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Sisters - grandmasters Alisa and Mirjana are only twins who earned grandmaster titles in history of world chess! 

 

WGM Mirjana Maric-Stamenkovic, just 21 minutes younger Alisa's sister,  is graduated  mathematician, women's grandmaster (WGM), World cadet's champion  (Petah Tikva 1985), double champion of Yugoslavia and participant of Chess Olympiads and  Interzonal tournaments in World championship cycles. Mostly thanks to Mirjana's help and training support, Alisa made her successes.

Alisa at Olympiads
Her debut was in Dubai and she celebrated her 20th Olympic year in Torino. Best result she made in Elista, 9 points from 12 games. She was awarded with bronze individual medal for 1st board.


No. CHESS OLYMPIADS   Result
1  Dubai 1986.  +2
2  Thessalonica 1988.  +5
3  Novi Sad 1990.  +1
4  Moscow 1994.  +4
5 Yerevan 1996.  +2
6 Elista 1998.  +6
7 Istanbul 2000.  +4
8 Calvia 2004.  +3
9  Torino 2006.   -3

Member of "All World stars" team
At famous "All World stars vs. China" match in Shangai 2001. Alisa Maric was at chosen six who represented World.

Final standings:                        WORLD: Chiburdanidze 7 from 12, Maric 6, Alexandria 5,5, Ioseliani 5, Gaprindashvili 4, Zhukova 3 points.
CHINA: Wang Pin 8 from 12, Zhu Chen 7,5, Xie Jun, Xu Juhua 7, Wang Yue 6,5, Qin Kinying 5,5 points.


Clubs
Alisa Maric is currently a member of Serbian chess club SK Politika Belgrade and Montenegrian SK T-Mobile Podgorica.  During career she played for Serbian clubs Agrouniverzal, Rad, Sahmatik, Radnicki, Gosa, Cukaricki and Polet and clubs from other countries - Germany, Switzerland, France, Greece and Romania.



New York twins                            Alisa Maric was born on 10th January 1970 in New York City, USA, during her father service in United Nations headquarters. In a family of mathematicians, father Nebojsa, university professor, and mother Zivana, high school teacher, Alisa and her twin sister Mirjana got familiar with chess in age of four. 


Career in science                                                                                      After primary school which Alisa and Mirjana started in Fort Collins, Colorado and finished in Belgrade, they got degree of Mathematics high school. Mirjana continued study of mathematics and got B.S. Alisa  graduated and got M.S. degree in Economics at Belgrade University. In 2004 she was promoted to PhD and now works at Faculty of management as docent professor in Marketing. She is coauthor of students book Principles of marketing.

                                                                                                                           Chess  "wunderkind"                                              Alisa starts her chess career as a prodigy. First tournament success was made at age of 9 when she got 9 points from 9 games as only girl in boys competition. Alisa made records which are still unique in national history of chess. She is youngest Yugoslav ever national master,  Belgrade champion, international master, grandmaster and champion of Yugoslavia (see table on site's Home page). At age of 15, in Dobrna 1985. she was World junior vice champion for Under  20.  At age of 16,  in Pucarevo 1986. she won senior Yugoslav championship and became  member of national selection.

STRUGGLES FOR WORLD CHAMPION TITLE


First attempt                                                                                                Her first of seven attempts for World champion title was at age of 17, in the Interzonal tournament Smederevska Palanka 1987. She was leading in 1st part of the tournament, but without experience drop down to 8-9. place.

                                                                                                                          Geatest achievement-3rd in the world                     In next cycle she shared 3-4. in the Interzonal  Kuala Lumpur 1990 and won playoff qualifying match against Nino Gurieli 3:2.  In the Candidate's tournament Borzhomi 1990, Alisa made extraordinary success, tying 1-2. with Xie Jun. She won against four Soviet players with 3,5:0,5. After 13 consecutive World championship cycles it was the first time that winners were non-Soviet players.

 

Final challenger match between Alisa and Chinese Xie Jun was played  in Belgrade and Beijing 1991. Xie Jun won 4,5:2,5, got challenge ticket and than took World champion title by winning against defender Maya Chiburdanidze.

 

Always top placed                                                                                          In years to follow Alisa was always highly placed in World championships. She finished 4-5. in the Candidate's tournament  Shanghai 1992,  3-5. in the Interzonal Jakarta 1993, 4-5. in the Candidate's Tilburg 1994, 3-6. in the Interzonal Chisinau 1995 and 5-7. in the Candidate's Groningen 1997.

 

Once again - 3rd in the world                               Starting in next decade, Alisa played on two World championships based on new knock-out formula.

In New Delhi 2000 she made reprise of her great result ten years before, and got 3rd place. She eliminate Sopio Tkelashivili 1,5:0,5, Rahil Eidelson 1,5:0,5, Victoria Cmylite 1,5:0,5 and Almira Skripchenko 3:1 and reach semifinal. Than lost to Chinese Qin Quining 1,5:0,5.

In Moscow 2001. Alisa got throw two rounds by eliminating Elena Levushkina 1,5:0,5 and Inna Gaponenko 1,5:0,5. In 3rd round she played equal with Chinese Zhu Chen but than lost in rapid play off games. It was Zhu Chen who later won World champion title.