Chess

Cuban GM Lázaro Bruzón shares with his Polish counterpart Barthelemy Macieja the 1st place of the International Chess Open of Mexico after disputed its first 4 rounds.

The Caribbean, 2nd Cuba's player & 3rd in Latin-American, behind his compatriot Leinier Dominguez and Peruvian GM Julio Ernesto Granda, has got 4 wins in 4 presentations, in a contest to be played until next Sunday observing the Swiss system of 9 rounds.

Bruzón of 2678 Elo points, has defeated the Mexicans Jesus Carlos Arriaga, Javier Benitez and Luis Carlos Torres and Cuban IM Diasmani Otero.

Today in the 5th round, scheduled for 10 am, Bruzón faces with white pieces in dueling leaders, Polish GM Macieja Bartholomew, who has an Elo of 2599 units.

The Aztec lid, which involves chess players from 8 countries: Cuba, Poland, Germany, Argentina, Peru, The Philippines, The United States and the host, Cuba is the largest delegation after local players with 18, including GMs Jesús Nogueiras, Yuri González, Lelys Martínez, Omar Almeida and Lisandra Ordáz.

Boxing

The Cuban Javier Ibáñez reached on Friday his 2nd victory and advanced to the 2nd round of the World Youth Boxing Championship, which takes place at the Arena Sofia of the Bulgarian capital.

Ibáñez, 17 years old, won by unanimous vote against the Indian Sathis Kumar and now faces American Carlos Balderas Jr. on Sunday April 20th, who defeated Kenyan Said Baguani by technical knockout in the 3rd round.

Cuban light Alain Limonta will appear for the 2nd time tomorrow Saturday during the 6th day against Poland Eryk Gierman, while on Sunday 20th, besides Javier Ibáñez, will clash the cruise Yordán Hernández and Russian Andrey Shokov.

Ready for South American Beach Games in Venezuela

Venezuelan sports authorities focus today their attention on the final details of the 3rd South American Beach Games Vargas-2014, scheduled for next May 14 to 24 with the participation of 14 countries.

The Organizing Committee of the event stated this Thursday they have intensified the efforts 30 days prior to the beginning of the regional contest.

Among the key elements that define the success of the multidisciplinary meeting is the accommodation for athletes and staff, the safety of each delegation and sports arena, as well as cultural and recreational activities for the audience.

All these aspects are guaranteed with months in advance, pointed out the director-general of the Organizing Committee, Pedro Rodríguez, who informed the logistics progress in each subject.

As for lodging, we negotiated with hotels in the State of Vargas, which gave us the capacity to accommodate athletes, technical and support staff, he said.

Rodriguez explained that more than 2.500 officials will take part in the actions to protect the good development of the international event.

Vietnam Declines to Host Asian Games 2019

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said his country is not in a financial position to host the 18th Asian Games (ASIAD 18) to be held in Hanoi in 2019.

The nation becomes the third country to decline holding the games because of financial difficulties. The other two countries were South Korea and Pakistan.

The PM said the Politburo, the Party Secretariat and the Government were originally prepared to host regional and international games, including ASIAD, to help the country's sporting and socio economic development.

The Vietnamese Government thanked the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) for assisting Viet Nam in sports development in general and in backing Hanoi as host for the games; however, Viet Nam did not have enough experience at hosting such big sporting events, he said and added that there was also no plan to ensure the ASIAD organization would be a success.

The PM did not approve the ASIAD organization plan. There were different opinions about the purpose and meaning of hosting the event, particularly about funding. Dung said regional and international games would contribute to the country's socio economic development, but unless there was careful organization, there could be negative impacts.

The organization of big games in Viet Nam and throughout the world proves that sources of income from such events did not always equal costs.

He said structures built for such events were not used effectively after the events finished.

The PM said Viet Nam's socio-economic situation had many difficulties while the State budget was limited and must be used for investment in higher priority tasks, and there was no guarantee of returns from any investment in building projects for ASIAD, he said.

After considering all these factors, the PM instructed the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Hanoi authorities to return Viet Nam's host position; nevertheless, Viet Nam would register to host the event at a later and more appropriate time.