Alisa Marić

Infobox chess player
playername = Alisa Marić


caption=
birthname = Alisa Marić Алиса Марић
country = SRB
datebirth = birth date|1970|1|10
placebirth = New York, USA
datedeath =
placedeath =
title = WGM and IM
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating = 2412 (January 2008)
peakrating = 2489 (July 1999)

Alisa Marić (Serbian Cyrillic: Алиса Марић ; born January 10, 1970 in New York, USA) is an American-born, Serbian chess player, who holds the FIDE titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master. She is living in Belgrade, capital of Serbia (former Yugoslavia). She has dual citizenship, Serbian and American. She is considered to be the best Serbian female chess player ever and best American-born female chess player ever. [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1214 Who was that lady?] ] [ [http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2006/01/whos-strongest-american-born-player.html Who's the strongest American born player?] ] Her best Elo rating was 2489 points.

Chess twins

Alisa Marić was introduced to chess at the age of four, together with her 20 minutes younger twin sister Mirjana Marić. Alisa and Mirjana are the only twins with grandmaster titles in the history of modern chess.

Early successes

At the age of 12, Alisa became national chess master and senior champion of Belgrade. At 15, she was FIDE Woman International Master (WIM) and World Junior Vice Champion Under 20 (World Junior Chess Championship Dobrna 1985.). As a 16 year old girl, she was youngest ever winner of Yugoslav Chess Championship, which was held in Pucarevo 1986. At the age of 18, Alisa was awarded with FIDE Women Grandmaster title (WGM). At 20, she was third ranked female player in the world and a FIDE International Master.

World championship

In 1990, Alisa Marić won the Candidates Tournament for the Women's World Chess Championship in Borzhomi, Georgia, USSR (together with Xie Jun). In 1991, Alisa Marić and Xie Jun played Final challenger match in two parts, first in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, second in Beijing, China. Chinese Xie Jun won 4,5:2,5 and later that year became Women's World Chess Champion by defeating Maya Chiburdanidze of USSR.In 1992, Alisa Marić shared 4-5. place at Candidates Tournament in Shangai, China. In 1994, she tied for 4-5. place at Candidates Tournament in Tilburg, Nederlands. In 1997, she shared 5-7.place at Candidates Tournament in Groningen, Nederlands. Starting from year 2000, FIDE World Chess Championship is based on knock-out format. In New Delhi, India 2000, Alisa Marić played semifinal match against Chinese Qin Kanying. In Moscow, Russia 2001, she played 3rd round against Chinese Zhu Chen, who then became Women's World chess champion. These results were achieved in six consecutive World championship cycles.

Medals

Alisa Marić is a sport hero of Serbia and former Yugoslavia. Starting from 1986, she holds the leading player role in national chess selection. She won bronze team’s medal at Chess Olympiad in Thessalonica 1988 and individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiad in Elista 1998 . She won silver medal at European Team Championship in Batumi 1999. [ [http://www.olimpbase.org/ Olimpbase.org] ] In Shangai 2001, Alisa Marić played for six members “Rest of the World team” in exhibition match against China. In Belgrade 2007, she was awarded with prestigious “St.Sava prize” for 20 years jubilee as a member of national team. She played at first board on nine Chess Olympiads (Dubai 1986, Thessalonica 1988, Novi Sad 1990, Moscow 1994, Yerevan 1996, Elista 1998, Istanbul 2000, Calvia 2004 and Torino 2006) and four European Team Championships (Batumi 1999, Leon 2001, Plovdiv 2003 and Gothenburg 2005). Three times Alisa Marić won European Club Cup with "Agrouniverzal" club from Belgrade.

Other activities

Alisa Marić has Ph.D in Economics and she's working as Marketing professor at Megatrend University in Belgrade. She is co-author of students book “Principles of marketing“. She is also a member of Presidential Board of Serbian Olympic Committee. Many times, she was anchor of TV chess shows such as “Alisa in the Wonderland of Chess”.

Selected game

Chess diagram|=
tright

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8 | | |rd| | | |kd| |= 7 | | | | | |pd| |pd|= 6 |qd| | | |pd| |pd| |= 5 |pd| | |nd|pl| | | |= 4 | | | |rd|nl|pl| |ql|= 3 | | |pd| | | | | |= 2 |pl| | | | | |pl|pl|= 1 | | |rl| |rl| | |kl|= a b c d e f g h

Position after 40th White's moveThis is Alisa Marić's win against future World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand from India. Game was played in Lugano, Switzerland at "Lugano Open" tournament 1988. [ [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018035 ChessGames.com Anand-Maric] ]

Anand (rating 2520) - Marić (rating 2345) (Sicilian Defence, ECO code B46), Lugano open, Lugano 1988.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qc7 5.Nc3 e6 6.f4 a6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Bd3 d5 9.O-O Nf6 10.e5 Nd7 11.b3 Nc5 12.Kh1 Be7 13.Qh5 g6 14.Qh6 Bf8 15.Qh3 a5 16.Be3 Ba6 17.Rfd1 Be7 18.Qh6 Bf8 19.Qh4 Be7 20.Qf2 Nd7 21.Qe2 Qc8 22.Na4 c5 23.Bd2 Bxd3 24.cxd3 O-O 25.Rac1 Qa6 26.Be3 Rac8 27.Rd2 Qb5 28.Rdc2 Rc6 29.Bf2 Rfc8 30.Qe3 c4 31.Nc3 Qa6 32.bxc4 dxc4 33.d4 Nb6 34.Qf3 R6c7 35.Qh3 Rd7 36.Bh4 Bxh4 37.Qxh4 Rxd4 38.Re2 Nd5 39.Ne4 c3 40.Ree1 Qd3 41.Rxc3 Rxc3 42.Qd8+ Kg7 43.Nf6 Nxf6 44.exf6+ Kh6 45.Qf8+ Kh5 46.Qxf7 Rxf4 47.Re5+ Rf5 48.Qxh7+ Kg5 49.h4+ Kxf6 0–1

References

External links

* [http://www.alisamaric.com Official site of chess grandmaster Alisa Marić]
* [http://interviews.chessdom.com/alisa-maric Interview 2007.]
* [http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles188.pdf In the Limelight:Alisa Maric]
* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=25081 Chess Games of Alisa Maric]
* [http://www.fide.com/ratings/top_files.phtml?id=904180 FIDE World Top Chess Player list since 2000]