The Cuban Carlos Daniel Albornoz won this Thursday the title of the modality of rapid games corresponding to the Absolute Continental Championship of Chess of the Americas, which is held in Juan Dolio, city of the Dominican Republic.
The grandmaster (GM) accumulated 9.5 points out of 11 possible, to surpass his Chilean counterpart Cristóbal Henríquez by half a unit, according to the official follow-up of the contest published by the Chees-Results website.
Carlos Daniel Albornoz conquers rapid continental chess tournament of the Americas https://t.co/umb0oX8KxD
– Villa Riva News (@NotiVillaRiva) May 26, 2023
The player from Camagüey covered the entire route undefeated, in which he added seven successes and two equalities, and was responsible for Henríquez’s only defeat when they met in the fifth round.
Thanks to the tie-break formula, the third place on the podium corresponded to the Colombian International Master (IM) Esteban Valderrama, the best among a group of five players who filed eight units, among which were the Cubans Luis Ernesto Quesada and Aramis Álvarez.
The other Cubans, Elier Miranda (7.5 points) and Lelys Martínez (7), anchored in positions eight and 12, respectively, while Yerisbel Miranda rounded off 6.5 points to become the most outstanding woman in the fair, by anchor in seat 27.
Yerisbel signed four hits, five draws and gave up a couple of times. Three places behind was her compatriot Daniela Forgas, who managed to come out on top six times, but gave up in the rest of the games.
With his coronation, Albornoz added 17.3 points to his Elo for that modality, and says goodbye to the Dominican contest also with the crown in the Blitz specialty, and the runner-up conquered in the call for classic games.
In the Blitz fight, he added nine points out of 11 possible to lead GM Santiago Ávila, also after applying the tiebreaker formula, since they ended up tied at the top of the standings.
Carlos Daniel Albornoz wins the Absolute Continental Chess Blitz
The Blitz and Rapid modalities will be the only ones summoned for the premiere of chess in the Central American and Caribbean Games that will be held in San Salvador at the end of June, and in the men’s version Cuba will be represented by Albornoz and Quesada.
Yerisbel and Yaniela were registered in the women’s competition, so their results in the recently concluded championship without distinction of sex suggest that they will arrive at the regional multi-sport event with good chances of fighting for the scepter.
