Michele Godena (born 30 June 1967) 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 disti ...

player. He achieved the FIDE titles of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(IM) in 1988 and Grandmaster (GM) in 1996, following a plus score on board one for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

at the Chess Olympiad in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

. Godena is a five-time Italian champion.

Career

Godena has won five times the Italian Chess Championship, 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, International Master

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United Sta ...

. Both players finished the contest on 8 points from 11 rounds and Godena triumphed narrowly in the rapid and blitz play-off. He tied for 1st–4th with

Andrei Sokolov Andrei Yurievich Sokolov (russian: Андре́й Ю́рьевич Соколо́в; born 20 March 1963, in Vorkuta, Komi ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. ...

Dražen Sermek Dražen Sermek (born 30 January 1969) is a Croatian chess player. He holds the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in 1994. He previously competed for Slovenia. Sermek won the Slovenian Chess Championship in 1993 and 1998 and was a m ...

and

Xie Jun Xie Jun (born October 30, 1970) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and is not just the first Chinese female but the first Asian female to become a chess grandmaster. She had two separate reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 ...

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

1997. At the Aeroflot Open 2006 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Godena tied for 1st–12th in the A2 group, finishing 12th on tiebreak with a rating performance of 2628. In June 2007, in

Arvier Arvier ( Valdôtain: ' or '; frp, Arviér); is a town and ''comune'' in the Aosta Valley region of northwestern Italy. Geography Wine The local wine, Enfer d'Arvier, had its own DOC designation before being subsumed into the Valle d'Aosta ...

, Godena became the champion of the European Union having tied for 1st–2nd with Serbian

Nikola Sedlak Nikola Sedlak (born 13 December 1983) is a Serbian chess player who holds the titles of Grandmaster (GM) (2003), Serbian Chess Championship winner (2010), Chess Olympiad individual gold medal winner (2014), and EU Individual Open Chess Champio ...

, who won the tournament on tie-break, but as a non-European Union citizen, could not be awarded the title. In 2016, Godena won the 4th

Francophonie Francophonie is the quality of speaking French. The term designates the ensemble of people, organisations and governments that share the use of French on a daily basis and as administrative language, teaching language or chosen language. The ...

Championship in Menton, France edging out

Bassem Amin Bassem Amin (; born 9 September 1988) is an Egyptian chess player and medical doctor. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006. Amin is the highest rated Egyptian and African player and the only medical doctor to have a FIDE peak ra ...

, Pablo Almagro Llamas and

Yannick Gozzoli Yannick Gozzoli (born 2 June 1983) is a French chess grandmaster. Chess career Born in 1983 in Marseille, Gozzoli earned his international master title in 2003 and his grandmaster title in 2012. He is the No. 9 ranked French player as of Augu ...

on tiebreak score. He has played many times for his country's Olympiad team and at

Elista Elista (russian: Элиста́, (common during the Soviet era) or (most common pronunciation used after 1992 and in Kalmykia itself);"Большой энциклопедический словарь", под ред. А. М. Прохорова. ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

posted a score of 66.7% playing board two. For many years Italy's strongest player, he recorded his highest ever

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

of 2561 in March 2010.

Playing style

While Godena was once nicknamed "The Italian Machine" by

Sergei Shipov Sergei Shipov (born 17 April 1966) is a Russian chess player, trainer, journalist and writer. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1996. Career Shipov founded the chess website Crestbook where, among other services, he provides online ...

, 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 Opening may refer to: * Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", the first chapter of the Qur'an * The Opening (album), live album by Mal Waldron * Backgammon opening * Chess opening * A title sequence or opening credits * , a term from contract bridge * , ...

and early

middle game The middlegame is the portion of a chess game between the opening and the endgame. It is generally considered to begin when each player has completed the development of all or most of their pieces and brought their king to relative safety, and i ...

, relying on positional knowledge, quickfire technique and instinctive reactions to make the remaining moves in incrementally added time. As white, he opens with 1.e4 and as black, prefers the

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 o ...

and Slav/Semi-Slav variations of the Queen's Gambit Declined.

Personal life

Born in Valdobbiadene, Godena lives in Finale Ligure.

Publications

* *

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Godena, Michele 1967 births Living people Chess grandmasters Italian chess players Italian chess writers Chess Olympiad competitors People from Valdobbiadene Sportspeople from the Province of Treviso