Ognjen Cvitan

Ognjen Cvitan, 2009
Country	Croatia
Born	October 10, 1961 Šibenik, Yugoslavia
Title	Grandmaster
Peak rating	2585 (July 1994)

Ognjen Cvitan (born 10 October 1961 in Šibenik, Yugoslavia) is a Croatian (formerly Yugoslav) chess grandmaster. Cvitan earned the International Master title by winning the 1981 World Junior Championship. His grandmaster title was awarded in 1987.

He has represented both Yugoslavia and Croatia in international team events. Making his debut for Yugoslavia's C team at the Novi Sad 1990 Chess Olympiad, he recorded a plus score on board one. At the Manila Olympiad of 1992, he played second reserve board for Croatia and earned an individual gold medal. He took part in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002, but was knocked out in the first round by Alexander Lastin.

For most of his career, Cvitan has been an extremely active tournament player, earning himself a reasonably high Elo rating, yet never quite being able to break into the 'elite' circuit. In other strong grandmaster events, he competed with a great deal of success and accumulated a succession of first places, either outright or shared. In the late 1980s, these included Wolfsberg 1986, Prague 1987, Pula 1987 and 1988, Mendrisio 1987, 1988 and 1989, San Bernardino 1987, Belgrade 1987, Geneva 1988, Bela Crkva 1988, Oberwart 1988, Chiasso 1989, and Vrsac 1989. The 1990s were almost as fruitful for him, his first place tally including Cannes 1990 and 1996, Dubrovnik 1990, Bad Ragaz 1992, Forli 1993, Basel 1999 and Zurich 1999. Even into the new millennium, he has registered victories at Zadar 2001, Oberwart 2001, Rijeka 2001 and Bizovac 2002.

In 2011, he was awarded the title of FIDE Trainer.