Chess for the handicapped

Havana, November 12 (JIT)-- Cuba accumulated four victories on Thursday in the World Chess Championship for People with Disabilities, a virtual event that has already completed seven of its nine rounds.

Carlos Larduet remained as the best placed for the Island, after signing a draw against the Venezuelan Harlen José Otero. He was left with six points, leaving him in ninth place in the ranking.

That ranking is now led by Armenian Sargis Sargissyan, whose victory over Mongolian Dashtseren Ganbat made him the only one with seven points. Then come Russia's Stanislav Babarykin and Poland's Jacek Stachanczyk with 6.5 points.

Cuba also enjoyed the successes of Alberto Interián against Azeri Alakbar Zeynalov, Raúl Leonardo Lavigne against German Manuela Mekus, Elio Eddys García against Vietnamese Pham Thi Huong and Idalis Batista against Polish Malwina Szewczyk.

Of all of them, Interián was the one who benefited the most from the victory because he reached 5.5 scores that catapulted him to the 20th place in the event. As a curious fact, this was his second consecutive victory due to disqualification of his opponent.

Karla Marrero, Lorenzo Alexis Simón and Mario Pallerols were defeated.

This Friday Larduet will face Macedonian Zarko Selkovski and Interián will face Argentinean Marcelo Ibar, in the games that should be the most followed for the Cubans.

The tournament will end on Saturday and, in addition to the individual prizes, will award the title of champion to the country whose best four players score the most points.