GM Yuri Gonzalez becomes Cuba´s chess champion

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 12 (acn) Havana´s Yuri Gonzalez won the Cuban Men´s National Chess Championship for the first time last Sunday.

Gonzalez, who ranked second last year, beat Omar Almeida in the final round and totaled 5.5 points, same amount of three other players but he became champion by having better tiebreak than his opponents.
Isan Ortiz, Ermes Espinosa and Yasser Quesada escorted Gonzalez in that same order.
Ortiz, monarch in 2013, 2014 and 2015, drew with Quesada in the final game, while Espinoza defeated Camilo Gomez, who ranked last with 2.5 units.
The new champion thus earned a direct ticket in the team that will attend the upcoming FIDE 2018 Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia.
According to FIDE Internacional Referee Jose Luis Ramirez, the Blitz event will take place today and will be attended by Lazaro Bruzon, five-time Cuban champion who didn´t participate in the classical event not to affect his ELO coefficient (2673).