Sergio Mariotti (born 10 August 1946) is an Italian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player. He is the first Italian to achieve the title of Grandmaster, which

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

awarded him in 1974.

Career

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, he became the Italian junior champion in 1965 at

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

and in 1969 at

San Benedetto San Benedetto may refer to: * Saint Benedict (c. 480-543/547), Italian saint * Saint Benedict (disambiguation), a number of other Italian saints called San Benedetto (Saint Benedict) Places of Italy * San Benedetto Belbo, a municipality in the Pro ...

, the full Italian Champion. One of his greatest tournament successes followed in 1971, when he finished second at

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

(after

Walter Browne Walter Shawn Browne (10 January 1949 – 24 June 2015) was an Australian-born American chess and poker player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1970, he won the U.S. Chess Championship six times. Early years Browne was born to an ...

and ahead of

Vlastimil Hort Vlastimil Hort (born 12 January 1944) is a German chess Grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship, but never qualified fo ...

Lubomir Kavalek Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek ( cz, Lubomír Kaválek, August 9, 1943 – January 18, 2021) was a Czech-American chess player. He was awarded both the International Master and International Grandmaster titles by FIDE in 1965.Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 1 ...

and

Svetozar Gligorić Svetozar Gligorić (Serbian Cyrillic: Светозар Глигорић, 2 February 1923 – 14 August 2012) was a Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster and musician. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is consider ...

). Mariotti represented his country at the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

in 1972, 1974, 1986 and 1988. At the Olympiad of 1974, held in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, he scored a double success. A board one score of 73.7% (+12 =4 −3) earned him the individual bronze medal (behind

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Che ...

and Delgado, jointly with

Eugenio Torre Eugenio "Eugene" Torre (born November 4, 1951) is a Filipino chess player. In 1974, at 22 years old, he became not just the first Filipino but also the first Asian to qualify for the title Grandmaster. Torre did this by winning the silver meda ...

) also securing his final grandmaster norm. As no Italian before him had achieved the title of

International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally it has ...

, he gained overnight celebrity status when the honour was bestowed on him the same year. Around this time, ''

British Chess Magazine ''British Chess Magazine'' is the world's oldest chess journal in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as ''BCM''. The founder and ...

'' nicknamed him "The Italian Fury", due mainly to his formidable collection of tournament wins, but also for his enterprising, tactical style of play. He was victorious in many international tournaments, including

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

1968,

La Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest ci ...

1969, Naples 1969,

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

1970, San Benedetto 1970, Bari 1971, and Rovigo 1976. He won the Rilton Cup ( Stockholm) in 1976/77 and triumphed at

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

in 1979. With regard to world championship qualification attempts, he won at the

Caorle Caorle (; vec, Càorle) is a coastal town in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy, located between the estuaries of the Livenza and Lemene rivers. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea between two other tourist towns, Eraclea ...

zonal of 1975, to qualify for the prestigious

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital city, capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is Cities of the Philippines#Independent cities, highly urbanize ...

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the ...

of 1976, where he finished joint 10th (with

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 196 ...

Wolfgang Uhlmann Wolfgang Uhlmann (29 March 193524 August 2020) was a German chess grandmaster. He was East Germany's most successful chess player, reaching the 1971 Candidates Tournament. During his career, Uhlmann played many of the top players of the time a ...

and

Florin Gheorghiu Florin Gheorghiu (born 6 April 1944) is a Romanian chess player and has been a university lecturer in foreign languages. Born in Ploiești, on 6 April 1944, while the American bombers attacked the country's capital, his prodigious talent for the ...

). The result was insufficiently good to advance to the Candidates Matches. At the

Praia da Rocha Praia da Rocha ( English: "Rock Beach") is a beach and built up area on the Atlantic Ocean in the southern section of the concelho of Portimão, Algarve, southern Portugal. On the eastern edge of the beach stands the Fort of Santa Catarina ...

zonal tournament of 1978, he finished fourth, one place away from Interzonal qualification. His choice of

chess opening A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the " Sicilian Defens ...

often revolved around the

Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for White be ...

Ruy Lopez The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bb5 The Ruy Lopez is named after 16th-century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura. It is one ...

, where he was comfortable with either colour. Occasionally, his fans were treated to old-fashioned, romantic openings such as the

Evans Gambit The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 Bc5 :4. b4 The Evans Gambit is an aggressive line of the Giuoco Piano. White offers a pawn to divert the black bishop on c5. If Black accepts, ...

and

Albin Counter Gambit The Albin Countergambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 e5 and the usual continuation is: :3. dxe5 d4 The opening is an uncommon defense to the Queen's Gambit. In exchange for the gambit pawn, Black has a ...

and these brought him surprising success. Mariotti became an advisor for an Italian publisher and worked for the

Italian Chess Federation The Italian Chess Federation ( it, Federazione Scacchistica Italiana; FSI) is the governing chess organization of Italy. It is a member of the Italian National Olympic Committee ( CONI) and FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Ches ...

(FSI), where he was President between 1994 and 1996. As a precursor to the

Olympiad of 2006, he played a website game against the 'Rest of the World' and won in 48 moves. He played again a match against the 'Rest of the World' between October 2018 and March 2019; this second match ended in a draw in 20 moves.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mariotti, Sergio 1946 births Living people Chess grandmasters Italian chess players Chess officials Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Florence