Stany sizzles in the Italian heat!

by Davide Nastasio - 13/07/2017

We have published many articles on Stany winning tournaments in France. Sautron, Malakoff, Lille to name a few. Now the International Master from Karnataka has extended his reign to Italy! In June Stany won the 8th Forni Di Sopra Open ahead of four grandmasters and many International Masters. In this article written by Davide Nastasio, we not only show you the beautiful town of Forni Di Sopra, but also treat you to some crunchy combinations played by Stany.

IM Stany GA wins the 8th Forni Di Sopra Open 2017

The summer in Italy is already scorching, but to make it incandescent a new promise from India went there to shine over all the other players: IM Stany!

G. A. Stany, 24 years old, International Master from India, won the 8th edition of the International Open "Forni di Sopra"

Forni Di Sopra lies in the northern part of Italy

It is a beautiful town near Udine. The structure on the left in the picture is the tournament hall.

Mind gets refreshed when that's the route you take to reach the playing venue!

Near the tournament hall, there were three to four such lakes that had crystal clear water!

Aren't you already tempted to take part in the Forni Di Sopra Open 2018?!

The 2017 edition of the tournament was played from the 10th to the 17th of June, with a prize fund of ten thousand euros. Stany didn't lose any of his games, and won with 7 points out of 9. Particularly important were the last two rounds, where he won against the Italian IM Franco Bruno, and in the last round against GM from Ecuador: Franco Carlos Matamoros, who up to that moment was the leader of the tournament!

Behind the winner, three other players shared the second place with 6.5 points out of 9, and another Indian player was in this group: IM Anurag Mhamal (who just became India's 48th GM a few days ago.)

The top finishers of the tournament. The person on the extreme left is GM Roberto Mogranzini.

Stany and Anurag ensured that the Indian flag was flying high in Italy!

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Rp
1	3	IM	Stany G.A.			IND	2489	0	7,0	45,0	49,5	2364	2584
2	5	GM	Matamoros Franco Carlos S.	S50		ECU	2478	0	6,5	46,0	50,0	2386	2552
3	6	IM	Anurag Mhamal			IND	2466	0	6,5	45,5	50,0	2379	2545
4	8	IM	Bellia Fabrizio	S50		ITA	2432	0	6,5	40,5	44,5	2275	2441
5	2	GM	Rotstein Arkadij	S50		GER	2495	0	6,0	47,5	52,0	2407	2532
6	1	GM	Korneev Oleg			ESP	2569	0	6,0	46,5	50,5	2375	2500
7	9	IM	Bruno Fabio	S50		ITA	2427	0	6,0	45,0	48,0	2376	2501
8	11		Henderson De La Fuente Lance	U16		ESP	2365	0	6,0	41,5	43,0	2251	2376
9	4	IM	Castellanos Rodriguez Renier			ESP	2488	0	5,5	47,0	52,0	2344	2426
10	7	IM	Basso Pier Luigi			ITA	2448	0	5,5	43,0	47,0	2328	2469
11	10	GM	Naumkin Igor	S50		RUS	2401	0	5,5	40,5	44,0	2257	2337
12	12	IM	Vezzosi Paolo	S50		ITA	2333	0	5,5	38,5	40,0	2238	2318
13	19		Kiefer Gerhard	S50		GER	2259	0	5,5	37,0	38,5	2150	2230
14	21	IM	Mufic Goran	S50		CRO	2247	0	5,0	44,0	47,5	2284	2327
15	13	IM	Qendro Llambi	S50		ALB	2328	0	5,0	43,5	48,0	2294	2337
16	27	FM	Barp Alberto			ITA	2233	0	5,0	42,5	46,5	2304	2347
17	23	FM	De Santis Alessio			ITA	2242	0	5,0	42,0	45,0	2259	2302
18	17	FM	Seresin Francesco			ITA	2280	0	5,0	41,0	44,0	2266	2309
19	33		Bettalli Francesco	U16		ITA	2182	0	5,0	39,0	43,0	2257	2300
20	14	IM	Derakhshani Dorsa		w	IRI	2321	0	5,0	38,5	40,5	2196	2239

Complete results of 57 players

I loved to watch Stany's games, because in many of them it was like witnessing someone trying to keep a tiger by the tail! Well, the result wasn't good for his opponents! Here are a few games with analysis sent to us by Stany himself. Try having a crack at the test positions as well before checking the answers:

Stany's opponent has attacked the rook on h1. But do we really care about it?

[Event "Forni Di Sopra"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.06.12"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Stany, G A."]
[Black "Mufic, Goran"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "2489"]
[BlackElo "2247"]
[Annotator "Stany,G A"]
[PlyCount "31"]
[EventDate "2015.11.28"]
[SourceDate "2007.11.13"]
[SourceVersionDate "2007.11.13"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Ne5 Bf5 $6 {Nbd7 is
supposed to be the line So I tried to exploit it in an energetic way} 7. g4 $1
Be6 8. g5 $1 Bd5 (8... Nd5 9. Ne4 {[%cal Ge4c5]}) 9. gxf6 Bxh1 10. Qg4 {
The point of the combination} Nd7 (10... gxf6 11. Qc8+ Qd8 12. Qxd8+ Kxd8 13.
Nxf7+ Ke8 14. Nxh8 Bg7 15. Ke2 {[%cal Gf2f3]} Bd5 16. Nxd5 cxd5 17. Bh3 Bxh8
18. Be6 $18) 11. Nxd7 Qxd7 12. fxg7 $1 Bxg7 (12... Qxg4 13. gxh8=Q) 13. Qxg7
O-O-O 14. Bf4 Qf5 15. Qe5 (15. Qg3 Qxc2 16. Bh3+ e6 17. Bxe6+ $3 {I missed
this move} fxe6 18. Qg7) 15... Qxe5+ 16. Bxe5 {After this I won easily} 1-0

Open position full of tactical possibilities is just what Stany loves. How do you bring White to his knees? Black to play.

[Event "Forni Di Sopra"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.06.13"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Qendro, Llambi"]
[Black "Stany, G A."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D91"]
[WhiteElo "2327"]
[BlackElo "2489"]
[Annotator "Stany,G A"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r4rk1/p3ppbp/2pq2p1/3b2B1/Q2P4/8/PP3PPP/2KR1B1R w - - 0 15"]
[PlyCount "14"]
[EventDate "2015.11.28"]
[SourceDate "2007.11.13"]
[SourceVersionDate "2007.11.13"]

{[#]} 15. Qa3 c5 (15... Qxa3 16. bxa3 e6 {was also winning but in a positional
way}) 16. dxc5 Bxb2+ $1 17. Kxb2 (17. Qxb2 Qxc5+ 18. Qc2 Qa5 19. Qd2 (19. Ba6
Qxa6 20. Rxd5 Rac8 21. Rc5 Rxc5 22. Qxc5 Rc8 $19) 19... Rfc8+ 20. Kb1 Bxa2+ 21.
Ka1 Rc3 $19) 17... Qe5+ 18. Kc2 Qxg5 19. Qe3 Qf5+ 20. Kb2 (20. Bd3 Qf6 $19 {
[%cal Ga8b8]}) 20... Rab8+ 21. Ka1 Qc2 0-1

At the end of seven rounds Stany was on 5.0/7. Speaking to ChessBase India, he said, "This was the penultimate round of the tournament and I had to score 2.0/2 to win the tournament title. There is a special pattern in this game which I found very interesting. In the first 13 moves my pieces come to normal squares. Then the next 7 moves (14th to 20th move) they are reshuffled or even come backwards. And finally they march forward without looking back until the end.

[Event "Forni Di Sopra"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.06.16"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Stany, G A."]
[Black "Bruno, Fabio"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B42"]
[WhiteElo "2489"]
[BlackElo "2427"]
[Annotator "Stany,G A"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "2015.11.28"]
[SourceDate "2007.11.13"]
[SourceVersionDate "2007.11.13"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Bc5 6. Nb3 Be7 7. O-O Qc7 8. c4
Nf6 9. Nc3 d6 10. f4 Nbd7 11. Qf3 b6 12. Be3 Bb7 13. Rac1 {Black was trying to
delay castling keeping the option of king side attack open} Rc8 14. Qh3 {
[%cal Gf4f5]} g6 15. Nd2 (15. f5 gxf5 16. exf5 e5 {[%cal Gh8g8]}) 15... Qb8 16.
Rce1 $1 {Since Black doesn't want to castle it made sense to keep my rook
infront of his king} h5 (16... O-O 17. f5 gxf5 18. exf5 e5 19. Bh6 $16) 17. Be2
Qc7 18. Bf2 {[%cal Gf2h4]} Kf8 19. Kh1 Nc5 20. Bd1 Kg8 $2 {Black is running
out of ideas} 21. f5 gxf5 22. exf5 e5 23. Bh4 $1 {Planning to eliminate the
knight and play for the light squares} Ncd7 24. Bf3 Kf8 25. Nde4 (25. Bxb7 Qxb7
26. Nce4 Nxe4 27. Bxe7+ Kxe7 28. Nxe4 $16 {[%cal Gf5f6] was simple}) 25... Bxe4
26. Rxe4 $1 {The rook is ready to join the attack now} Qd8 (26... Nxe4 27.
Bxe7+ Kxe7 28. Nd5+ $18) 27. Bxf6 Nxf6 (27... Bxf6 28. Nd5) 28. Rh4 Qd7 $2 29.
Bxh5 b5 30. Be2 Rg8 31. Rh8 Qd8 (31... b4 32. Qh6+ Ke8 33. Qxf6 Bxf6 34. Rxg8+
Ke7 35. Nd5#) 32. Nd5 1-0

In the last round Stany's opponent made a huge blunder in an even position to give the Indian a full point and the title of the 8th Forni Di Sopra International.

[Event "8th Int. Open di scacchi Dolomiti Group "]
[Site "Forni di Sopra"]
[Date "2017.06.17"]
[Round "9.1"]
[White "Matamoros Franco, Carlos S"]
[Black "Stany, G.A."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A16"]
[WhiteElo "2478"]
[BlackElo "2489"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "2017.06.10"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "ITA"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nc3 Nb6 6. d3 Bg7 7. Be3 Nc6 8.
Qd2 (8. Bxc6+ bxc6 9. Qd2 {is an interesting line.}) 8... Nd4 9. Rc1 e5 10. Bh6
O-O 11. Bxg7 Kxg7 12. e3 Nf5 13. Nf3 Qe7 14. Ne4 c6 15. O-O Rd8 16. b3 Nd6 17.
Nc5 Bg4 18. Qc3 f6 19. h3 Be6 20. Qb2 (20. Nxe6+ Qxe6 $11) 20... Bf7 21. Rfd1
a5 22. e4 a4 23. d4 exd4 24. Nxd4 axb3 25. axb3 Kg8 26. Nf3 Nb5 27. e5 $4 {
A huge blunder.} Rxd1+ $1 28. Rxd1 Qxc5 $19 {Just losing a piece.} 29. exf6 Nc3
30. Rd3 Nbd5 31. b4 Qa7 32. Kh2 Ne4 33. Ne5 Nexf6 34. b5 Qa1 35. Qb3 Qxe5 0-1

"I have already crossed 2500 in the Elo list twice," says Stany. "But I have to still make two GM norms. I hope to be India's 50th grandmaster and Karnataka's first!"

Well Stany, ChessBase India wishes you the best. With IM M.S.Thejkumar being just 20 Elo points away from the GM title (he already has three GM norms), the fight for the first GM from Karnataka is going to be quite intense.

A final look at this town! Just cannot have enough of this beauty!

About the author

Davide Nastasio is a novel chess aficionado, who has made of chess his spiritual tool of improvement, and self-discovery. One of his favorite quotes is from the great Paul Keres: "Nobody is born a master. The way to mastery leads to the desired goal only after long years of learning, of struggle, of rejoicing, and of disappointment..." He is one of the main writers for ChessCafe on Chessbase products, he authors articles on British Chess Magazine, and he is one of the main contributors of Georgia Chess Magazine in the new electronic format: Georgia Chess News. He is an active player, and organizes and directs chess tournaments.

Articles on IM Stany on ChessBase India

Interview with IM Stany GA

Stany scores his maiden GM norm

Stany's gem from Malakoff

Stany and the French connection