian Rauf Mamedov with 2654 and with Ukrainian Yuri Kuzubov following him with just a point less. It is interesting that there are three Armenians in the top 10, and in addition to the mentioned, there are also representatives of Latvia, Uzbekistan and India. The best ranked Serbian chess player, Aleksandar Indjic, currently holds 11th place.

The proximity of the World Cup in Sochi (which is starting on July 10th, just two days after the last round of the "Serbia Open"), "spoiled" the organizers' intention to have at least three players with a rating higher than 2700 participating in this tournament. It is something that we can look forward to next year.

The list of registered participants is available at the link:

http://chess-results.com/tnr555727.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30

Photo: Chessbase, Pinterest