Alexey Sarana

Alexey Vasilyevich Sarana (Алексей Васильевич Сарана, Алексеј Васиљевич Сарана; born 26 January 2000) is a Russian-born Serbian chess grandmaster. He won the European Individual Chess Championship in 2023.

His father is Ukrainian and lives near Kyiv. Sarana left Russia in March 2022, stating that he does not plan to return until the end of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Chess career
Born in 2000, Sarana earned his international master title in 2016 and his grandmaster title in 2017. In February 2018, he participated in the Aeroflot Open. He finished forty-ninth out of ninety-two, scoring 4½/9 (+1–1=7). In March 2018, he competed in the European Individual Chess Championship. He placed twenty-second, scoring 7½/11 (+4–0=7). In July 2019, Sarana won the Russian Championship Higher League with a score of 6½/9 (+4–0=5), qualifying for the Superfinals of 71st Russian men's Chess championship. In the Superfinal, he finished 9th with a score of 5/11(+1-2=8).

In 2019, Sarana shared first place with Alexandr Predke in the Russian Championship Higher League (second on tiebreak) with a score of 6½/9 (+4–0=5). With this result he qualified for the Superfinals of the Russian men's Chess championship for the second year in a row. In 2023 he won the European Individual Chess Championship.

In the Chess World Cup 2023, Sarana reached the round of 16 by defeating 6th seed Wesley So in the fourth round.