Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Vincenzo Castaldi


     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

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