International Master (2007); Grandmaster (2010); South American Junior Champion (2007); Argentine Champion (2015); American Continental Champion (2015); Argentine Blitz Champion (2015).
Preamble
Mareco was born in Buenos Aires and is frequently the first amongst equals amongst Argentina's top players. He is extremely active in tournaments, playing the majority of his events in South America, especially in Argentina and Brazil, although he has been playing more frequently in Europe since 2012.
Master norms
He gained his IM title and his first Grandmaster (GM) norm when he won the South American Junior Championship in 2007. His second GM norm came when he scoring 6.5/9 (placing =1st) at the 8th Mario Covas Cup (2008) in Brazil. In January 2010, he gained his 3rd GM norm when he scored 8.5/13 (placing =4th) at the Vanderley Cason de Melo Memorial Tournament in Brazil, gaining his GM title immediately as his rating was already over 2500.
Championships
<Youth> =3rd at the 2002 U16 Argentinian Championship.
<Junior> Mareco scored 7.5/13 at the World Junior Championship in Yerevan in 2006, was runner-up in the Argentinian Junior Championship in 2007 and won the South American Junior Championship in 2007.
<National> He came =1st (2nd on count back) in the 2012 Argentine Championships to qualify to play on the national team at the 2012 Istanbul Olympiad. In 2015, he won the national championship outright for the first time.
<Continental> 6.5/11 at the 2005 American Continental Championship, 8/11 at the 2009 American Continental Championship. Won the American Continental Championship in 2015.
<World> Mareco's first participation in the world championship cycle came in March 2007 when he contested Zonal 2.5 in Argentina, although on that occasion he did not qualify for the World Cup. He did however qualify through the Zonal 2.5 championships in later years to play in the World Cup (2011) and the World Cup (2013), where he lost in the first round to Ferenc Berkes in the former, and to David Navara, respectively in the latter, therefore being eliminated from both World Cups at that stage.
By winning the American Continental Championship 2015, Mareco qualified to compete in the World Cup (2015) where he staged one of the upsets of the first round to defeat Hua Ni to progress to the second round. However he was eliminated from the event when he lost his second round match to Canadian GM Anton Kovalyov.
Tournaments
<2002-2007> =1st at the IRT Schuster Memorial in 2002, 2ndd at the IRT Ciudad de Moron in Argentina in 2004, 1st with 9/9 at the Superior Club Argentino in 2007 and =4th at the Arnoldo Ellerman Open in 2007.
<2008> 1st at the 58th Verano Ballester - J.Maciel tournament in Argentina, =1st at the VIII Mario Covas Cup; =2nd at the City of Pergamino International, won the II ITT 54th Anniversary Villa Martelli tournament in Argentina, =3rd at the XII Magistral de la Republica, =3rd at the 15th PROAM Open Tournament.
<2009> Won the 59 Abierto de Villa Ballester - Argentina with 8/9 and the ITT Instituto de Engenharia do Parana - IEP - Brazil with 7.5/10, =4th at the 84 Semifinal Argentina Superior, qualifying for the 84 Final Argentina Superior Absoluta where he placed =3rd. =5th at the Simon Bolivar Cup, =2nd at the VIII Aberto Internacional de Registro - Copa SABESP - Brazil, 3rd at the Magistral Internacional Duchamp behind Jorge Cori and Federico Perez Ponsa.
<2010> =4th at the Memorial Vanderley Cason de Melo behind Felipe de Cresce El Debs, Everaldo Matsuura and Alexandr Fier =1st with 6/7 at the Aberto do Brasil Etapa Shopping Sao Jose dos Pinhais - Brazil; 1st with 8.5/9, 2 points clear of the field, at the III Simon Bolivar Libertador Copa PDVSur; 2nd in the São José dos Pinhais Open; won the XIV Magistral de la Republica Argentina (1.5 points clear of the field) and the IX Mario Covas Memorial Tournament (Brazil), 2 points clear of Gilberto Milos, Rafael Leitao and Andres Rodriguez Vila. He also won the Aberto Internacional de Xadrez Itaipu Binacional with 5.5/6 and was =1st alongside Diego Flores with 7/9 at the category 12 Marcel Duchamps Masters Tournament.
<2011> Outright winner at the IV Abierto Simon Bolivar PDVSur ahead of equal second-placed Jorge Cori, Ernesto Real de Azua, Horacio Saldano Dayer and Damian Lemos. Outright winner of the Pindamonhangaba Open Brazil, the Governor Mario Covas International and the Absolute Paulista Championship 2011, all of which were played in Brazil.
<2012> =1st alongside El Debs at the open tournament in Brazil celebrating the 160th Anniversary of the city of Sao Jose do Rio Preto. 2nd at the 6-player DRR Osasco Masters 50 Years invitational, =3rd behind Alexey Shirov and Felgaer at the Buenos Aires Masters Tournament, =1st with Flores and Real De Azua at the Panno Masters played at the Club Phillidor in the city of Moron, Argentina, =6th, half a point behind the leaders, at the Continental Tournament of the Americas staged in Mar del Plata and =1st alongside Flores at the 5th Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires Tournament.
<2013> Outright first with 7/9 at the IPD Masters Tournament in Lima Peru; =6th, half point from the co-leaders at the Albena Open in Bulgaria; =2nd, a point behind the winner Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian at the 7th International Open at the Chess Festival in Varna, Bulgaria; outright winner at the 3rd Brazil City Maringa open, ahead of equal second placed Neuris Delgado Ramirez, Mekhitarian, Axel Bachmann and Everaldo Matsuura 7/11 at the 3rd Indonesian Open, half a point from the shared lead; =2nd with 7/9 behind Bachmann at the 2013 Norberto La Porta Cup.
<2014> =1st at the II Aberto do Brasil - Copa Cidade de Vitori, first at the Marcel Duchamp Open in Mar del Plata, finishing the year with 8.5/9 and outright first at the Abierto Legislatura Ciudad de Bs. As. Copa N. La Porta.
<2015> =2nd behind Julio Ernesto Granda Zuniga at the Zicosur Tournament of South American Integration held in Antofagasta in Chile and =1st alongside Flores at the Arica International Tournament also held in Chile. =3rd at the FAOGBA International Open in Argentina behind Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli and Alan Pichot. =1st with Delgado at the 8th Hebrew Masters in Sao Paolo. He won the VI Magistral Yael - Torre Blanca in Argentina outright with 6/9.
<2017> At Montevideo 2017, he won the Marcel Duchamp Cup with a perfect score (9/9), almost unheard of in modern chess, including wins over four GMs and two IMs.
Olympiads
Mareco played board for Argentina at the Istanbul Olympiad (2012) in Istanbul and board two for his country at the Tromso Olympiad (2014). During the two Olympiads he played 19 games, scoring +6 =11 -2 result (60.5%).
Rapid
Mareco was clear first in the National Intergenerational League in May 2015 and won the Argentine Blitz Championship 2015 in November 2015. (1)
Rating
Mareco's rating peak was 2628 in January 2011.
Other
Photo: http://www.bidmonfa.com/mareco_sand... ICC: peluvarius
Wikipedia article: Sandro Mareco
(1) http://chess-results.com/tnr197678.... , (2) https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast... (podcast interview Ben Johnson in June 2017).
https://www.chess.com/events/2017-c...
Kibitzing
