Eduardo Iturrizaga
Encyclopedia
Eduardo Patricio Iturrizaga Bonelli (born 1 November 1989) is a Venezuela
n chess
player. He achieved the title of grandmaster in 2008, making him the first and only Venezuelan chess grandmaster.
. He learned to move the chess pieces at age five. "I opened with pawn
to e4
, then moved my knight
s, and put pawns on h3 and a3 for castling
and to connect the rook
s. For me that was all", he recalls. He moved to Peru
when he was seven, and it was upon his return to Venezuela at age nine he started to take the game seriously. At age thirteen he attained the title of International Master.
Iturrizaga won consecutive national championship
s from 2005 to 2008, and has been playing for Venezuela at the Chess Olympiad
since 2004. His best performance came at the 37th Chess Olympiad
(2006), when he scored 8.5/11 points playing second board. The result earned him an individual bronze medal. Iturrizaga qualified for the 2007 Chess World Cup
after a shared first place performance at the American Continental Championship
. He was set to face Peter Svidler
in the first round, but forfeited the first game due to getting lost between Russian airports. He lost the second game. In 2008, Iturrizaga won an online qualifier for the C-group in the 2009 Corus Chess Tournament, defeating GM Alexandr Fier
3-1 in the finals. He ended up on a shared eight place out of fourteen in the main tournament, scoring 5.5/13. Iturrizaga finished second in the 2008 Iboamerican Championship in Linares, Spain, losing to Julio Granda
in the finals. Iturrizaga was the last person to arrive at the tournament, had to play one game at night, and nearly arrived late for one of the matches.
After sharing first place at the Zonal 2.3 Chess Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica
with Lázaro Bruzón
, Iturrizaga qualified for the Chess World Cup 2009
. He was knocked out by Baadur Jobava
in the second round, having defeated Sergei Tiviakov
3.5 - 2.5 in the first round. The same year, Iturrizaga won the 12th Dubai Open Chess Championship with 7 points out of 9, besting a field consisting of 36 GMs and 154 players total.
Iturrizaga placed fourth in the 2010 Iboamerican Championship held in Mexico City
. He defaulted the third-fourth playoff, despite winning the first game, after arriving an hour late for the second. In February 2011, Iturrizaga participated in the A-group of the Aeroflot Open
. He scored 4/9, with a performance rating of 2542.
Iturrizaga's FIDE rating
is 2611 (January 2011), making him number 179 in the world, and the 15th highest rated player in the Americas
.
s, and the English Opening
with the white pieces, and the Accelerated Dragon Sicilian Defence
with black. He has expressed dissatisfaction that this opening will often lead to draws, due to his opponents being aware of it. "I play Taimanov
and the Caro-Kann
, but I lack repertoire", he told El Nacional
. Iturrizaga admires Bobby Fischer
and is a follower of Levon Aronian
's playstyle.
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n chess
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...
player. He achieved the title of grandmaster in 2008, making him the first and only Venezuelan chess grandmaster.
Chess career
Iturrizaga was born 1 November 1989 in CaracasCaracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
. He learned to move the chess pieces at age five. "I opened with pawn
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
to e4
King's Pawn Game
The King's Pawn Game is any chess opening starting with the move:White opens with the most popular of the twenty possible opening moves. Though effective in winning for White , it is not as successful as the four next most common openings for White: 1.d4 , 1.Nf3 , 1.c4 , and 1.g3...
, then moved my knight
Knight (chess)
The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
s, and put pawns on h3 and a3 for castling
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
and to connect the rook
Rook (chess)
A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
s. For me that was all", he recalls. He moved to Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
when he was seven, and it was upon his return to Venezuela at age nine he started to take the game seriously. At age thirteen he attained the title of International Master.
Iturrizaga won consecutive national championship
Venezuelan Chess Championship
The first Venezuelan Chess Championship took place in February 1891 when Dr. Rafael Ruíz defeated Rafael Pittaluga in a match for the title . In the second match, Rafael Ruíz drew with Carlos Perret Gentil in 1894....
s from 2005 to 2008, and has been playing for Venezuela at the Chess 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...
since 2004. His best performance came at the 37th Chess Olympiad
37th Chess Olympiad
The 37th Chess Olympiad, comprising an open and women's tournament and the general assembly of the Fédération Internationale des Échecs , took place between 20 May and 6 June 2006, in Turin, Italy.-Open tournament:...
(2006), when he scored 8.5/11 points playing second board. The result earned him an individual bronze medal. Iturrizaga qualified for the 2007 Chess World Cup
Chess World Cup 2007
The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia....
after a shared first place performance at the American Continental Championship
Pan American Chess Championship
The first Pan-American Championship was held in Hollywood, 28 July - 12 August 1945. The line-up was as follows: 1. Samuel Reshevsky 10.5, 2. Reuben Fine 9, 3. Herman Pilnik 8.5, 4. Israel Horowitz 8, 5. Isaac Kashdan 7, 6. Hector Rossetto 6.5, 7-8. Weaver Adams , Herman Steiner 5.5, 9-10....
. He was set to face Peter Svidler
Peter Svidler
Peter Veniaminovich Svidler is a Russian chess grandmaster.He is six-time Russian champion ....
in the first round, but forfeited the first game due to getting lost between Russian airports. He lost the second game. In 2008, Iturrizaga won an online qualifier for the C-group in the 2009 Corus Chess Tournament, defeating GM Alexandr Fier
Alexandr Fier
Alexandr Fier is a Brazilian chess Grandmaster. He took part in the Chess World Cup 2011, but was eliminated in the second round by Alexander Morozevich....
3-1 in the finals. He ended up on a shared eight place out of fourteen in the main tournament, scoring 5.5/13. Iturrizaga finished second in the 2008 Iboamerican Championship in Linares, Spain, losing to Julio Granda
Julio Granda
Julio Ernesto Granda Zúñiga is a Peruvian chess Grandmaster.In his coastal town, he learned how to play chess at the very young age of five....
in the finals. Iturrizaga was the last person to arrive at the tournament, had to play one game at night, and nearly arrived late for one of the matches.
After sharing first place at the Zonal 2.3 Chess Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica
San José, Costa Rica
San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. Located in the Central Valley, San José is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of this Central American nation.Founded in 1738 by order of Cabildo de León, San...
with Lázaro Bruzón
Lázaro Bruzón
Lázaro Bruzón Batista is a chess grandmaster from Cuba. On the January 2011 FIDE list his Elo rating is 2686. Bruzón was the 2000 World Junior Chess Champion. In 2004 he finished first at the XII Torneo "Guillermo Garcia" in Memoriam in Villa Clara...
, Iturrizaga qualified for the Chess World Cup 2009
Chess World Cup 2009
The Chess World Cup 2009 was a 128-player single-elimination tournament, played between 20 November and 14 December 2009, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The Cup winner qualified for the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship 2011. Boris Gelfand defeated Ruslan Ponomariov in the...
. He was knocked out by Baadur Jobava
Baadur Jobava
Baadur Jobava is a Georgian chess grandmaster. His first major achievement on the international scene was winning the Dubai Open 2003 with 7/9. He took the gold medal at the 2004 36th Chess Olympiad, scoring 8½/10. He has taken part in the Olympiads 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010...
in the second round, having defeated Sergei Tiviakov
Sergei Tiviakov
Sergei Tiviakov is a naturalised Dutch chess Grandmaster.Tiviakov won the Dutch Chess Championship in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, in Plovdiv, he won the European Individual Chess Championship with 8.5/11....
3.5 - 2.5 in the first round. The same year, Iturrizaga won the 12th Dubai Open Chess Championship with 7 points out of 9, besting a field consisting of 36 GMs and 154 players total.
Iturrizaga placed fourth in the 2010 Iboamerican Championship held in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. He defaulted the third-fourth playoff, despite winning the first game, after arriving an hour late for the second. In February 2011, Iturrizaga participated in the A-group of the Aeroflot Open
Aeroflot Open
The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament. The first event had around 80 grandmasters, while in the second event 150 grandmasters participated...
. He scored 4/9, with a performance rating of 2542.
Iturrizaga's FIDE rating
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
is 2611 (January 2011), making him number 179 in the world, and the 15th highest rated player in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
.
Playing style
As of 2010, Iturrizaga mostly plays queen's pawn openingQueen's Pawn Game
In the most general sense the term Queen's Pawn Game can refer to any chess opening which starts with the move:It is the second most popular opening move. The name is now usually used to describe openings beginning with the moves 1.d4 d5 where White does not follow through with an early pawn...
s, and the English Opening
English Opening
In chess, the English Opening is the opening where White begins:A flank opening, it is the fourth most popular and, according to various databases, anywhere from one of the two most successful to the fourth most successful of White's twenty possible first moves. White begins the fight for the...
with the white pieces, and the Accelerated Dragon Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...
with black. He has expressed dissatisfaction that this opening will often lead to draws, due to his opponents being aware of it. "I play Taimanov
Taimanov Variation
The Taimanov Variation can refer to variations of four different chess openings, all named after Mark Taimanov:*In the Sicilian Defense, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6*In the Nimzo-Indian Defense, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 Nc6...
and the Caro-Kann
Caro-Kann Defence
The Caro-Kann Defence is a chess opening —a common defense against the King's Pawn Opening characterised by the moves:The usual continuation isfollowed by 3.Nc3 , 3.Nd2 , 3.exd5 , or 3.e5 . The classical variation has gained much popularity...
, but I lack repertoire", he told El Nacional
El Nacional
El Nacional is a Venezuelan publishing company under the name C.A. Editorial El Nacional, most widely known for its El Nacional newspaper. It, along with Últimas Noticias and El Universal, are the most widely read and circulated daily national newspapers in the country, and it has an average of...
. Iturrizaga admires Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
and is a follower of Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
's playstyle.