Spilimbergo - the biggest Open in Italy

by Bettina Trabert
8/23/2024 – Spilimbergo is a pleasant little town of about 12,000 inhabitants, located about 100 kilometres north-east of Venice. The town is most famous for its over 100-year-old mosaic school - and for chess! The festival was held for the 22nd time this year and attracted 450 participants from 31 countries. Among them was Levy 'Gotham Chess' Rozman, who came to the Italian city to take another step on his way to becoming a grandmaster. In the end, however, the winner of the tournament was the Iranian IM Orimi Mahdi Gholami, who won with 7 out of 9 rating points. Bettina Trabert reports. | Photo: Old town centre of Spilimbergo | Photo: Wikipedia

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

Anyone who has played in Spilimbergo likes to come back - and so do we. Five years ago, my son Max played his first international tournament in the C-Open, this time he started in the Masters.

There were four tournaments divided by Elo: A, B, C and the 'Masters' for players with more than 2000 Elo. In the Masters, more than half of the 154 participants were titleholders, including 14 GMs. The high number of women was also striking: 18 (almost 12%) in the Masters alone. In the A tournament (1700-2099 Elo) two young women, Elisa Cassi and Kamilla Rubinshtein, even took the top two places!

Despite the record number of participants, there was enough space for everyone in the sports hall.

Nowadays, the streamers who broadcast their games live attract a lot of attention at tournaments. Two of them were present in Spilimbergo:

The Ukrainian Angelika Valkova, here with Black against Max Skembris, did not get off to a good start with 1/5, but won the remaining 4 games.

Even more famous is Levy "Gotham Chess" Rozman, with more than 5 million subscribers one of the most successful chess streamers in the world. A few months ago the 28-year-old IM announced his intention to play more tournaments and to become a GM. His games in Spilimbergo were broadcast live, analysed by him afterwards and commented on in other streams by his coach Arturs Neiksans and sometimes by Hikaru Nakamura himself!

Levy Rozman with White against GM Alberto David: 1-0. Apart from that, the tournament was rather mixed for him, but in the seventh round he played a game which he himself described with a wink as his ‘immortal’.

GothamChess, who was surrounded by autograph hunters and fans more than any other player, was always friendly and communicative, not only online but also on site. Here he is analysing the game he has just played with his opponent: the ‘analysis room’ was located under shady trees in the open-air area in front of the tournament hall.

Former world champion Wesselin Topalow was invited as a 'special guest'. He played a simul, held a press conference and an autograph session and made the first move on one of the lower boards, much to the delight of the players.

What was nice about the whole festival was that attention was paid to both the professionals and the amateurs, and especially to the many children and young people. Most of the trophies at the awards ceremony went to young players in the weaker tournaments, and the applause for the U8 winner in the C tournament was as loud as that for the winner of the Masters.

The tournament victory in the Masters was hard-fought and open until the last round: The Iranian IM Mahdi Gholami finally secured first place on tiebreak ahead of GM Marcin Tazbir (Poland) and IM Kundu Kaustuv (India).

From left to right: Andrea Bisaro (main organiser), Luigi Maggi (President of the Italian Chess Federation), Kundu Kaustuv (3.), Mahdi Gholami (1.), Marcin Tazbir (2.) Enrico Sarcinelli (Mayor of Spilimbergo)

The reigning U14 world champion Pawel Sowinski (2nd from left), who made an IM norm, also had a good tournament. As the 14-year-old Pole already has an Elo-rating of 2467, he will probably be an IM soon. Next to him is WGM Yao Lan (England), who also made an IM norm despite losing in the last round.

The end of the tournament coincides with the Italian holiday of Ferragosto, on 15 August, and with the Medieval Festival of Spilimbergo, which lasts several days. During these days, the old town centre is filled with all kinds of interesting characters in period costume, musicians, jugglers, craftsmen, knights and nobles, medieval taverns, old games and much more.

Musicians in the historic city centre

In front of the cathedral: But apparently you just can't do without your smartphone.

Final standings after 9 rounds

Rk. Snr Name Country Elo Pts.  Tb1   Tb2  Rp
1 5
IM Gholami Orimi Mahdi IRI 2496 7 47 54 2611
2 6
GM Tazbir Marcin POL 2492 7 46 50 2567
3 20
IM Kaustuv Kundu IND 2419 7 40 43,5 2497
4 3
GM Basso Pier Luigi ITA 2507 6,5 50,5 55 2565
5 7
GM Wieczorek Oskar POL 2491 6,5 49,5 54 2513
6 1
GM Dardha Daniel BEL 2608 6,5 48 52,5 2541
7 13
IM Fromm Marius GER 2447 6,5 48 52 2555
8 89
FM Pegno Mattia ITA 2150 6,5 46 51 2568
9 10
FM Sowinski Pawel POL 2463 6,5 45,5 49,5 2505
10 17
GM Mirzoev Azer AZE 2429 6,5 44,5 48,5 2492
11 24
IM Di Benedetto Edoardo ITA 2383 6,5 44,5 48 2529
12 31
FM Akhvlediani Irakli GEO 2363 6,5 39,5 42,5 2464
13 25
IM Nazari Arad IRI 2382 6 49 52,5 2470
14 2
GM Brunello Sabino ITA 2513 6 47,5 51 2471
15 14
IM Martinovici Ilia MDA 2439 6 46 50,5 2437
16 40
Moldagali Beksultan KAZ 2331 6 45,5 49 2452
17 18
IM Licznerski Lukasz POL 2427 6 45 49 2464
18 38
IM Savanovic Aleksandar BIH 2337 6 45 47,5 2508
19 12
GM Gretarsson Helgi Ass ISL 2454 6 43,5 48 2420
20 46
WGM Yao Lan ENG 2296 6 43,5 47 2451
21 26
FM Schnaider Ilan ARG 2377 6 43 47 2402
22 32
FM Lavrencic Matic SLO 2356 6 41,5 45,5 2370
23 9
GM Cuenca Jimenez Jose Fernando ESP 2472 6 41 45,5 2403
24 11
IM Razafindratsima Timothe FRA 2457 6 41 45 2393
25 27
FM Perea Fruet Lorenzo ESP 2373 6 40,5 44 2351
26 28
IM Rozman Levy USA 2370 6 38 42 2370
27 22
IM Schmider Niklas GER 2390 6 36 39,5 2298
28 8
IM Ceres Dragos MDA 2479 6 35,5 38,5 2338
29 55
Amirkul Alimzhan KAZ 2267 5,5 45,5 50,5 2437

...154 participants

Source: chess-results

The date for the chess festival is the same every year: 9-15 August: A date to remember!

Tournament page


Bettina Trabert, WGM since 2000, took part in several World Youth Championships and played in five Chess Olympiads and two European Team Championships for Germany. She regularly writes tournament reports for ChessBase.