Cuban chess team ranks third in Olympiad

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 5 (acn) Cuba defeated 2.5-1.5 Poland and raised to third seat in the open event of the World Chess Olympiad, which is based in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.

Led by its star Leinier Dominguez (2,720 ELO points), the Caribbean squad remains undefeated and totals six units, as 15 other teams, although by tiebreaker they are surpassed by Russia and Azerbaijan 1.
Leinier drew with the known Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2736) in 43 moves of a Nimzo-Indian defense in the most demanding game of the day.
In the second board, Lazaro Bruzon (2623) lost to Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2675) in 39 moves of Spanish opening, but Yuniesky Quesada (2636) and Isan Ortiz (2581) decisively contributed to Cuba´s victory through their wins in the third and fourth boards, in that order.
Yuniesky beat Mateusz Bartel (2646) in 42 moves of a French defense while Ortiz won over Dariusz Swierce (2639) in 27 moves of a Sicilian defense.
For the latter, silver medalist two years ago, this was his third consecutive win, and with the added value of being achieved with black pieces.
In the next match, Cuba again will be very demanded by India, which shows favorable balance of five wins, three draws and one loss in nine previous matches of this kind.
On Sunday´s other results, Russia defeated Moldova 3-1, India beat Azerbaijan 2 with the same score and Azerbaijan 1 did the same against Hungary.
In the women´s event things did not go so well to Cubans as they lost 1.5-2.5 to Lithuania, mainly due to the loss of Yaniet Marrero (2281) to Salomeja Zaksaite (2298).
That happened in the second board and made the difference, because the other games: Maritza Arribas (2315)-Deimante Daulyte (2421), Oleiny Linares (2276)-Daiva Batyte (2189) and Lisandra Llaudy (2269)-Laima Domarkai (2161) all finished in draw.
After that result, Cuba totals four points from possible six, and appears 28th in the standings led by Russia, France and India, although there are 13 teams with perfect performances.
Today they have the opportunity of climbing positions when facing Colombia, side trained by Cuban Omar Almeida.