International Chess Festival “City of Messina – Gate of Sicily” 2023

The International Chess Festival “City of Messina – Gate of Sicily” will take place from 2-8 January 2023 in Messina, Italy. The festival features three tournaments: Open A (for players rated 1800+), Open B (for players rated 1200-1800), and Open C (for players rated U1500) with a total prize fund of 5.000euros.

The Open A and Open B tournaments will be played in 9 rounds, swiss system, with time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 15 minutes until the end of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move. The Open C will be played in 7 rounds, swiss system, with time control: 90 minutes for the whole game plus 30 seconds increment for each move.

More than 60 players already registered for the event and the top-rated players are: GM Titas Stremavicius, GM Valery Kazakouski and GM Sabino Brunello. See the starting list of players below:

No.		Name	FED	Rtg
1	GM	Stremavicius Titas	LTU	2543
2	GM	Kazakouski Valery	LTU	2539
3	GM	Brunello Sabino	ITA	2519
4	GM	Ernst Sipke	NED	2512
5	GM	Sochacki Christophe	FRA	2463
6	FM	Akhvlediani Irakli	GEO	2437
7	IM	Perez Maximiliano	ARG	2423
8	IM	Lortkipanidze Nodar	GEO	2393
9	FM	Czerw Dawid	POL	2373
10	FM	Favaloro Andrea	ITA	2372
11	IM	Collutiis Duilio	ITA	2367
12	IM	Soham Das	IND	2351
13	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	IND	2337
14	FM	Bhagat Kush	IND	2324
15	FM	Bifulco Michel	ITA	2275
16	FM	Stillger Bernhard	GER	2273
17	FM	Santagati Alessandro	ITA	2253
18	FM	Silich Yahor	BLR	2216
19	IM	Vuelban Virgilio	PHI	2207
20	CM	Cina’ Vittorio	ITA	2199
21	IM	Casadio Niccolo’	ITA	2144
22	CM	Carbone Edoardo	ITA	2142
23		Wichtrup Jan-Louis	GER	2139
24	WIM	Vidic Teja	SLO	2138
25	CM	Urbani Gabriel	ITA	2138
26		Bazilius Augustinas	LTU	2118
27	CM	Ganci Elio	ITA	2115
28	CM	Pochyhaylo Andriy	ITA	2093
29	CM	Iannello Andrea	ITA	2084
30	CM	Zoldan Matteo	ITA	2081
31	CM	Favitta Amedeo	ITA	2056
32	CM	Carbone Stefano	ITA	2053
33		Bosboom Ardin	NED	2052
34	WFM	Abarca Gonzalez Damaris	CHI	2047
35	CM	Duraccio Walter Mattia	ITA	2032
36	CM	Maresco Diego	ITA	2020
37	CM	Musso Alessio	ITA	2008
38	AIM	Karas Eugenia	ENG	2004
39		Heldenbergh Nils	BEL	2003
40	CM	Milone Gaetano	ITA	1991
41		La Barbera Manfredi	ITA	1985
42	1N	Iannello Antonio	ITA	1964
43	CM	Bonanzinga Corrado	ITA	1959
44		Halvarsson Peter	SWE	1954
45	1N	Gelardi Davide	ITA	1944
46	1N	Verga Francesco	ITA	1924
47	CM	Lo Presti Giulio	ITA	1923
48	AIM	Tricomi Massimo	ITA	1923
49	1N	Barbagallo Andrea	ITA	1910
50	1N	Stancanelli Valerio	ITA	1903
51	CM	Gangemi Salvatore	ITA	1900
52		Pheasant Andrew J	USA	1900
53		Farah Alberto	MLT	1882
54	1N	Di Stasio Giuseppe Danilo	ITA	1879
55	1N	Fargetta Vittorio	ITA	1854
56	1N	Cannella Simone	ITA	1851
57		Sivathanujan S	SRI	1850
58	2N	Zito Enrica	ITA	1845
59	1N	Costabile Vincenzo	ITA	1827
60	2N	Maida Federico	ITA	1794
61	2N	Ganci Alberto	ITA	1776