Dragan Paunović is a Serbian chess grandmaster and one of the top-ranking players from the former Yugoslavia. He was born in Niš, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in March 1973. 


Paunović became an International Master (IM) in 1998 and was awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) in 2006 by FIDE, the international chess federation. The same year, he won at the Kaupthing Open in Luxembourg. In 2008, he won the Benasque Open in Spain and later repeated this success in 2011.

He has also represented Serbia in Chess Olympiads. Participatged in the 2008 Olympiad in Dresden where his team finished 27th, the 2010 Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk (16th place), and in the 2012 Olympiad in Istanbul (23rd place).