about 300 chess players from 18 countries will animate the 55th edition of the Capablanca in Memoriam tournament, which will be held in Havana between April 18 and 28, according to official media on the island.
The United States, Spain, Argentina, Turkey, Canada, India, Mexico and Chile are some of the nations that will be represented at the event, which is now returning to its face-to-face format and will have the usual Elite, Premier and Open groups, as well as an unprecedented Senior segment for gamers over 60, according to a specialized website publication Hit.
The organizers confirmed that the contest will be the one with the greatest live coverage in the history of the Chess on the Island. “Right now we have a better position in terms of resources and technology. For the first time, cameras will be mounted in all the rooms to transmit everything that happens there in real time,” said the president of the local federation, Carlos Rivero, quoted by the source.
Rivero also announced that among the attractions of the upcoming tournament will be a simultaneous event with 146 participants, to be held next Sunday, April 17, in which the participants will have the opportunity to face several of the most important figures in the country. According to the director, the number of boards symbolizes the sum of the editions of the tournament with the 91st anniversary of the founding of the emblematic Cuban National Hotelwhose halls will serve this time as the setting for the fair.
On this occasion, the Elite group will bring together players with more than 2,600 ELO points, and will have the Argentine Sandro Mareco (2,652) as its maximum exponent. Foreign contestants include American Hans Niemann, Indian Surya Ganguly, Turkish Mustafa Yimaz and Azerbaijani Vasif Durarbayli.
The Cubans enrolled in this section will be Yasser Quesada, Carlos Daniel Albornoz, Isán Ortiz, Omar Almeida and Luis Ernesto Quesada, according to the newspaper.
The Premier group will be made up only of women and the Peruvian Deysi Cori (2391) appears as the one with the highest ELO. Together with her, the Romanian Irina Bulgama, the Polish Olivia Kiolbassa, the Argentine Carolina Luján, as well as the locals Lisandra Ordaz, Ineymig Hernández, Yerisbel Miranda, Yuleisy Hernández, Maritza Arribas and Yaniela Forgas, the latter winner of the last championship national.
In addition, the contest Looking for a Capablanca will be held once again, which will bring together some 120 children under 16 years of age and will award prizes by age category, underlines Hit. The participation of the Spaniard Leontxo García, one of the most prestigious chroniclers of this sport, and advisor to the International Federation (FIDE) for educational chess issues, was also confirmed.
Chess: new national champions lead the list of the Cuban tournament Capablanca in Memoriam
The Capablanca in Memoriam tournaments began to be held in 1962, in honor of the Grand Master Jose Raul Capablanca Grauperathe only Cuban world champion, who reigned from 1921 to 1927.
Since its inception, it attracted the attention of great figures in this sport, including the Argentine Miguel Nadjorf, the Swiss Vívtor Korchnoi, the then Soviet world champion Vasily Smyslov and the Ukrainian Vaslily Ivanchuk, who has been crowned eight times.
Capablanca died early, close to his 54th birthday, and during his career he accumulated a total of 302 wins, 246 draws and only 35 losses.
