The International Chess Festival of Imperia, the longest running open event in Italy, will see its 54th edition on 2-9th September, 2012.
The Festival was established in 1959, with the legendary Enrico Paoli (later a Grandmaster) winning the first edition. Other former winners in Imperia are prominent names like Milan Matulovic, Borislav Ivkov, Vlastimil Hort and Gyula Sax.
The Festival consists of four tournaments:
– Open A (for players rated higher than 1900, 9 rounds Swiss)
– Open B (for players rated between 1500 and 2000, 8 rounds Swiss)
– Open C (for players rated U1600 or beginners, 8 rounds Swiss)
– Youth Open (U14 and U1500, 8 rounds Swiss)
Imperia
The playing venue is the Palazzetto dello Sport, located in San Lazzaro near the port. Top prizes in the Open A are € 1.000 / € 700 / € 500 / € 400 / € 300.
Currently top rated players are GM Sergey Volkov RUS 2594, GM Krasimir Rusev BUL 2540, IM Petar G. Arnaudov BUL 2486, IM Andjelko Dragojlovic SRB 2367 and IM Zivojin Ljubisavljevic SRB 2246.
Last year winner was GM Dmitry Svetushkin.
Imperia port at night
