American Grand Master (GM) Hans Niemann established himself as the lone leader in the Elite group of the 55th International Chess Tournament Capablanca in Memoriamwhich will have its general rest date this Sunday.
To gain access to the top of the contest, which is being held in the halls of Havana’s Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Niemann won this Saturday by moving the white pieces to the Indian GM Surya Ganguly, in 90 moves of an English opening, according to review the specialized site Hit.
The northerner, only 18 years old, thus reached four points, and is half a unit ahead of his most recent victim, who held the leadership until then, adds the medium.
He defeated Ganguly and leads the elite group alone. In the premier there were no wins for #Cuba #Chess #Chess https://t.co/o0nWyYTHe8
— JIT Cuban Sport (@jit_digital) April 24, 2022
In the same key, the Argentine Sandro Mareco shook off two consecutive defeats and beat the Cuban Isán Ortiz with black figures, in 47 sets of a Ruy López opening. Thanks to this, he now shares places from three to six in the classification, with the Turkish Mustafa Yilmaz, the Azerbaijani Vasif Durarbayli and the host Luis Ernesto Quesada, all with three points.
highlights Hit that in the Saturday round Durarbayli and Luis Ernesto agreed to peace in their particular duel, while Yilmaz achieved the same result against the local Carlos Daniel Albornoz.
The results of the date were completed with the division of honors between the Cubans Omar Almeida and Yasser Quesada, who, like Albornoz, have accumulated 1.5 lines and are behind in the standings of the main group of the tournament. The last position is occupied by the also local Isán Ortiz, with just one unit.
Chess: Elite group of the Capablanca tournament “will be attractive”, according to Cuban expert
Meanwhile, in the Premier group, convened only for women, the only three games that ended with a winner had as protagonists visiting chess players, graceful before representatives of the house.
In those duels, the Peruvian Deisy Cori beat the Cuban Yuleisy Hernández, the Argentine Carolina Luján was better than the host Ineymig Hernández, and the Polish Oliwia Kiolbasa left Lisandra Ordaz, another of the house, without options, highlights Hit.
Instead, the current Cuban champion, Yaniela Forgas, negotiated a draw with her compatriot Maritza Arribas and managed to stay in second position with 3.5 points, behind the Romanian Irina Bulmaga, who made peace with the host Yerisbel Miranda.
According to the publication, Kiolbasa and Ordaz now exhibit three units, Maritza, Cori and Luján appear later with 2.5; Ineymig continues with two, Yerisbel was at 1.5 and Yuleisy closes the ranking with 0.5.
Although this Sunday the main chess players rest, the newest will play the first round of the segment “Looking for a Capablanca”, which changed its headquarters to the Ciudad Deportiva. The rest of the sections will return to the competition tomorrow, Monday.
