51st Torneo di Capodanno in Reggio Emilia, Italy
The 51st Reggio Emilia Tournament took place from December 27th 2008 to January
4th 2009. Our Italian Playchess Sysop Andrea Natoli tells us
about the history of the tournament:
One cannot help wondering if a tournament’s longevity has anything at
all to do with New Year’s Day, since the only yearly tournament that can
boast a longer tradition is Hastings, which is played exactly in the same period.
The Reggio Emilia Tournament was first conceived by GM Enrico Paoli, who at
the end of the Fifties decided to create an event that could evoke the glories
of tournaments past like San Remo 1930 or Venice 1949.
Enrico Paoli in the early days of Reggio Emilia
While the tournament rapidly established itself as a stronghold of Italian
chess, it was only during the Seventies that it really came to the attention
of the International chess community. It started to grow at a faster pace and
by end of the Eighties, under the auspices of main sponsor Banco di San Geminiano
e Prospero, it was already one of the leading events in the world. No wonder
that in only few years it was to stage one of the strongest events ever: the
famous “Six-World Champions event” that saw Anand’s fabulous
win ahead of Kasparov and Karpov (with Botvinnik, Spasskij, Smyslov and Tal
as guests of honour). In retrospect, one could well say that Reggio Emilia 1991/92
was a convention of Seven World Champions...
After this peak, the tournament suffered somewhat of an implosion and was
able to survive only by virtue of Enrico Paoli’s strong will and charisma.
When Paoli prematurely passed away, aged just 97, members of the local club
led by Giuseppe Ferraroni carried on the tradition. After years of stagnation,
the occasion of the Jubilee edition gave new impulse to the Reggio Emilia club,
that doubled its fundraising and organisation efforts. Mr. Yuri Garrett was
introduced as a new member of the team and asked to become the Technical Director
of the 50th Torneo di Capodanno.
The event designed by Garrett was a hard fought Cat. XVI that ended in a clear
win by Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi, half a point ahead of three excellent young
players, Gashimov, Ni Hua and Harikrishna. In view of the exceptionally high
level of the chess played, GM Mihail Marin and Yuri Garrett decided to co-author
a tournament book that also collects annotations from all other players (Landa,
Godena, Korchnoj, Navara, Tivjakov and the selfsame Marin). The book, already
quite a success in the Italian language, is due to be translated in English
by Quality Chess in 2009, a rare event for Italian chess books.
Reggio a year ago: the winner is Zoltan Almasi
On the wings of this success, the Reggio Emilia people doubled the effort for
this 51st edition and, for the first time in years and with the contribution
of many volunteers, put up two round robin events, a Cat. XIV and a cat. V.
Both tournaments were played in the Hotel Astoria, just footsteps away from
the city centre. this time the winner was Ni Hua, who scored 7.5/9, a point
and a half more than the second-placed Zoltan Almasi.
This year: same sofa, different player, different notebook: Ni Hua
The final standings of this year's event (a link to the games is at the
end of this report)
For your information: the final standing of last year's edition
Zoltan Almasi, 2663 vs Alexey Dreev, 2670 in round five (Dreev won in 96
moves)
Alexei Dreev, 2670, vs Mihail Marin, 2556 in round six (Marin won in 62
moves)
Luca Shytaj, 2472, vs Ni Hua, 2710 in round seven. Ni Hua won in 33 moves
Manuel Leon Hoyos, Mexico, vs Miso Cebalo, Coratia in round eight (draw)
Mihail Marin, Romania vs Jan Gustafsson in round eight: 1-0 in 40 moves
Decisive game Ni Hua vs Almasi in round eight: Black won in 41 moves
All photos provided by Giorgio Gozzi
Links
