Ivanchuk, Xiong and Fernandez win Capablanca chess tournament

VARADERO, Cuba, Jun 20 (acn) American Jeffery Xiong and Cuban Carlos Fernandez completed the list of monarchs of Capablanca Memorial Chess Tournament after Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk had previously won the Elite group.

Xiong headed the standings in Premier Poole while Fernandez did the same in the Open Group in a contest where Ivanchuk conquered his seventh reign.
In his final game, he drew with local Leinier Dominguez in 26 moves of a Queen's Gambit, totaling thus 7 points from possible 10 in the 51st edition of an event which has him as its top historical winner.
The second seat of the Elite group went to the also Ukrainian Yuriy Krivoruchko who totaled six units after beating by forfeit Cuban Lazaro Bruzon, retired because of illness.
Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov and Hungarian Zoltan Almasi signed peace in the game between them and finished third and fourth, in that order, both with five points but the first of them had better tiebreaker.
Leinier, who admitted that he aspired to a better performance, had to accept the fifth spot with only four units and no win, while Bruzon (2.5) finished in bottom of the standings, fact that extended the absence of local crowns in that group.
The last one came in 2009 with Leinier himself as protagonist.
The same happened in the Premier Poole because the teenager Xiong, number one in the U-16 world ranking, was awesome by totaling 6.5 units from possible 9, with four wins and five draws.
The final day he beat Spanish Angel Arribas in 44 moves of a Sicilian defense and waited for what happened with Cuban Isan Ortiz, only one with options to reach him at the Barcelo Solymar-Arenas Blancas hotel.
But Ortiz drew with the also local Yuniesky Quesada in 46 moves of a Queen's Indian Defence, outcome which allowed the young American player to win the scepter.
Ortiz was second with six points and better tiebreaker than Polish Kamil Dragun, victimizer of Cuban Yuri Gonzalez.
Yuniesky said goodbye with 5.5 points and was followed by Yuri (4.5), Yusnel Bacallao (Cuba / 4), Samuel Sevian (USA / 4), Camilo Gomez (Cuba / 3.5), Arribas (3) and Ivan Morovic (Chile / 2).
The Open group did provided joys for the hosts as it was led by Ernesto Fernandez, who also earned the only GM norm achieved among its more than 130 participants.
Fernandez totaled 7.5 points in 10 outings, like his compatriots Ermes Espinosa, Omar Almeida and Juan Borges, who finished from second to fourth seats.