Daniele Vocaturo

Daniele Vocaturo (2010)
Country	Italy
Born	December 16, 1989 Rome, Italy
Title	Grandmaster
Peak rating	2581 (September 2010)

Daniele Vocaturo is an Italian chess grandmaster.

Born December 16, 1989, in Vitinia, a suburb of Rome; in May 2009 he became the third chess player born in Italy to be awarded the Grandmaster title, after Sergio Mariotti in 1974 and Michele Godena in 1996.

After his first steps in the chess club of Vitinia, he was trained by the Cuban-Italian GM Lexy Ortega, who followed his career until the age of 16, when he became an International Master.

In 2006, Vocaturo played with Italy-B at the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin, with the team winning a gold medal in their Elo category.

In 2008, after completing his school studies, he decided to follow in the footsteps of Michele Godena, becoming a professional player. GM Mihail Marin became his new trainer, helping him on the road to achieving his Grandmaster title.

In October 2008, Vocaturo won the Open Rhode of Sautron in France, achieving his first GM norm. His second norm came at Reykjavík in March 2009, where he played a number of beautiful games. In May, he secured his final norm at the International tournament "Capo d'Orso" of Palau in Sardinia.

In January 2010, Vocaturo participated in the Corus Group C of the prestigious Wijk aan Zee tournament, finishing third. In May, he played on third board with the Italian team at the Mitropa Cup in Chur, Switzerland, with Italy winning this trophy for the first time, with Vocaturo achieving an Elo performance of over 2700 points.

In January 2011 came Vocaturo's greatest success so far. Playing in Group C of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, he won the tournament with 9/13, ahead of Ukrainian rising star Illya Nyzhnyk. The last round was a dramatic one. Nyzhnyk arrived at a potential winning position, but overlooked a combination by Vocaturo that allowed a perpetual check; the draw being sufficient for Vocaturo to maintain his half point lead.