Havana, December 8 (RHC-ACN) Cuban Lisandra Ordaz was invited to the FIDE 2017 King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from next December 26 to 30.

Ordaz will be the first Cuban woman participating in an event at this level and she was included as she currently appears 52nd in the world ranking with 2,144 Elo points.

The contest will be attended by almost all the current global stars, such as Chinese Yifan Hou and Wenjun Ju, Ukrainians Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk and Lithuanian Viktorija Cmilyte.

According to FIDE website, more than 80 players are so far registered in the women´s event, but only Ordaz and Peru's Deysi Cori will represent Latin America, although registrations are still open.

Meanwhile, the men´s event will include Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, main favorite to the scepter, without disregarding Russian Vladimir Kramnik, French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Armenian Levon Aronian and American Fabiano Caruana, just to mention some of the most famous.

Cuban Leinier Domínguez was invited, but Carlos Rivero, national commissioner, assured that he will not attend.

The prize pool for the event amounts to two million dollars and the organizers will also be responsible for travel and accommodation expenses of all players attending the contest.