Landa leads in romatic Reggio

by ChessBase
1/5/2006 – The city of Reggio nell'Emilia in northern Italy has been hosting strong GM tournaments since 1958. The most memorable edition was 1991-92, when Anand won ahead of nine Russians, including Kasparov, Karpov, Gelfand, and Ivanchuk. This year the stars are less glamorous, but the event nevertheless interesting and personal. Adolivio Capece reports.

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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


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