From the 12th to the 23rd of November, Cagliari gave home to the Italian Championship of 2022. There were 3 sections – Open, Woman’s section and U20 Open.

The Italian Championship

The Italian Championship was a 12-player round-robin with a time control of 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes after the 40th move and additional 15 minutes after 60 moves for the rest of the game with a 30-second increment starting from move one.

The prize fund was €16000 which was distributed to all the players, and the winner took home €3500.

The invitation was based on:

– the top 3 of the last year’s Italian Championship – GM Luca Moroni, GM Pier Luigi Basso and GM David Alberto

– 4 with the highest rating – GM Dvirnyy Danyyil, GM Sonis Francesco, GM Lodici Lorenzo and GM Brunello Sabino

– the winner of the last year’s U20 Italian Championship – IM Di Benedetto Edoardo

– wild card – GM Godena Michele

– first 3 in the semi-finals – FM Lettieri Giuseppe, IM Barp Alberto, FM Carnicelli Valerio

The unusually long time control for the tournament was exhausting for the players, despite the one free day, but also it make room for good fighting chess.

From the start, Luca Moroni took the lead with 3 wins in the first 3 rounds. In the next 2 rounds, he stabilized his leading position, which was a draw with Godena and a win against Brunello, after which he was 1 point ahead of the other players. For the rest of the tournament, he kept his position with 4 points out of the last 6 rounds (in the end 8,5/11 with 6 wins and 5 draws), which secured him first place being 1,5 points ahead of Dvirnyy David who placed second and Brunello Sabino on the third place, both with 7 points.

Some questions for the winner Luca Moroni:

How would you describe the atmosphere of the tournament?

The tournament was friendly. Most of the players are taking part every year and we know each other very well. It was a mixture of the national team players with some young talents and we could drink a beer together in the night, no matter what the result was.

Would you say that the tournament was tiring, especially considering the long time control or was it still exciting because you kept winning?

Yes, it was insanely tiring. Because of my style, I usually win in long endgames and most of my games ended last in the playing hall. For example, the game against David lasted 7 hours. It was also hard psychologically cause the result was all that mattered, but I guess that leading the tournament from the start helped me to get some happier sleep than the other players.

What do you think helped you the most to reach this success?

I think hard work is the key. Usually, you get the results based on how much you studied in the previous 6 months and I did it well. It’s not all, of course, to win a tournament you need a bit of luck and you should use the opportunities you get from each game. At this level, I think you get 1 or 2 chances to put at least some pressure on the opponent.

Would you say that everything went as planned during the tournament (you were leading from the start till the end) or is there still something you want to improve in the future?

I think there’s always something to improve, but this tournament is not the one in which you play to learn. The first place is the only thing that matters. The level was high, and there wasn’t any easy round for none of us. So the drawing of lots gave me the possibility to choose some strategy. I got 3 IMs in the first 3 rounds and I won those games. This helped me to play the direct encounters with more points and use the chances when my opponents took risks.

Who did you consider your biggest opponent? Which game was the hardest for you?

I think David and Brunello were the decisive games cause I got black, and they were trying to beat me. Winning both games gave me a good advantage for the last rounds. The game against Brunello was very tense when we both had weak kings and we were low on time. Fortunately, he blundered at move 40 and I got the full point.

There was an interesting opening choice by Di Benedetto in the 9th round. What was your first thought when you saw 1. a3 on the table?

In the 9th round I was black against Di Benedetto and if I had won the game, I would have needed 2 draws in the last two rounds to assure a shared first place and play tie breaks in case Basso would score an amazing 3/3. Of course, I wanted to push and my opponent went 1. a3 which gave me equal play from move 1. I took 5 minutes not to tilt after this disrespectful move and thanked him for the gift and won the game.

What are your plans for the future?

I’ll work hard to get into the top 100 players, but I think step by step, so let’s see how I will play in the next tournament.

Women’s section

The Women’s section of the Italian championship was an 8-player round-robin held from the 17th to the 23rd of November. The time control was the same as in the Open section.

The players that played were: IM Brunello Marina, IM Zimina Olga, IM Sedina Elena, WFM Raccanello Marianna, Martinelli Valeria, Cassi Elisa, Maione Melissa and Gabbani Sara.

Zimina took the lead from the start and scored an amazing 6/6. A draw followed it in the last round, which made her the winner of the tournament with 1 point ahead of Brunello Marina, who placed second with 5,5 points. Maione Melissa was third with 4 points.

U20 section

The U20 section was an 8-player robin tournament with the same time control as the previous sections.

FM Lumachi Gabriele took first place with 5,5 points, followed by Bin-Suhayl Leysaa with 4,5 points. FM Cappelletto Joshuaede placed third with 4 points.

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