GM Alexey Sarana

Alexey Sarana is a Russian grandmaster who has represented Serbia since April 2023. In 2018, the 18-year-old won the Russian Championship Higher League after sharing first place with GM Grigoriy Oparin and beating him on tiebreaks. Sarana shared first place at the same tournament yet again in 2019, this time losing on tiebreaks to GM Alexandr Predke. At the 2020 Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championship, Sarana placed second. In March 2023, Sarana won the European Individual Chess Championship held in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. Later in the year he represented the first-place team from Serbia in the European Team Chess Championship, becoming the first player to ever win both the individual and team events in the European championships. He followed that by winning the European Rapid Championship in December.

On the April 2024 FIDE rating list, Sarana set a new career high of 2703, joining the "super grandmaster" club.