We had a great afternoon of chess in the Recoleta Cultural Center (Junín 1930); the headquarters of IV Szmetan-Giardelli Chess Mastera competition held with the support of private entrepreneurs, the Government of Buenos Aires and the support of the Argentine Chess Association (FADA) to honor the memory of two beloved and loved Argentine international masters who passed away in 2015.
For this reason, the businessman and chess player was present at the opening ceremony Ricardo CostianovskyOrganizer of the test, welcomed the 10 participating masters and thanked the Chief of Staff of the Government of Buenos Aires, Gabriel Sánchez Zinni, the Director of the Recoleta Cultural Center, Maximiliano Tomas, the Argentine Chess Federation, through its President Alejandro Sass and its Executive Director Mario Petrucci, for the support provided and for realizing the dream of reintroducing this master to the calendar of activities.
With a broken voice and a glassy look, he also remembered his friendship with Jorge Szmetan and Sergio Giardelli. Two of the sons of these chess players, Andrés (Szmetan) and Enrico (Giardelli), congratulated the organization and wished the competition much success.
After the celebratory moment, chess players, organizers and leaders posed in the game room, where minutes later there was silence and each player took his reserved place. “The competition will be played at a pace of 90 minutes plus an additional 30 seconds for each movement for each player,” said the main referee of the master tournament, the international player Leandro Plotinskywho was accompanied by two assistant referees, Young Eugenia Alegre And Giuliana Bosco.
In addition to the four foreign characters; Aryan Tari (Norway), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Julio Granda (Peru) and Iván Cheparionov (Bulgaria)) and the current and former Argentine champions, Diego Flores (in 2025) and Sandro Mareco (2024)The fans’ eyes fell on the duel between two of the country’s best young chess players at the first table: the game between Faustino Oro with white pieces and Ilan Schnaider. Curiously, both of them came over and played with the outfits according to the color of the pieces they would be wearing. Fausti – as his friends and family call him – wore a white T-shirt with the logo of one of his sponsors.
Although Oro, 12, is 10th in the national rankings with 2,503 Elo points and Schnaider, 14, is 21st with 2,402 Elo points, the parity of playing ability between the two is similar. Perhaps the youngest will take advantage of him due to his constant participation in international competitions, since two years ago his parents traveled to Spain so that the child could gain more experience and gain experience. Furthermore, last September at the Prodigies and Legends tournament in Madrid, where Fausti achieved his first grandmaster standard in remarkable work, the two faced each other in a mind chess game, and after almost five hours and 91 moves that day, the game ended in a draw.
Something similar happened today; The “Messi of chess,” as the European press calls him, tried to seize the initiative of the game, but the chess engines indicated a small advantage for White from the start of the game. In a room adjacent to the game room, the organization set up a room where players could analyze games after they were completed. In this room, each of the five controversial games could be followed live on a huge monitor. Many fans, curious people and relatives of the participants occupied the venue.
The great teacher Diego Valerga He became the great showman of the afternoon, teaching and showing on screen the reason for every movement and its consequences. He moved from game to game at great speed, focusing much more on “human” ideas rather than algorithm recommendations. It was a great work, didactic, entertaining and full of anecdotes that Dr. Valerga (he is a pediatrician) explained a large part of his wealth of experience and knowledge from his chess training to the satisfaction of those present during the almost four-hour gaming session.
“It’s true, Faustino is a little better according to the computer, but the position is balanced and even dangerous if he doesn’t manage the game. Schnaider’s position is expectant, he can have a good counterattack,” said “El Tordo”, as Valerga’s colleagues call him. However, Ilan, who had needed 85 minutes in the first 20 games, had to play faster and faster so as not to waste time. When the game seemed to be headed for a draw on move 29, the error occurred. And Faustino didn’t forgive. Six moves later, he forced his rival to surrender as a deadly move was close at hand.
However, the first to enter the analysis room was Bulgarian Cheparinov, who after 21 moves of a rejected Queen’s Gambit with black pieces agreed to a draw with former Argentine master Sandro Mareco. “Yes, I think I was good during the game. I knew this position very well,” said the Bulgarian grandmaster, who is visiting the country for the third time. The first was in 2005, when he arrived as an assistant to his compatriot Veselin Topalov, who won the World Championship in San Luis province that year.
The Argentine grandmaster immediately entered the room. Sergio Slipak who also agreed to a draw against the Peruvian legend with white pieces after 36 moves of a rejected Queen’s Gambit Julio Granda Zuñiga. “What does the machine say. Did I have to play d5?” Slipak asked his friend Valerga. “No, the machine indicated that you should not change horses or you would lose the advantage,” he replied. Slipak had come close to victory, but his opponent defended with astonishing precision, even though from move 21 he only had two minutes left for the rest of the game. The extra time – 30 seconds for each play – allowed him to use this advantage to avoid a time loss.
“Yes, I won,” was the first sentence Faustino said when he entered the room. With a thumbs up, he told his father the result of the game he had just won. When Valerga asked the reason for some of the moves, the boy replied: “The position was a bit unclear.” Then from his amazing mind came sequences of movements that he seemed to be able to recite by heart. “Yes, that play, I saw it; yes, that one too, and that one. Oh no, if he had done the other one, I wouldn’t have seen it,” he explained loudly, naturally, and with his constant laughter. “Yes, it was a nice game,” he said at the end as a sign of his satisfaction with the result.
The other win of the day went to the Norwegian Aryan Tariwho defeated the Argentine champions Thomas Darcylafter 60 moves of an English opening. The last game to end was between Argentine champion Flores with black and Spaniard of Latvian origin Alexei Shirov after 63 moves of a Sicilian defense.
On Tuesday, from 3:30 p.m., the 2nd round of this masterpiece will take place with these duels: Tari (Norway) 1 v. Cheparinov (Bulgaria) 0.5; Granda (Peru) 0.5 vs. Mareco 0.5; Flowers 0.5 v. Slipak 0.5; Schnaider (0) against Shirov (Spain) 0.5 and Darcyl (0) against Gold (1).
The three international masters of the competition, Tomás Darcyl, Ilan Schnaider and Faustino Oro, have the opportunity to achieve a grandmaster standard (performance). To do this, they must add 5.5 points in the 9 test days that end next Tuesday the 16th.
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