Have a wonderful holiday!

Yes, I'm leaving for holidays. I will be back on August 5, so this Blog and Italian web-zine Messaggero Scacchi (www.messaggeroscacchi.it) won't be updated again until that day. Before going to Sardinia, I have to report on Niccolò Ronchetti's and Fiammetta Panella's victories in the Italian U20 and Female championships respectively. Ronchetti, an 18 y.o. FM from Ravenna, conquered his third title in a row: he scored 7 points out of 9 and won on tie break over FM Denis Rombaldoni from Pesaro and Elo-favourite IM Sabino Brunello from Bergamo: they all remained unbeaten. FM Giuseppe Lettieri from Naples was placed fourth on 6, FM Danyll Dvirnyy from Treviso fifth on 5.5. Panella won her first title (but she was placed second in the previous two editions) by scoring 7 points out of 9, the same of wFM Maria De Rosa from Naples, who had a worst tie break. Marianna Chierici from Reggio Emilia took the third place on 6.5. Rombaldoni won the U18 title and got the qualification for the next Italian (absolute) championship. De Rosa and Chierici won the U20 and U18 Female titles respectively. Congratulations to all! Official site (very good job by arbiters Gerhard Bertagnolli and Giuseppe Scoleri Cardelli) with all games: http://www.fiuggiscacchi.eu/.
Meanwhile, two strong events are taking place in Montreal (Canada) and Biel (Switzerland). Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov won his seventh game against Polish GM Kamil Miton and keeps being in sole lead in Montreal on 5.5; Vassily Ivanchuk follow on 5, Gata Kamsky and Pentala Harikrishna on 4.5. Official site: http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/. Norwegian "wunderkind" Magnus Carlsen, American GM Alexander Onischuk and Russian GM Alexander Motylev share the lead in Biel on 2/3. Official site: http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/.
Finally some sad news (cheating, again) reported on the daily chess web-zine "Chess Today" (www.chesstoday.net). «An incident of cheating occurred some days ago in the Polish town of Police, during the Tadeusz Gniot Memorial (11.07–19.07). One of the participants, Krzysztof Ejsmont from the host country, was expelled from the tournament after 7 rounds for the reason of "unsportive play". 20 year old non-titled Krzysztof Ejsmont was not considered a favorite of the tournament, with his Elo rating of only 2367. After a win in the first round against a much weaker player he continued his victorious series by 5 wins in a row against stronger opponents, among them were GMs M.Grabarczyk and V.Malaniuk. The games themselves were excellent and full of sensational ideas. Suddenly it was discovered (independently by different participants) that many of Ejsmont's moves coincided with suggestions made by the program "Rybka", version 2.3.2. The detailed check-up of these 5 games showed that the percent of the coincidences was... 98%! [...] A thorough deliberation was carried out by a rather large group of people. As a result, a delegation was sent to Ejsmont with the following "proposal": either he leaves the tournament of his own free will which would not have serious consequences for him, or the organizers will report on his behaviour to the national chess federation (which could be more serious). The most interesting thing is that Ejsmont chose the first option and confessed that he cheated! However, some time later, after some phone conversations, he publicly complained about the organizers, which "didn't give him a possibility to play the tournament of his life" and "accused him without proof».
Finally (I almost forgot about that) I have to promote an event :-). A blitz tourney (5 minutes, 9 rounds) will take place in Torre Boldone - at the sports ground in Viale Lombardia -, just outside Bergamo (3-4 kilometers from the town center), on August 7: start at 9 pm, entries (5 euros) by 8.30 pm. If you want to pre-register for the tournament just send an e-mail to me (dario@strababos.it - I will check your e-mails when I'll be back from holidays) or call Ileana (3477442476). Come and play: there is a feast just a few meters from the tourney venue, so you can also eat and... drink :-)

Tiviakov,S (2648) - Miton,K (2648) [C87], Montreal 26.7.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.0–0 Bd7 6.c3 Nf6 7.Re1 Be7 8.d4 0–0 9.d5 Nb8 10.Bc2 c6 11.Nxe5 dxe5 12.d6 Bg4 13.dxe7 Qxe7 14.Qd3 Nbd7 15.Nd2 Rfd8 16.Nf1 Be6 17.Ng3 Nf8 18.Qf3 Ne8 19.Be3 Qc7 20.Nf5 f6 21.h4 Nd6 22.b3 Kh8 23.c4 c5 24.Rad1 Bg8 25.h5 Ne6 26.h6 Nxf5 27.exf5 Nd4 28.Qe4 Rd6 29.Bb1?! Ne2+ 30.Rxe2 Rxd1+ 31.Kh2 Rad8 32.Bc2 R1d7 33.Qh4 Qd6 34.Be4 b6 35.hxg7+ Rxg7 36.Bh6 Rgd7 37.Re3 b5 38.cxb5 axb5 39.Rg3 b4 40.Rg4 Rc7 41.f4 Re7? (41...Ra7 =) 42.Rg3 Red7 43.Qg4 Qe7 44.fxe5 fxe5 45.Bc6 Qf6 46.Bg5 Qxc6 47.Bxd8 Qh6+ 48.Rh3 Qd6 49.Bg5 Rf7 50.Rh6 Qf8 51.Qh4 Kg7 52.Rg6+! 1–0