Chess for the Disabled

Havana, November 3 (JIT)-- Cuba will be represented with eight players in the World Chess Championship for People with Disabilities, which beginning Friday, the 5th, will be played online with more than 40 countries involved.

Carlos Larduet, runner-up among the blind and visually impaired in 2006, heads the Caribbean team that includes Raul Leonardo Lavigne, Alberto Interian, Mario Pallerols, Lorenzo Alexis Simon, Karla Marrero, Idalis Batista and Elio Eddys Garcia.

Several of them played a leading role in the 2020 World Olympiad, also held digitally, in which the islanders finished in 18th place.

Now the duels will be individual by the Swiss System in nine rounds and time of 45 minutes, plus 30 seconds of increment at the end of each move.

The game platform www.tornelo.com will be used again and the use of cameras will be mandatory while competing, as a measure in favor of fair play.

Sponsored by the International Chess Federation (Fide) and organized by Dresdner Schachfestival, the event has 250 confirmed participants and gives continuity to the editions held since 2013.

On that occasion, the Russian Stanislav Barbarykin, who, by the way, is among those registered this time, led the event. Two years later the also Russian Alexey Smirnov won and in 2017 the Polish Marcin Tazbir won gold. The latter leads the pre-qualification announced now and is favorite to repeat his coronation. 

The joust gathers people with visual or physical limitations, in all cases with updated medical check-up.