GMMichele Godena

Michele Godena was born in Valdobbiadene in 1967. He became an international master in 1988 and a grandmaster in 1996, after his first-board performance for Italy at the Yerevan Olympiad. He won five Italian championships, in 1992, 1993, 1995, 2005 and 2006. The last required a rapid and blitz playoff against fourteen-year-old Fabiano Caruana.

Godena shared first place at Cannes in 1997. In 2007 he won the European Union title at Arvier, where he tied with tournament winner Nikola Sedlak, who was ineligible for the EU title. He won the 2016 Francophonie Championship in Menton on tiebreak. His books include La mia siciliana and, with Bruno Codenotti, A scuola di scacchi da Alice, which connects chess with mathematics and literature.