As mentioned in a recent post, Italian IM Vincenzo Castaldi (May 15, 1916 - January 6, 1970), dentist by profession, passed away in Firenze, Italy at the age of 53 in 1970.
Chessmetrics estimates his highest rating to have been in 1938 when it was 2555, ranking him number 62 in the world. He maintained a rating of over 2400 throughout his career and was probably of GM strength by today’s standards.
For a man who won the Italian Championship seven times, (1936, 1937, 1947 (jointly), 1948, 1952 (jointly), 1953, and 1959), was Italian correspondence champion in 1956 and represented Italy on first board in the Olympiad at Stockholm 1937 and Dubrovnik 1950, there is scant biographical information on him available.
Aside from the Venice Film Festival and an international art exhibition, Ernest Hemingway visited Venice in 1948 with his third wife, Mary Welsh. The American novelist and war correspondent had settled in Paris where he was correspondent of the Toronto Star and it was at that time that he published his first book in 1925.
Hemingway committed suicide in 1961. His behavior during his final years had been similar to that of his father before he committed suicide. It’s possible his father had the genetic disease hemochromatosis, a disorder where too much iron builds up in your body. Normally, your intestines absorb just the right amount of iron from the foods you eat, but in hemochromatosis, your body absorbs too much and it has no way to get rid of it. The inability to metabolize iron culminates in mental and physical deterioration.
Records made available in 1991 confirm that Hemingway had been diagnosed with hemochromatosis in early 1961. His sister Ursula and his brother Leicester also committed suicide. Hemingway's health was further compromised by being a heavy drinker for most of his life.
More importantly to the chess world, Venice 1948 was one of the strongest tournaments of the year.
Final standings:
1) Miguel Najdor 11.5
2-3) Gideon Barcza and Esteban Canal 9.5
4) Max Euwe 8.0
5) Vincenzo Castaldi 7.5
6-7) Savielly Tartakower and Josef Lokvenc 7.0
8) Henry Grob 6.0
9-11) Mario Monticelli, Eugenio Szabados and Karel Opocensky 4.5
12-13) Giuseppe Primavera and Gino Fletzer 4.0
14) Alberto Giustolisi 3.5
[Event "Venice"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1948.10.??"]
[Round "10"]
[White "Gino Fletzer"]
[Black "Vincenzo Castaldi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{French Defense, Winawer} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 {The Winawer gets a
hearty two thubs upo from me. Being a Botvinnik fan, I used to play it a lot
in my correspondence games. The pin on the N forces white to resolve the
central tension which he normally does immediately with 4.c5.} 4. e5 {Almost
always played and likely best, but an interesting and little explored try is
4. Bd3.} 4... c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qc7 7. Qg4 {Here black almost always
plays 7... Ne7 leading to tactical complications. Black can avoid them with
7...f5. A rare move that I successfully used a few times is 7...Kf8.} 7... f5
8. Qh5+ {Equally good is 8.Qg3.} 8... g6 9. Qh3 {The Q does not seem quite so
well placed here as after 9.Qf3.} 9... Nc6 10. Ne2 {Misplacing another piece.
10.Nf3 was better.} 10... Bd7 11. g4 {This looks too aggressive as white has
not yet completed his development, but it's already hard to suggest anything
really decent for him. After 11,Nf4 (threatening Nxg6) Nge7 white is faced
with threats to his d-Pawn as well as the P on c2 so the N has to retreat back
to e2. The best move Stockfish could come up with was the miserable looking
11.Rb1.} 11... fxg4 12. Qxg4 O-O-O 13. Bg5 Re8 {Moving the R one more square
over looks more natural.} 14. Bg2 Nge7 15. O-O {I ight have tried 15.Bxe7 at
least eliminating one of black's pieces.} 15... Nf5 16. Rfd1 Na5 17. Nc1 Ba4
18. Ra2 {Black has a clear advantage and there is little white can do except
wait.} 18... cxd4 19. cxd4 Bxc2 20. Rxc2 {A despirate sacrifice hoping to get
play on the c-file. Best was 20.Re1 and hope for the best.} 20... Qxc2 21.
Nd3 Kb8 22. Nc5 {And so black's 13th move serves a purpose after all!} 22...
h5 23. Qf3 Rh7 {To get the R into play.} 24. Rc1 Qa2 25. Qc3 Nc6 26. Be3 Rc7
27. Rc2 Qb1+ 28. Rc1 Qb6 29. Qd3 Ncxd4 30. Bxd4 Nxd4 31. Qxd4 Rec8 {Fletzer
resigned. After white's inaccurate opening play Castaldi made it look easy.}
0-1
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