Havana, May 13 (RHC)-- Cuba's Yerisbel Miranda reigned in the rapid games tournament and Argentina's Candela Belen Francisco in the classical tournament during the Women's Continental Chess Championship of the Americas 2023.

Yerisbel said goodbye with two wins to complete 5.5 points out of a possible seven, in an event that "stole" part of the attention to the 56th International Chess Tournament Capablanca in Memoriam 2023, also held at the Habana Libre Hotel. 

The Pinar del Río native defeated Peru's Ann Chumpitaz and Deysi Cori in a row to round up an unreachable total for her compatriots Lisandra Ordaz and Yaniela Forgas, in second and third place, in that order, with five points. Ordaz lost in the bye round to Yaniela, an outcome that generated an embrace at the bottom of the podium.

In the classical games event, the main event that gathered 70 players from 20 nations, Candela, a young girl of only 16 years of age, had the biggest smile on her face.

The South American completed seven units in nine games, after reaching a draw with Chumpitaz on Friday. Thus, in addition to the crown, she won the only world championship place in dispute and will return home with the title of grandmaster.

According to the rules of the continental chess federation, this privilege is awarded to the winner of these competitions if she does not hold it, as it happened now.

To define the other places on the podium, the tie-breaker system had to be used, because five girls completed 6.5 points. Ordaz and Chumpitaz benefited after applying the formulas and became the silver and bronze medalists.

Cuba's Patricia Hernandez, Colombia's Valentina Argote and the Island's current champion, Oleiny Linares, placed fourth through sixth, respectively.

According to data provided by statistician Osmani Pedraza, Villaclareña Patricia achieved a second international master standard.

As part of the tournament held for the first time in Havana, there was also a Blitz tournament, which had as queen the Ecuadorian Anahi Ortiz with seven units in nine games. Cori and Canadian Svitlana Demchenko joined her on the podium with 6.5 points each.

The experience lived in the Cuban capital was well valued by players and specialists. The tournament could become a driving force to host other relevant tournaments in the future.