The first Serbian Team Backgammon Championship went to Backgammon Club Belgrade. In the final, Belgrade crushed Students 5:0, taking revenge on the only team that had beaten them in the group stage. Third place went to Backgammon Club Novi Beograd, after yet another match decided in the very last duel.
The championship was played on 18 and 20 September 2026, organized and hosted by Backgammon Club Pančevo. The format was completely new to most of our players: club against club, five players against five, five duels in every tie. The team that wins at least three boards wins the tie.
The clubs were split into two groups of four, playing round-robin, with matches to 9 points. The top two clubs from each group advanced to the semifinals, where matches were extended to 11 points. A third-place match was also played.
The first season of team backgammon in Serbia got everything a premiere could wish for: tight results, comebacks, and a final that, despite the scoreline, was played on a knife’s edge.
Group A: Three Times 3:2
Students finished the group stage unbeaten, but never had a quiet evening. They won all three ties 3:2 – against ČENS, Belgrade and Double Six.
The team’s key man was Milan Gajić, who won all three of his group duels: 9:7 against Zoran Dragić, 9:8 against Petar Jandrić and 9:6 against Nina Vukasović. His one-point win over Jandrić gave Studenti one of their three boards in the group’s derby. In the same tie, Aleksandar Milošević beat Vladimir Tacić 9:1.
After that defeat, Belgrade responded the way favourites do. Ivan Bogdanović was flawless in the group (9:2, 9:2 and 9:8), and the team beat ČENS convincingly, 4:1, in the final round. Students finished the group first and Belgrade second.
Double Six deserved more than the table shows. They lost all three ties, and all three by 2:3. Each time, just one board separated them from a different story. In the final round, Manja Tešić produced one of the upsets of the tournament, beating Aleksandar Milošević 9:0 – a player who had dropped a total of two points in his two previous matches.
ČENS’s only win came against Double Six (3:2), while Nikola Popović posted convincing wins of 9:2 and 9:1 in the first two rounds.
Group B: From 0:5 to 4:1
If Group A was tight, Group B was unpredictable. No club went unbeaten, three teams were fighting for two semifinal spots going into the last round, and the table looked different after every round.
Neretva started as the clear favourite, beating Pančevo 5:0 in the first round. Two 2:3 defeats followed, against Novi Beograd and 501 Dedo, leaving Neretva out of the semifinals despite finishing with the best board difference in the group (9:6).
The hosts, Pančevo, wrote the opposite story. After 0:5 in the opener and a narrow loss to 501 Dedo, they beat group leaders Novi Beograd 4:1 in the final round. After his opening defeat, Branko Prvulj strung together two convincing wins, 9:0 and 9:2, while Slađana Božić and Dragana Mitrović won their duels 9:2 and 9:3.
That defeat didn’t cost Novi Beograd first place. Novi Beograd and 501 Dedo both finished with two wins, and Novi Beograd stayed ahead because they had won the head-to-head 3:2 in the first round – despite a negative board difference (7:8). Aleksandar Lazarevski and Nikola Đokić were Novi Beograd’s standout players, with two group wins each.
For 501 Dedo, Erduan Jablaničanin stood out, winning his next two duels after a narrow 8:9 loss to Milan Jovanović. Veljko Ćirović had the most unusual tournament in the group: two wins, 9:4 and 9:0, but also a 0:9 loss to Branko Prvulj.
Semifinals: Four Times 11:10
If anyone expected longer matches to bring less drama, the semifinals quickly proved them wrong. Both ties ended 3:2, and as many as four of the ten duels were decided 11:10.
Belgrade got past Novi Beograd thanks to three players who were sharper in the endgames. Miloš Mikić beat Aleksandar Lazarevski 11:10, Vladimir Tacić beat Vladan Djokić 11:9, and Aleksa Nikoletić beat Nikola Đokić, also 11:9. On the other side, Milan Jovanović beat Petar Jandrić 11:8, and Miloš Jevremović handed Ivan Bogdanović his first defeat of the tournament, 11:10.
Against 501 Dedo, Students continued their run of narrow wins – their fourth straight 3:2 victory. Nemanja Čabrić beat Zvezdan Kljajić 11:9, Nikola Bresliev beat Erduan Jablaničanin a convincing 11:5, and Milan Gajić beat Samid Dedaković 11:7 for his fourth win in as many matches. For 501 Dedo, the points came from Jusuf Melajac, 11:10 against Branislav Perić, and Nikola Korać, 11:10 against Mladen Maran.
The Final: A 5:0 Closer Than It Looks
The final score suggests a one-sided story, but the board said otherwise. Three of the five duels ended 11:9 – Miloš Mikić against Nemanja Čabrić, Aleksa Nikoletić against Branislav Perić and Vladimir Tacić against Milan Gajić. In all three, Belgrade was just a shade more precise at the key moments.
The most convincing was Petar Jandrić. A player who opened the tournament with a 0:9 loss, then lost to Gajić (8:9) and to Jovanović in the semifinal (8:11), beat Nikola Bresliev 11:1 in the final. He could hardly have picked a better moment for his first win of the tournament. The fifth board came from Boban Stošić, with an 11:7 win over Igor Gligorijević.
After four 3:2 wins, Students were left without a single board in the final. Still, second place for a team that stayed unbeaten right up to the last match is one of the finest stories of this championship.
Third-Place Match
Third place went to Novi Beograd, once again by 3:2, against 501 Dedo. Aleksandar Lazarevski (11:4), Vladan Djokić (11:7) and Miloš Jevremović (11:2) delivered the three boards. For 501 Dedo, the wins came from Erduan Jablaničanin, 11:10 against Milan Jovanović, and Samid Dedaković, a convincing 11:2 against Nikola Đokić.
Conclusion
Two of the champions’ players went through the entire tournament unbeaten. Miloš Mikić won all four of his duels (9:4, 9:1, 11:10, 11:9), as did Aleksa Nikoletić (9:5, 9:4, 11:9, 11:9). The best individual record for Studenti belonged to Milan Gajić, with four wins from five matches and his only defeat coming in the final.
The first Team Championship showed that the club-versus-club format has both an audience and players. It remains to be seen who will try to knock Belgrade off the throne next year.
The most lasting impression of the championship, however, was left by Double Six, the first team in the history of Serbian backgammon made up entirely of women. Nina Vukasović, Sara Avramovski, Marija Štrbac, Nataša Adžić, Mirjana Dončev and Manja Tešić won six boards and were just one board away from victory in every tie. The 9:0 wins by Nina Vukasović and Manja Tešić, along with Sara Avramovski’s two wins, mean this performance can’t be read through the table alone. Double Six is proof that the Serbian backgammon scene is renewing itself – in the best possible way.
Special thanks go to Branko Prvulj and his team at Backgammon Club Pančevo, who organized the first team championship flawlessly.
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