Report by Adolivio Capece (photos by Giorgio Gozzi)
The traditional Reggio Emilia International Chess Tournament is being held
from December 29th 2005 to January 6th 2006, in Hotel Astoria Mercure. Reggio
Emilia is a town in the Emilia-Romagna region of North Italy, with a population
of about 150,000. The official name is Reggio nell'Emilia.
Reggio Emilia: the Palazzo del Monte in Piazza della Vittoria
Reggio Emilia: Palazzo Poste
The Piazza della Vittoria
The Teatro Valli
The International Torneo di Capodanno was created by Enrico
Paoli, who died recently at the age of 97. The first edition was played
Dec 27, 1958 – Jan 3, 1959, the year before (1957) Reggio Emilia hosted
the Italian Championship, which was won by Paoli. The greatest edition was 1991-92,
when Anand won with 6 out of 9; Gelfand (only undefeated) and Kasparov 5.5;
Karpov 5; Ivanchuk, Khalifman, Polugajevsky 4.5; Gurevich, Salov 4; Beljavski
1.5.
At that time, on January 5, 1992, there was a meeting of all the living world
champions: Botvinnik, Smyslov, Spassky, Michail Tal. Karpov was also present,
but not Kasparov, because in his contract this meeting was not included. And
obviously Fischer did not come…
The entrance to the Hotel Astoria
The Sala di Gioco – playing venue before the games
...and with the round just starting
The first woman to play was in Reggio was Ruth Cardoso (Brasil) in 1970-71.
In 1982-83 Nona Gaprindashvili won the event. In 1975-76 Ludek Pachman played,
and this caused the withdrawal of the players of East of Europe. The first player
from URSS to play was GM Kuzmin in 1976-77.
In 1990-91 Karpov played for the first time; this caused the postponement of
the tournament that started on January 8. There was no time to play one only
tournament with 14 players, so that it had to be divided: In Group A, category
16, Karpov won (Kamsky also played); Group B, category 15, was won by Ljubjevich;
and Group C, category 8, was won my by Cebalo.
Gianmarco Marinelli, Olga Zimin, and daughter
This year one of the participants is Olga Zimina, the mother of a very nice
little girl. She lives in Italy and is married to an Italian chessplayer. She
has applied for Italian citizenship, and if that is granted in time she will
play for the Italian women's team at the Chess Olympiad in Turin.
Daniele Vocaturo, one of Italy's bright young talents
In the current tournament there are two very young players, Daniele Vocaturo
and Niccolò Ronchetti, both 16 years old. They are already part of Italy's
B team at the Olympiad.
Olga Zimina and Niccolò Ronchetti analyse after their game
IM Pierluigi Piscopo
Pierluigi Piscopo has already achieved his IM title and an Elo rating of 2400.
He will probably also play for the Italian Olympic Team. GM Cebalo will, together
with the author, be involved in the Press Office of the Olympiads.
Standings after round seven
The tournament is being led by the one of the top seeds, Konstantin Landa, 34, who like
his Russian colleague Denis Yevseev, 32, has not lost any games so far. GM Miso
Cebalo of Croatia is in third place, two points behind Landa and a point ahead
of the rest of the field.
Yevseev vs Ronchetti
Zimina vs Piscopo
Landa vs Fercec
Kotronias vs Cebalo
Franchini vs Landa
The "arbitri" Franzoni and Campioli
