Michele Godena
Encyclopedia
Michele Godena is an Italian chess player
and many times the national champion.
A resident of Finale Ligure
, he achieved the title of International Grandmaster
in 1996, following a plus score on board one for Italy at the Yerevan
Olympiad
. He has played many times for his country's Olympiad team and at Elista
in 1998 posted an impressive 66.7% board 2 score.
Godena has so far been five times the national champion in 1992, 1993, 1995, 2005 and 2006. He was runner-up in 1990 and 1998. His 2006 victory was closely contested with the then 14 year-old Italian-American prodigy, IM Fabiano Caruana
. Both players finished the contest on 8 points from 11 rounds and Godena triumphed narrowly in the rapid/blitz play-off.
At the Moscow
Aeroflot 2006 tournament he finished 12th in the A2 group, with a performance rating of 2628.
For many years Italy's strongest player, he recorded his highest ever Elo rating of 2558 in April 2007, but has since been overtaken by Caruana's rapid rise to stardom.
While Godena was once nicknamed "The Italian Machine" by GM Sergei Shipov
, other commentators believe that his disproportionate time management might be holding back his further progress. He frequently uses all of his time in the opening
and early middle game, relying on positional knowledge, quickfire technique and instinctive reactions to make the remaining moves in incrementally added time.
In June 2007, at Arvier
, he became the EU Individual Open Champion
(the Serbian GM Nikola Sedlak won the tournament on tie-break, but as a non-European Union citizen, could not be awarded the title).
As white, he opens with 1.e4 and as black, prefers the Ruy Lopez
and Slav/Semi-Slav variations of the Queen's Gambit Declined
.
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
and many times the national champion.
A resident of Finale Ligure
Finale Ligure
Finale Ligure is a comune on the Gulf of Genoa in the Province of Savona in Liguria, Italy. It is considered part of the Italian Riviera.-Geography:...
, he achieved the title of International Grandmaster
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....
in 1996, following a plus score on board one for Italy at the Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
. He has played many times for his country's Olympiad team and at Elista
Elista
-Twin towns/sister cities:Elista is twinned with the following sister cities. Howell, New Jersey, United States Lhasa, Tibet, China. Ulan-Ude, Buryat Republic, Russia-See also:*Geden Sheddup Choikorling Monastery*Burkhan Bakshin Altan Sume-External links:...
in 1998 posted an impressive 66.7% board 2 score.
Godena has so far been five times the national champion in 1992, 1993, 1995, 2005 and 2006. He was runner-up in 1990 and 1998. His 2006 victory was closely contested with the then 14 year-old Italian-American prodigy, IM Fabiano Caruana
Fabiano Caruana
Fabiano Luigi Caruana is Grandmaster and chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States.On 15 July 2007 Caruana became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days – the youngest Grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States.In the November 2011...
. Both players finished the contest on 8 points from 11 rounds and Godena triumphed narrowly in the rapid/blitz play-off.
At the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
Aeroflot 2006 tournament he finished 12th in the A2 group, with a performance rating of 2628.
For many years Italy's strongest player, he recorded his highest ever Elo rating of 2558 in April 2007, but has since been overtaken by Caruana's rapid rise to stardom.
While Godena was once nicknamed "The Italian Machine" by GM Sergei Shipov
Sergei Shipov
Sergei Shipov is a Russian chess grandmaster with a peak FIDE rating of 2662 , chess journalist and author. He is the man behind the popular chess-website crestbook.com, where, among other services, he provides online-comments to current chess events...
, other commentators believe that his disproportionate time management might be holding back his further progress. He frequently uses all of his time in the opening
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
and early middle game, relying on positional knowledge, quickfire technique and instinctive reactions to make the remaining moves in incrementally added time.
In June 2007, at Arvier
Arvier
Arvier is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy.- Geography :-Wine:The local wine, Enfer d'Arvier, had its own DOC designation before being subsumed into the Valle d'Aosta DOC...
, he became the EU Individual Open Champion
EU Individual Open Chess Championship
The EU Individual Open Championship was first contested in Cork, Ireland in 2005, under the auspices of organising body, the European Chess Union . The event is open to members of chess federations within the European Union...
(the Serbian GM Nikola Sedlak won the tournament on tie-break, but as a non-European Union citizen, could not be awarded the title).
As white, he opens with 1.e4 and as black, prefers the Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...
and Slav/Semi-Slav variations of the Queen's Gambit Declined
Queen's Gambit Declined
The Queen's Gambit Declined is a chess opening in which Black declines a pawn offered by White in the Queen's Gambit:This is known as the Orthodox Line of the Queen's Gambit Declined...
.