Italian Open 2022

[Igor]

I have just published my detailed report about Checkers and my trip to Italy on the most popular Russian site about draughts. Take a look! There are many beautiful photos.
The article is written in Russian, but in the upper right corner you can select the language using Google translator.

http://64-100.com/italyanskie-kanikuly-shashki

Unfortunately there are some issues with the images on the ACF website. Therefore, I can only post here the whole text without pictures.

Italian holidays

Italians love draughts. Especially their own, Italian ones. Given their mass and popularity, they are recognized as additional (assotiative) sports discipline by the Italian Olympic Comittee CONI and receive state support.
Italy has long realized that the virtual computer world cannot replace real life and live communication. Especially now, when everyone is tired of long isolation because of Covid, people need normal contacts. And our favorite draughts and checkers are the perfect solution to the problem. Here in one tournament people can meet each other regardless of age, sex, religion and nationality.

Particularly popular in Italy are Youth School Draughts Games, which are held in three stages. At the first stage, in March, competitions are organized in all schools. At the second stage, in April, the strongest players in the regions are determined. And at the last third stage, in May, the final part of the competitions is held at national level and the best Italian teams are defined. This year such tournaments were held for the 32nd time. In Italian, they sound beautifully as follows: „32 Finale Nationale Giochi Giovanili Scolastici di Dame“. The emblem of the final competition, made in the colors of the Ukrainian yellow-blue flag, looks like this:

The great event took place in a pictureque small city Chianciano Terme in Tuscany from May 13 to 15 2022. On this occasion a t-short with the emblem of the competition was released which was worn by all participants of the tournaments. The final part, which was the tip of a huge iceberg, was attended by 39 teams and 117 kids. The tournaments were held in two varieties of draughts – in Italian and 100-squares. In order to popularize the draughts, two Italian grandmasters Roberto Tovagliaro and Alessio Scaggiante gave a simultaneous session of the game in the town square one evening. Everyone who wished could take part. A real festival of Draughts!

One part of the big pie went to the English-American Checkers. During the final stage of the Youth Games, the 6th Italian Open in Checkers was also held in Chianciano. Strategically, Italian draughts are very similar to Checkers. About as much as Brazilian draughts similar to Russian ones. The differences in these games are mainly tactical. Italians can easily retrain to the English-American version. Right now they completely dominate the Checkers. This year, Sergio Scarpetta defended his «3-move» World title in a match against Alex Moiseyev from America. And Matteo Bernini won the World title in «GAYP», by beating South Africa's Lubabalo Kondlo. The junior World title also belongs to the Italian Davide Tamborin.

This year I could not participate in the «3-move» challenger tournament World Qualifier in Tulsa/USA due to the unclear situation with the Covid pandemic. By the way, Alex Moiseyev won it and got the right to fight Sergio again next year for the World title. I was very happy to play in the no less representative Italian Championship.

12 people took part in the "3-move" Italian Open in Chianciano Termae. The tournament was held according to the Swiss system in 6 rounds, three rounds a day, time control - 40 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. In addition to Italians it was attended by players from Ukraine, Scotland, Israel and Germany. Unfortunately, for various reasons three strongest Italian grandmasters did not participate in the tournament - the current world champions Sergio Scarpetta and Matteo Bernini, as well as former world champion Michele Borghetti. In this situation I suddenly had a unique chance to win the Italian Championship. In the absence of the champions, the main struggle for the title was between the new Italian Checkers star Luciano Negrone and me.

The first day ended very well for me. I managed to get a double victory over Idan Karny from Israel. This is the first time I meet an Israeli draughtsman who does not speak Russian. In Israel mostly our emigrants from the former Soviet Union play draughts, whom I know almost all personally. Then I won our face-to-face match against my main rival Negrone, and in the third round I beat a young Italian player, Davide Tamborin. As a result, in the middle of the tournament I was leading by two points from the closest opponent.

However, by the end of the tournament, I lost all my advantage and even fell behind the winner by two points. In the fourth round, we peacefully separated with Nadiya Chyzhevska. In the fifth, I lost the first game to the young player Elia Cantatore, but won the second one. Until the last moment, I still had a real chance of winning the tournament. For that I had to win the second game against another Italian boy Andrea Peirone in the last round after the victory in the first game. Unfortunately, I lost that game. As a result, Luciano Negrone became the champion, Peirone won the third place, and I got the second.

Of course, I understand very well that if Italy were represented in the strongest line-up then my chances of winning the prize place would be minimal. The new champion Luciano Negrone recently joined the English-American Checkers, but immediately made a name for himself by finishing fourth in the strong Irish Open 2021 after Alex Moiseyev, Sergio Scarpetta and Shane McCosker. ahead of two other grandmasters, Irishman Hugh Devlin and Shotishman Bill Docherty. After losing the match to me, he won all others. Luciano earned his first GM-point. To get the title of national grandmaster, you need to win the Italian championship twice.

Solid performance showed Ukrainian Nadiya Chyzhevska – 4th place. My defeat in the last game deprived her of winning a prize place. Not bad for the first time played Israeli Idan Karny, ganing 50% - 7 place. Italy has enormous potential and will continue to dominate the Checkers. I think that in the future only Africans from South Africa and Kenya, where now is a real draughts boom, will be able to compete with Italians.

The closing ceremony was imressive. Italians like to do everything beautiful and solemn, so that the event will remain in memory for a long time. In the spacious and luxurious Salone Pier Luigi Nervi hall in Terme Acqua Santa, participants of youth competitions with their parents and checkers players, as well as representatives of the administration gathered. They were addressed by the mayor of the city, a member of the Italian Olympic Committee, FID President Carlo Bordini and other well-known people in Italy. Then the Italian anthem was played. Many participants sang along with their hands on their chests. Then followed the sport anthem of all the fans - the song "We are the champions" by Freddie Mercury of the rock band Queen. And then the awards ceremony began.

I came to Italy with my wife Nadja not only to play Checkers. We spent here an informative vacation full of interesting events, meetings and walks. Italy is wonderful! There is a lot to see. We started our journey in Rome – a great open-air museum. We simply wandered around the eternal city for four days and enjoyed its beautiful atmosphere, completely disconnected from all worries and news of the last time.

In the picturesque Chianciano Terme, our guide was Nadiya Chizhevska, who had already been here before. She showed us the most colorful corners of the old city „Centro Storico“, which offers a stunning panorama of the beautiful typical Tuscan view from above. A few years ago, I took part in a two-week cycling tour of Tuscany and was glad that now my wife Nadja was also able to see and feel this wonderful land. In Chianciano, together with Nadiya Chyzhevska and Idan Karny, we visited the famous Termae, known since the time of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. We swam there for several hours in warm pools with mineral water from springs and various fountains and waterfalls.

The next stage of our trip was fascinating Florence. We began our acquaitance with the pearl of Tuscany very actively. Nadiya Chyzhevska was with us and she had only few hours before leaving home. Nadiya is an experienced tourist and we quickly ran through the main attractions. Nadiya gave me some lessons on easy navigation using a smartphone. Then we had a couple more days here.

On the way back in Rome we met with our old friends from Riga/Latvia, now living in Israel, whom we had not seen for about 15 years. Rome is a splendid place to meet friends. All roads lead to Rome! Joy knew no bounds.

Tired but happy, my wife and I returned home. East or west, home is the best! And Nadiya Chyzhevska was met with curiosity by full members of her family.

All my pictures you can see here: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... JPYU1RbUFB

[George Hay]

Igor, thank you for sharing your "detailed report" about Checkers in Italy,...and congratulations for 2nd place in the Italian Open, right behind 1st place Luciano Negrone and right ahead of 3rd place Andrea Peirone. The photographs of Italy in general and Rome in particular are nice, very nice! The photograph of the Colosseum took me by surprise, and was breathtaking!

--George Hay

[Igor]

George, thanks for the kind words

[Richard Pask]

A wonderful report! It's great to hear that checkers is booming somewhere. Hopefully, it's good news for the sale of my books too!

[Igor]

Thank you Richard, I have carefully studied almost all of Your Checkers books that have been published for free.