Zdenko Kožul

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Zdenko Kožul (born May 21, 1966) is a Croatian chess grandmaster and the 2006 European champion.

Kožul was born in a north-western Bosnian town of Bihać (then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). He became a grandmaster in 1989. In 1989 and 1990 Kozul won Yugoslavian championships. In 1990, Kozul won a bronze medal playing for the Yugoslav team at the Chess Olympiad in Novi Sad.

After the break up of Yugoslavia, Kozul played for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he was a part of the Bosnian Olympiad team in 1992. However in 1993, Kozul, an ethnic Croat, settled in Croatia and started representing that country.

In 2004, Kozul reached final 16 at the FIDE World Chess Championship, 2004 in Tripoli, before being eliminated by the Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov. His greatest career achievement was his win at the 2006 European Individual Chess Championship in Kusadasi.

Kozul's highest ELO rating was 2640 in October 2004. He's currently top Croatian player at 2616.