Tiviakov, Fedorchuk & co. in Italy

We have to wait until Mexico City to see superGMs in action again, but a couple of strong opens are going to start in Italy in the next few days: the first in Porto San Giorgio (tomorrow) and the second in Castione della Presolana (on Thursday), not far from my home town, Bergamo. The Porto San Giorgio open will see more than 40 titled players in the main A group: among them you can find GMs Sergey Fedorchuk (UKR - 2618), Hichem Hamdouchi (MAR - 2576), Vladimir Georgiev (MKD - 2567), Oleg Korneev (RUS - 2565), Ante Brkic (CRO - 2558), Dmitri Komarov (UKR - 2550), Nenad Sulava (CRO - 2544), Gawain Jones (ENG - 2526), Normunds Miezis (LAT - 2524), Igors Rausis (CZE - 2524), Felix Levin (GER - 2521), Arkadij Rotstein (GER - 2515), Ivan Farago (HUN - 2501), Sergei Krivoshey (UKR - 2500) and the young English IM Lawrence Trent, who was the surprising winner of the 2006 edition. A blitz tourney will be played along the tourney. Official site: http://www.torneoscacchi.it/.
The Castione open will be even stronger, with more than 50 titled players (this is probably the strongest edition ever of this tourney) in the main A group. Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov (2648) is the top seed, but he will have to fight hard to take the first place: among his opponents there are GMs Igor Khenkin (GER - 2602), Vladimir Epishin (RUS - 2587), Vladimir Burmakin (RUS - 2581), Csaba Horvath (HUN - 2558), Erald Dervishi (ALB - 2553), Michele Godena (Italian champion - 2547), Oleg Romanishin (UKR - 2546), Miso Cebalo (CRO - 2533), Alberto David (LUX - 2529), Gyula Sax (HUN - 2522), wGM Marie Sebag (FRA - 2495) and IM and British champion Jacob Aagard (SCO - 2467). Italian 18 y.o. IM Daniele Vocaturo will give a simul on August 22 to inaugurate the event; two blitz tourneys will be played on August 26 and 29 (both starting at 9.45 pm) and two books will be presented on Sunday (at 10.30 a.m.): "La mia Siciliana" ("My Sicilian") by GM Michele Godena and "La regina degli scacchi" ("The chess queen") by Walter Tevis. Official site: http://www.scaccobratto.com/2007.shtml.
Before going to bed, I put to your attention an article about Italian young talent Marco Codenotti from Pisa, posted by Tom Panelas on "The Knights of Castle Kimbark" blog. He writes: "Marco Codenotti, the former Ray School chess star who returned to his native Italy two years ago, has been seen in Chicago, where he is spending the summer. He is of course active in chess, training with local GM Dmitry Gurevich and playing in the odd tournament, most recently the August 12 Third Coast Challenge by Renaissance Knights in Northbrook". You can read the full story at http://raychess.blogspot.com/2007/08/marco-sighted-in-chitown.html. A post-script for Tom: I will reply to your e-mail as soon as possible!
A final note for Italian readers mainly: the poll for "The 2007 Queen - July" is open, so you can watch and vote your favorite game at http://www.messaggeroscacchi.it/regina2007/index.html.