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Cuban Chess Player 2nd in Mexican Tournament
Cuban chess champion Yuniesky Quesada (2,580 ELO) had his first great victory in 2003 when he won the Carlos Torres Repetto International Tournament. This year, he finished second in that contest losing the final 0.5-1.5 against Ukrainian-born American Alexander Onischuk (2,644).

After pulling out a draw in the morning, neither Onischuk nor Yuniesky suspected that in the afternoon they would break a record in the Wimbledon tournaments of the Carlos Torres competition: they played the first match with more than a hundred moves. It lasted exactly 106 moves and almost five hours, something infrequent after the implementation of the time formula of an hour and a half for each player, with 30 seconds more for each move.

The match began with a Catalan Opening by Onischuk. In the precise moment, when they passed from the opening to the middlegame, the American captured a pawn with his queen in a7 in his 15 turn and kept that advantage up until the end. Yuniesky put up a tough resistance and sometimes it seemed that he would reach a draw; but two minor mistakes became great faced with the mastery of his opponent.

Now, the duel between the two chess players is tied 1.5-1.5 because Yuniesky defeated the Onischuk in the recent World Olympics held in Dresden, Germany.

Norm and tournament for Lelys

Cuba’s current runner-up, Lelys Martínez (2,485), beat his first Grand Master norm in the Carlos Torres Repetto International Tournament, at the same time that he won the title in the magistral group that competed at the Olimpo Cultural Center in downtown Merida.

Lelys is a unique character. Officially, he is a FIDE Master (FM), but he has eight norms valid for the title of International Master (IM).

In the magistral group, ten chess players tied for first place with 6.5 of the 9 points possible, but Lelys won the title for having the best results. Second place went to another Cuban, GM Omar Almeida (2519), and third place to Colombian GM Alonso Zapata (2501).

In addition to Lelys GM title, 16-year-old Yasser Quesada, Yuniesky brother, was awarded the IM norms for the second time.

The other six who finished with 6.5 points were Cubans Juan Borges, Jesús Nogueiras and Walter Arencibia; Macedonian Nikola Mitkov; Aregentine Pablo Della; and Peruvian Emilio Córdova.

The next group from 11th to 14th with 6 points consisted of Cubans Reinaldo Vera yand Camilo Gómez, Mexican Álvaro Blanco and Georgian Ana Matnadze.

The silver medal winner at the Dresde Olympics, Cuban Oleiny Linares finished with 5 points, winning his first match over GM Frank de la Paz. Oddly enough, for some technicality he did not reach the norms for GM, the same happened in Dresden, where he came up a few fractions short of the minimum ELO for a GM.

This was another excellent tournament that for the first time featured children’s matches outside the Olimpo, with separate prizes and revamped facilities.

Once again, there were great live commentaries by renowned Spanish journalist Leontxo García and Cuban GM Silvino García.

(Juventud Rebelde)














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