Cuban teams defined for Chess Olympiad

Havana, May 14 (RHC)-- With the ratification of national champions Yasser Quesada and Yaniela Forgas, the Cuban teams that will attend the Chennai 2022 Chess Olympiad in India, scheduled for July 27 to August 10, were announced Friday.

Yasser and Yaniela had won their right to be part of the national teams after winning the recent competitions on the island, a rule that applies in those competitions in the so-called Olympic years.

According to a press release from the Cuban Chess Federation, the men's team will be completed with Carlos Daniel Albornoz, Luis Ernesto Quesada, Isán Ortiz and Omar Almeida, the first two debutants in tournaments of this kind.

The women's team includes Lisandra Ordaz, Yerisbel Miranda, the young Ineymig Hernández and the experienced Maritza Arribas, who will face her 16th participation in the most important team tournament in the world of Science Games.

Yaniela and Ineymig, winner of the recent International Capablanca in Memoriam Chess Tournament, are the only ones in the group without previous participation in this type of tournament, where strategy takes on a different nuance, since the important thing is the performance as a team.

In order to form the teams, national and international events were taken into account, especially the past championships of the Island and the Capablanca, especially because there was a long period of almost two years without competitions due to the covid-19.

The national methodologist of this sport, Wilfredo Toledo, reminded that the order in which the members are mentioned does not correspond to the boards they will defend in Chennai. To determine that, other analyses will be taken into account and it will be announced close to the competition.

Cuba's best performances date back to Khanty-Mansyisk 2010, when the women finished fourth. The men file a pair of seventh places in Calvia 2004 and Tromso 2014.

This Olympiad was to be organized in Moscow, but the venue was changed due to the war conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Chennai, capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is located on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, has about 7 million inhabitants and is the home city of former world champion Viswanathan Anand.