Cuban to one round of final in world youth chess championship in Italy

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 23 (ACN) Cuban Alain Otero agreed a draw during the 10th round of the World Youth Chess Championship in Montesilvano, Italy, and Friday he will face Iceland's Benedikt Thorisson in his farewell match.

Moving black pieces he agreed peace with the Greek Spyros Hartofylakas, and improved two positions to be placed in the 83rd place among the 134 players of the open tournament in the under-18 category.

With white he will take his leave against the aforementioned Thorisson, another player with the same accumulated ranking, which places him in 95th place in the ranking.

Otero, national junior champion in 2022, did not arrive in the Italian tournament among the favorites to occupy the top positions, but his previous performances showed the possibility of rounding off a better result.

Three wins, four losses and a trio of draws appear so far in his record. However, the most significant thing is that throughout the tournament he has faced players with an average Elo of 200 points below his current coefficient of 2,204.

In the women's age group, Azerbaijan's Ayan Allahverdiyeva is the sole leader with 8.5 points, followed by Russia's Anna Zhurova and Rochelle Wu of the United States, in that order.