Vladimir Georgiev king of Bergamo

Long life to the king of Bergamo! Makedonian GM and Elo favourite (with a 2567 rating) Vladimir Georgiev won the 6th International chess open, which ended this afternoon in my home town, after a really tough battle. He scored 5 points out of 6 (four wins and two draws, one of them against candidate master Luca Canova from... Bergamo) and edged out by half a point Filipino IM Roland Salvador (2452), Bulgarian GM Todor Todorov (2500), Ukrainian wGM Inna Gaponenko (2458) and her partner GM Viesturs Meijers (2483). Eight players follow on 4: Ukrainian GM Sergei Krivoshey (2500), Serbian GMs Sinisa Drazic (2480) and Miroljub Lazic (2465), Bulgarian GM Milko Popchev (2465), FM Maurizio Brancaleoni from Rimini (2256), best Italian player, Filipino IM Rolly Martinez (2430), Moldavian wGM Karolina Smokina (2205), Georgiev's partner, and Mauro Barletta from Turin (2257). Alberto Buzio from Verbania dominated the B-group with a final 5.5/6 score, while Lucas Luizaga from Bergamo won the U14 section on 6/7. Congratulations to all winners! This was probably the strongest edition ever (seven GMs, five IMs, one wGM, two FMs) and the one with the highest number of participants (125 from eleven countries). A tournament to remember. Only a "little" fault (big, in my opinion): no games available! Why? Why? Why? Well, I know the answer, but I'm not happy anyway... I hope I will be able to take part to the event sooner or later. And I also hope games will become available as soon as possible (by the next edition, at least!). You can read full results by clicking on the following links: A-group, B-group, U14-group. And here are some more pictures from the event...

The king: Makedonian GM Vladimir Georgiev
Luca Canova, who drew with Georgiev in round 1
Young star Marco Codenotti in action
GM Sinisa Drazic shows his book stand helped by Giru, my fiancée :-)
Stefano Ranfagni, best placed player of Bergamo,
with his coach and friend Marco Gazzetta :-)
Here is the astonishing draw that Luca Canova could get against Georgiev in round 1 (he was even sligthly better at the end of the game).

Georgiev,Vl. (2567) - Canova,L. (2082) [D53], Bergamo 20.7.2007
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Qc2 e6 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 Ne4 7.Bxe7 Qxe7 8.Nc3 Nd7 9.Nxe4 dxe4 10.Qxe4 Qb4+ 11.Nd2 Qxb2 12.Rb1 Qa3 13.c5 0–0 14.Qc2 Qa5 15.Bd3 h6 16.0–0 e5 17.Nc4 Qc7 18.Nd6 exd4 19.exd4 b5 20.Bh7+ Kh8 21.Bf5 Nb6 22.Be4 Bd7 23.Rfe1 Rab8 24.Bf3 Nc8 25.Ne4 Be6 26.Re3 Rd8 27.Rbe1 Qd7 28.h3 Ne7 29.Nd6 Nf5 30.Nxf5 Bxf5 31.Be4 Be6 32.Ra3 Qxd4 33.Rxa7 Bc4 34.Bf3 Qxc5 35.Rxf7 Rd2 36.Qxd2 Bxf7 37.Be4 Qa3 38.Bb1 Bg8 39.Re3 Qf8 40.Rf3 Qe7 41.Re3 Qf6 42.Rg3 Bh7 43.Bxh7 Kxh7 44.Qc2+ Kh8 45.Rg6 Qa1+ 46.Kh2 Qe5+ 47.g3 c5 48.Rc6 c4 49.Qd2 Qe4 50.Qd6 Ra8 51.Rc7 Qf3 0.5-0.5