By Chessdom
From 27th December 2008 till 4th January 2009

Reggio Emilia started as a small local tournament back in 1958, but later sprouted into prominent happening in the early 90's, when both Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov sat on the stage. List of the Reggio Emilia winners is outstanding, Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, Nona Gaprindashvili, Lajos Portish, Ulf Andersson, Rafael Vaganian, to mention a few.

The organizers have once again composed interesting lineup. The top seeded player is Chinese GM Ni Hua (2710). Other heavyweights are winner of the Magistral Casino de Barcelona GM Alexey Dreev (RUS 2670), last year Reggio Emilia winner GM Zoltan Almasi (HUN 2663), Dortmund 2008 participant Jan Gustafsson (GER 2634) and GM Konstantin Landa (RUS 2613).

 

Zoltan Almasi and Manuel Leon Hoyos

Distinguished writer Mihail Marin (ROM 2556) is back in Reggio Emilia, while young Mexican starGM Manuel Leon Hoyos (MEX 2535) will play here for the first time. GM Miso Cebalo (CRO 2493), IM Luca Shytaj (IM 2472) and IM Niccolo Ronchetti (ITA 2414) complete the 10-player field.