Fabiano Caruana's encore at the Italian Ch

He had to fight harder than last year but he did it again: 16-year-old Fabiano Caruana won the 68th Italian Championship, held in Martina Franca (Taranto, Southern Italy) from 3rd to 14th December. It's his second title in a row.

This year he had to fight harder than he did in 2007 to gain the title: after getting off to a flying start with four wins and one draw, Fabiano Caruana lost in round 6 against FM Alessio Valsecchi, a promising 16-year-old chess player from Bergamo. The next day, in round 7, Fabiano run into an unexpected loss again with IM Daniele Genocchio.

At this stage, Fabiano reacted and played as a big champion, going back to the highest ranking, but his effort wasn't still over, because in round 11 he had to face 41-year-old GM Michele Godena, who was just half a point behind him.

Godena tried to gain the game and the title, using for the very first time in his carreer the Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence. It was a tough fight that ended in a draw, and Caruana retained his title.



His final result was 8 points out of 11, with 7 wins, 2 loss and 2 draws; Godena was placed 2nd with 7.5 (4 wins, 7 draws and no losses). They were followed by IM Fabio Bruno with 7, IM Sabino Brunello and IM Pierluigi Piscopo with 6, IM Daniele Genocchio and IM Denis Rombaldoni with 5.5, FM Alessio Valsecchi and GM Carlos Garcia Palermo with 5, FM Daniel Dvirnyy and IM Luca Shitaj with 4 and IM Daniel Contin with 2.5.

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The games of the winner:

World famous also in the rest of the chess world by now, Caruana has been invited to take part to some of the most important upcoming chess tournaments: he will be playing in Pamplona, Spain, from 22nd to 29th December. Then from 16th January to 1st February, Fabiano will play the Corus B torunament in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, where he won Grandmaster group C in January this year.

Thanks to Dario Mione

Links:

• Tournament website
• Games in PGN