Montegrotto 2013 – International Team Tournament. Lavazza prevailed over Ward Platt. As expected from the participants’ names, it hadn’t been a walk over. All the 78 teams – Montegrotto and Milano are the most important tourneys in Italy – started on Friday afternoon gathered in the same group, whereas in the past there were 10-12 little qualifying groups. After this first selection – done by one Swiss and one Danese – had been formed the Group A, by 18 teams, who fought for the victory; the Group B, and five C groups. A better format than the past ones.
Lavazza started swiftly on Friday afternoon, but Ward Platt and Pauncz didn’t sleep, and the French Team took the lead at the beginning of the final four boards: Ward Platt 184, Lavazza 181, Pauncz 177. At the third round Lavazza took the lead again, drew the direct clash against Ward Platt, thus winning the Tourney with the following final ranking:
Lavazza 252 (Maria Teresa Lavazza, Norberto Bocchi, Guido Ferraro, Giorgio Duboin, Antonio Sementa)
Ward Platt 248 (Kiki Ward Platt, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Frank Multon)
Pauncz 238 (Peter Pauncz, Niccolò Fossi, Carlo Mariani, Andrea Buratti).
Opatija 232 (Stoyana Ivanov, Hristov, Zahariev, Marinovski)
Bonori 228 (Marisa Bonori, Stefano Caiti, Maurizio Pattacini, Gabriele Gavelli)
***
Paolo Enrico Garrisi