Volkov and Korchnoi top seeded

The 9th Banjaluka International tournament is taking place on September 29th until October 8th at Music pavilion in Banja Luka, BIH. Viktor Korchnoi and Zlatko Ilincic are back to defend the last-year's tied first place. Korchnoi was supposed to play in the famous 1979 tournament but the Soviet Union threatened with withdrawal of its players and the organizers were eventually forced to revoke Viktor's invitation. He was replaced by then-unknown Garry Kasparov who won the race by large margin. 28 years later, Korchnoi finally saw Banjaluka when he was invited to participate in the 8th International tournament.

Players:

1. Korchnoi Viktor GM (SUI) 2602
2. Ilinčić Zlatko GM (SRB) 2519
3. Draško Milan GM (MNE) 2508
4. Vukić Milan GM (BIH) 2457
5. Jakovljević Vlado IM (BIH) 2442
6. Savanović Aleksandar IM (BIH) 2426
7. Lela Javakhishvili WGM (GEO) 2461
8. Geetha N. Gopal GM (IND) 2572
9. Sergei Volkov GM (RUS) 2636
10. Bartlomiej Heberla GM (POL) 2510

The system of play is 10-player round robin with time control of 100 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. The prize fund is 5500 EUR.