Fabían Fiorito (PHOTO: David Llada)
By Leontxo Garcíajournalist specialized in chess for EL PAÍS.
The Llobregat is one of the most prestigious Spanish tournaments, as the Club Abierto de Editores (CLABE) has recognized by awarding it as “best event of 2024 in Spain”. Among the attractions of the 6th edition is the Argentinean Fiorito family. The father -two of his sons are also playing- signed this gem in the opening round.
In the opening round, the Argentine master signed a real gem in a Closed Spanish, demonstrating a deep understanding of initiative and attack. After a balanced opening phase, White surprised with a theoretical novelty in the center, but Black responded with a direct plan on the king’s wing. While White’s queen was dislocated, Fiorito accumulated pieces near the opponent’s monarch and created the ideal conditions for a devastating attack.
The turning point came with a spectacular knight sacrifice on h3, a blow that machines evaluate as “playable”, but which in human hands is extremely dangerous. The white defense faltered, which allowed the Argentine to chain a second sacrifice immediately afterwards, this time aimed at opening decisive lines against the enemy king.
With White’s defensive structure collapsing and all the black pieces coordinated to the maximum, Fiorito kept up the pressure with surgical precision. White tried to reorganize, but every attempt was punished with a new tactical combination. The final position – with an unstoppable passed pawn and the white defense completely broken – forced his opponent, Gupta, to resign after an intense struggle.
The game not only stood out for its aesthetic beauty, but also for its practical courage: Fiorito chose complications that, although objectively equal according to the modules, were extremely difficult to defend on the board. A display of creativity and calculation that is already emerging as one of the best miniatures of the tournament.
Fiorito’s debut, brilliant and combative, could not have been a better anticipation of the chess spectacle that this new edition of the Llobregat Open promises.
