Nuntikarta Giovanniterrana

[Giovanniland]

[Giovanniland]

1423 Elections in Giovanniland: What to Expect?

Porto Violeto, Giovanniland — Elections for the Senato are slated to happen on 18 March 1423, as Prime Minister Amore Gile Abrente's term in office comes to an end after coming to the position on 5 May 1419. Under the semi-constitutional monarchy of Giovanniland, the national legislative branch is the Senato and has 500 members elected by popular vote. Afterwards, the King selects one of these members to be the Prime Minister, usually from the largest party that can form a majority coalition, and then they jointly lead the nation. General elections happen when the Senato is dissolved, happening at most four years after the previous one, or earlier if the Prime Minister resigns, dies in office, or is subject to a successful vote of no confidence. 

The nation has fared well during Mrs Abrente's term, with the continuation of notable technological development coupled with respect for the environment, a core tenet of her Partito Verde (Green Party), and major events including the Quorivo & Kharventhin Esferiad, a flagship project of the term together with neighboring Blue Bubble. Mrs Abrente is hoping to capitalize on these successes and remain in power, together with her allies in the Partito Labrista (Labour Party) and Partito Demokrata (Democratic Party). 

The current prime minister has a fair chance of getting re-elected, though there are two possible outcomes in which that doesn't happen. One would be that Labour led by Elisa Anario-Silva surpass the Greens in legislative seats, so the King would be inclined to nominate a Labour senator as Prime Minister instead. The other is that the right-wing coalition returns to power, led by the Partito Librale (Liberal Party) and the Partito Konservatore (Conservative Party).

For those unfamiliar with Giovannilandian elections, each of the eleven regions gets to elect a number of senators according to its population: the most populous region, Giovannia Magna, gets 66 seats while the least populous, Kordelleria, gets only seven. In addition to the national Senato elections, each region and municipality will elect members to its Kuria, a local assembly that chooses the leader for the respective administrative division and develops local legislation. In the live coverage of the election day, we hope to bring you a lot of updates about how the outlook of the 1423 Senato goes as votes come in. Stay tuned!

[Giovanniland]

Giovannilandian 1423 Election Results!

Porto Violeto, Giovanniland — In a surprising turn of events, the Partito Verde (Green Party) no longer has the most seats in the left-wing coalition it forms with the Partito Labrista (Labour Party) and Partito Demokrata (Democratic Party). The Labour Party led by Elisa Anario-Silva attained 84 seats in the Senato, surpassing the 80 seats won by current Prime Minister Amore Gile Abrente's party, the Greens. 

A total of 18,230,986 voters came to the elections, which is a turnout of 78.25% from the total of 23,299,029 citizens with at least 18 years of age. Giovannilandians cast their votes for the general election according to their region, where each party fields an open list of candidates, and the number of senators elected depends on the region's population. Regions and municipalities also elected members to their local legislatures, which in turn choose the leader for the given administrative division.

The parties in the Senato are the left-wing Labour Party, the center-left Green Party, the center to center-left Democratic Party, the center to center-right Partito Librale (Liberal Party) and the right-wing Partito Konservatore (Conservative Party). The final results were 111 (27.75%) seats for the Liberals, 84 (21%) for Labour, 80 (20%) for the Greens, 70 (17.5%) for the Conservatives and 55 (13.75%) for the Democrats. Although the Liberals are the largest party, they don't have the numbers to form either of their usual coalitions, a centrist coalition with the Democrats or a right-wing one with the Conservatives. 

In comparison to the 1419 Senato, the Liberals increased by 13 seats, followed by a five-seat increase for the Democrats and a two-seat increase for Labour. Meanwhile, the Greens lost 9 seats and the Conservatives lost 11. These shifts mean that King Giovanni VI will most likely appoint a Labour senator for the premiership, besides also leaving the Liberal leader Vinikio Lamponi in a much stronger position to challenge the left-wing coalition in the next elections. On the other hand, the Conservative leader and former Prime Minister Lauro de Abreo-Florino resigned from party leadership, citing this election as the final nail in the coffin after other recent bad performances.

Now that elections have concluded, we look forward to what the future holds for the country. Although the party in the premiership is slated to change, most stances on key national issues and political ideologies are fairly similar between the two left-wing parties. Regardless of which senator is chosen, the new Prime Minister will be able to rely on Amore Gile Abrente's successes, including but not limited to the Quorivo & Kharventhin Esferiad, the development of environmentally-friendly technology to maintain Giovanniland's position in the group of pioneer nations in this field, and continued improvement in social and economic standards across the nation.

[Giovanniland]

1423 Giovannilandian Chess Championship Concludes!

The official logo of the 1423 Giovannilandian Chess Championship.

Sonserina, Giovanniland — The 1423 Giovannilandian Chess Championship came to an end this Tuesday, 26th December 1423, with multiple-time former champion Raffella Quadrigaro returning to the position of champion after almost a decade. The competition started in the first day of the month and featured forty participants from different regions of Giovanniland, playing in a group stage where the top two from each group advanced to the knockout stage and then decided the winner. The event was visited by notable political figures, including Prime Minister Elisa Anario-Silva and His Majesty King Giovanni VI, as well as His Serene Highness Prince Marcarius of Saint Mark. It happened in Sonserina, a city of 103,715 inhabitants, considered the national capital of chess.

Every year, regional competitions determine the participants of each championship. Places are allocated to each region in proportion to their population, and these competitions are often a place for rising stars in national chess to be known for a wider audience, while established players usually are the first to confirm their qualification. Thirty-nine players arrived into the national competition out of this process, joined by the defending champion, and all were afterwards ranked and divided into five pots by ELO rating in order to be randomly sorted into one of the eight groups.

Group A was led by defending champion Guillermo Urido-Amorino, winner of the 1421 and 1422 chess championships. It also had three other participants that were last present in 1421, namely Iuliana, Ioseppa and Valeria, as well as Augusto whose most recent entry into the national championship was five years ago. In a surprising twist, Guillermo did not finish in first place because both him and Iuliana had the same amount of points, but in the head-to-head record he had lost to her. The two ended with three points each, from three wins and one loss, while Ioseppa was close but did not make it—she won against the eventual group leader but drew against lower rated opponents.

Group B's highest rated player was Dezeno Purparboni, notable for being the champion in 1411 and runner-up in 1422, and he indeed finished first far ahead of the others, with three wins and one draw for three and a half points. Aside from returning participants Kiro, Aurelio, and Daniella there was also Massimiano who entered the national tournament for the first time. The surprise of this group was Daniella, who returned after three years and qualified in second place to the dismay of Kiro. Both achieved two points, but as Daniella had more wins, she qualified for the knockout stage for her first time.

Group C saw the participation of perennial participants Karlo and Gepello, who rarely fail to qualify; returning players Gallio and Gratia; and another new arrival to the tournament, Zerina. Karlo—notable for winning three consecutive championships from 1408 to 1410—led the group with the same results as Giovanni did in Group B, however competition was more fierce, as the second place Gepello was only half a point behind. The international master has a history of creating some upsets, for example in 1421 when he defeated then-defending champion Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone and caused her to miss the knockout stage; in fact he might be promoted to Grandmaster in the near future. This time, he defeated the slightly higher rated Gallio who then lost the second place to him.

In the Group D, the 1420 champion Lavinia improved her chess record by topping the group after failing to qualify to the knockout stage twice in a row in the last two editions. She got 3.5 points and only failed to win against Amanda Gilvano Trinelli, who also ended with the same amount of points, and the draw meant that Lavinia finished in first for her higher rating. Amanda continues to enjoy success after her surprising run to fourth place in 1421 despite not having any chess title at that time, followed by a fast rise in the national rankings. New participant Angelo did not get any points, however the bigger disappointment of the group was the grandmaster Giorgia, only earning a single point and finishing in fourth, behind international master Margerito.

Group A	P	W	D	L	Group B	P	W	D	L
GM Iuliana Flaviano-Emina	3	3	0	1	GM Dezeno Purparboni	3.5	3	1	0
GM Guillermo Urido-Amorino	3	3	0	1	CM Daniella Gigero	2	2	0	2
IM Ioseppa Oselliano	2	1	2	1	GM Kiro Tarquinio	2	1	2	1
IM Augusto Rossiano-Gellio	1	0	2	2	IM Aurelio Vindemia Tassi	1.5	1	1	2
Valeria Fenestella	1	0	2	2	Massimiano Faustino	1	1	0	3
Group C	P	W	D	L	Group D	P	W	D	L
GM Karlo Neurino-Sousa	3.5	3	1	0	GM Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone	3.5	3	1	0
IM Gepello Gormo-Pasano	3	2	2	0	IM Amanda Gilvano Trinelli	3.5	3	1	0
GM Gallio Kervario Hortense	2.5	2	1	1	IM Margerito de Alboquerko	2	2	0	2
Zerina Suevio-Medottani	1	1	0	3	GM Giorgia Superbo-Legia	1	1	0	3
IM Gratia Frundoni Lukio	0	0	0	4	Angelo Dolabella Porto	0	0	0	4
Group E	P	W	D	L	Group F	P	W	D	L
GM Vittore Nima-Liamo	4	4	0	0	GM Oralino Kezeni Gormo	3	2	2	0
GM Sergio Amorante-Aquilano	2.5	2	1	1	CM Isidoro Andago Santi	2.5	2	1	1
IM Tommaso Kunelli	2	2	0	2	GM Severo Spindola Giordano	2	1	2	1
CM Eustakia Erdene	1	0	2	2	Amando Nevio-Karpo	1.5	1	1	2
Madalena Amento-Oltoveno	0.5	0	1	3	IM Markella Tamudio	1	1	0	3
Group G	P	W	D	L	Group H	P	W	D	L
GM Gustavo Takeda	3.5	3	1	0	GM Lavanda Rosetta-Lira	4	4	0	0
GM Zutrina Palbario	3	2	2	0	GM Raffella Quadrigaro	2.5	2	1	1
GM Antonio Ambrosio Borba	1.5	1	1	2	CM Iulio Punso-Lodago	2.5	2	1	1
CM Serena Agrikola	1.5	0	3	1	IM Augustino Neuriani	1	0	0	3
CM Otto Velite-Peskennio	0.5	0	1	3	CM Vittore Ugeno Kelestino	0	0	0	4

Meanwhile, Group E was one of the only two groups where a participant won all the matches. It was Vittore Nima-Liamo, who recently earned the Grandmaster title and notably got the bronze medal in the previous edition. He even overcame Sergio Amorante-Aquilano, a regular participant of this tournament and champion in two separate occasions, 1411 and 1418. Eventual third place in the group Tommaso did not get the chance to see the knockout stage again after his quarterfinal appearance two years ago, while the two other participants Eustakia and Madalena enjoyed joining the tournament for the second and first time respectively.

Group F was a group where all participants had been in at least one of the two last editions. The two Grandmasters of the group, Severo and Oralino, had little difference in their ratings, and in fact drew the match between the two, however the former did qualify while the latter did not. It was the candidate master Isidoro who achieved second place instead, in his fifth appearance here, after an also interesting run as far as the quarterfinals last year. The overall group was competitive, all players without exception being exactly half a point in distance between each other, from the first place Severo to the last place Markella.

As for Group G, it was the only group to have three Grandmasters, since a total of seventeen players with this title qualified to the competition. The 1419 champion and strong contender for his second title Gustavo Takeda led the group as expected, however he did not win all the matches as he managed to do in the previous two years. Instead, he won three of his matches and drew the other one, against fellow grandmaster Zutrina Palbario. She was able to join the tournament again after a two years-long absence and performed strongly, taking the second place in the group. The other three players in the group—Antonio, Otto and Serena—all have played in the national tournament before, however they could not achieve a good result this time.

Finally, Group H was the other group where a player got the most points possible, four, after winning all matches. Unexpectedly it was not the top rated player of the group, multiple-time former champion Raffella Quadrigaro, but rather Lavanda Rosetta-Lira. Lavanda finished in fourth place in the last tournament, her best finish so far ever since her first participation seven years ago. Meanwhile, Raffella qualified for the knockout stage in second place, fighting until the end with Iulio Punso-Lodago for the position, but it was an improvement over the previous year where she stayed out of that stage entirely. This was also a group where all participants have played in one of the two last editions, including the other two players Augustino and Vittore. 

The results of the knockout stage.

After the group stage, twelve Grandmasters qualified for the knockout stage, as well as three International Masters and one Candidate Master. In the upper part of the bracket, Raffella Quadrigaro made up for her not very good group stage performance with a streak of confident wins, denying players such as Dezeno Purparboni and Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone a chance of getting another championship. The latter went as far as the semifinals, defeating multiple-time champion Karlo Neurino-Sousa throughout her way, and thus proceeded to play the third place match. Meanwhile, other players did not get past the round of 16, for example Sergio and Isidoro, two of the quarterfinalists in the previous championship, and Zutrina who reached this stage for the first time.

The lower part of the bracket had matches just as interesting as the upper part. Vittore Nima-Liamo was the finalist from here, firstly defeating the two best international masters of the tournament, Amanda and Gepello—the latter was the only one to go past the round 16, after he won against Oralino. Then, a very awaited and exciting match came into being, with Vittore facing Gustavo Takeda in a repeat of last year's quarterfinals! Gustavo came to this match with high morale after knocking out the defending champion Guillermo Urido-Amorino out of the tournament, but it unfortunately wasn't enough in the tiebreaker matches, and he fell a second time to Vittor.

Last but not least, the final and third place match happened in December 25th and 26th which is the same time as the Lavender Festival started, a very important week-long celebration in Giovanniland, thus adding to the great expectations for these last two matches. The bronze match was fittingly between 1419 champion Gustavo and 1420 champion Lavinia, in a very close dispute that the former won after tiebreaks. As for the great final, multiple-time champion Raffella faced the rising star Vittore, and convincingly won the game to add one more title to her collection, although Vittor also played very well. Raffella has played professional chess for over three decades now, winning the national championships of 1400, 1405, 1407, 1413, 1414, 1415 and now 1423. Celebrations then ensued, as the medals were awarded to the top three and the final rankings were announced.

Rank	Player	Group	Points	W	D	L
1	GM Raffella Quadrigaro	H	6	5	2	1
2	GM Vittore Nima-Liamo	E	6.5	6	1	1
3	GM Gustavo Takeda	G	6	4	4	0
4	GM Lavinia Pasquale-Arbone	D	5.5	4	3	1
Quarterfinals
5	GM Dezeno Purparboni	B	5	4	2	0
6	GM Karlo Neurino-Sousa	C	4.5	3	3	0
7	GM Guillermo Urido-Amorino	A	4	3	2	1
8	IM Gepello Gormo-Pasano	C	4	3	2	1
Round of 16
9	GM Lavanda Rosetta-Lira	H	4.5	4	1	0
10	IM Amanda Gilvano Trinelli	D	3.5	3	1	1
11	GM Iuliana Flaviano-Emina	A	3	3	0	2
12	GM Oralino Kezeni Gormo	F	3	2	2	1
13	GM Zutrina Palbario	G	3	2	2	1
14	CM Isidoro Andago Santi	F	3	2	2	1
15	GM Sergio Amorante-Aquilano	E	2.5	2	1	2
16	CM Daniella Gigero	B	2	2	0	3
Group Stage
17	GM Gallio Kervario Hortense	C	2.5	2	1	1
18	GM Iulio Punso-Lodago	H	2.5	2	1	1
19	IM Tommaso Kunelli	E	2	2	0	2
20	IM Margerito de Alboquerko	D	2	2	0	2
21	GM Kiro Tarquinio	B	2	1	2	1
22	GM Severo Spindola Giordano	F	2	1	2	1
23	IM Ioseppa Oselliano	A	2	1	2	1
24	GM Antonio Ambrosio Borba	G	1.5	1	1	2
25	GM Aurelio Vindemia Tassi	B	1.5	1	1	2
26	Amando Nevio-Karpo	F	1.5	1	1	2
27	CM Serena Agrikola	G	1.5	0	3	1
28	GM Giorgia Superbo-Legia	D	1	1	0	3
29	IM Augustino Neuriani	H	1	1	0	3
30	IM Markella Tamudio	F	1	1	0	3
31	Zerina Suevio-Medottani	C	1	1	0	3
32	Massimiano Faustino	B	1	1	0	3
33	IM Augusto Rossiano-Gellio	A	1	0	2	2
34	CM Eustakia Erdene	E	1	0	2	2
35	Valeria Fenestella	A	1	0	2	2
36	CM Otto Velite-Peskennio	G	0.5	0	1	3
37	Madalena Amento-Oltoveno	E	0.5	0	1	3
38	IM Gratia Frundoni Lukio	C	0	0	0	4
39	CM Vittore Ugeno Kelestino	H	0	0	0	4
40	Angelo Dolabella Porto	D	0	0	0	4