
Third International Chess Festival “Terre degli Elimi”
By Alessandro Monaco
After the successful second edition of last year ended with the victory of
the Russian International Master Oleg Spirin and with the participation of many
of the best young chess players in Sicily, we start with the usual great desire
and passion that makes us overcome every difficulty.
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The playing venue is still Erice, near Trapani, a beautiful medieval town on
the Strait of Sicily (Canale di Sicilia). It 'a really wonderful, perfectly
suited to host a chess tournament with a climate that, even in midsummer, is
temperate and can play without having to suffer the hot or air conditioning
annoying.
Erice in western Sicily (Italy) is 15 km away from 'airport "Vincenzo
Florio" in Trapani (Ryanair Hub), is a true and proper tourist pearl of
Sicily, located about 700 meters above sea level overlooking the sea. From almost
every corner you can enjoy breathtaking views and even see Mount Etna in the
distance.

To arrive in Erice, can reach Trapani by plane (airport Vincenzo Florio) with
daily flights to Fly Meridiana and Ryanair offering connections on offer from
leading Italian and European airports at very cheap prices as it can easily
be seen on the Ryanair website.

The Festival includes a main tournament Open A, in which all ranked players
are eligible, and a Secondary Open Tournament B for players who are unranked.
Both were held in the halls of the palace Sales at Erice. The Open A was a seven-round
Swiss with time control of 90 '+ 30' to finish the game, while the Open B will
consisted of six rounds and two hours per player for the whole game.

The novelty this year were women, all young people, beautifully represented
by the youngest ever Italian champion WIM Marina Brunello, the fascinating and
very strong Georgian WGM Sopiko Guramishvili (above) and third-ranked at the
recent Women Georgian Championships, the WGM Nino Batsiashvili.

The WIM and Italian champion Marina Brunello presented by the organizers
Alessandro Monaco and Salvatore Oddo
The competition, held at Palazzo Sales in Erice, also attended some of the
best players of Sicily as Andrea Amato, Alessandro Santagati, Giuseppe Fabiano,
Fabrizio Ganci and Girolamo Valguarnera, as well as many young chess players.

The strong Dutch player Elmer Van Veenendaal (Guramishvili vs. Ferrante
in the background)

FM Giuseppe Fabiano

One of the revelations of the tournament: Elena D' Eredità

Santagati vs. Grasso and, the background, Ljuba vs. Messina

Players like Sopiko and Nino had time though to visit beautiful places near
Erice

Sopiko goes shopping in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, in the center of Trapani

The beautiful gardens of Villa Regina Margherita in Trapani

At the end Vladimir Epishin (above middle) won, as was largely predictable,
the third edition of the Festival "Land of the Elimi". The Russian
GM lost only half a point in seven rounds.

Excellent female participation: Georgian Sopiko Guramishvili was placed
second...

... and IM Tapani Sammalvuo third.

The other foreign player, Batsiashvili Nino, who will play for the Georgian
Women's
team in August at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, finished fourth.

Surprisingly, Gaetano Grasso, fifth overall, was the first Italian with
5.0 on tiebreaks over Alessandro Santagati
Final Results of the Open A (top ten)
Very good performance of young Sicilians: Ruggero Milletarì was placed
first in the under 2000 and Pietro Savalla second; Elena D'Eredità won
the under 1800 with Simon Pietro Spina second; Gianluca Savalla was first in
under 1600 and Adriano Todaro second. The award "Enza and Nino", offered
by the family Bertino, the best combination chess was won by Master Andrea Amato
Palermo. The prizes in books (more than 400 €) were offered by Yuri Garrett
Caissa Italy.

Here are the complete the group of winners. The Italian young player Marina
Brunello
(squatting left) showed a good performance to rank seventh with 4.5 points.

See you in Erice, on the beautiful island of Sicily (Italy) in 2013!
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Monaco/ChessBase