Cuban Carlos Larduet undefeated in universal chess event

Havana, November 8 (RHC/JIT)-- Carlos Larduet, from Santiago de Cuba, remained on Sunday as the only Cuban among the undefeated in the World Chess Championship for people with disabilities, which is played online and has already begun to raise the stakes after three rounds.

Larduet defeated with white pieces the Azeri Habibulla Aghalarov in a game in which he demonstrated the efficiency of his usual positional play, as commented to JIT the coach of the national team, Rodney Perez.

With this result, the 2006 runner-up among the blind and visually impaired reached three points to place ninth in the standings.

He is the most experienced in the group of eight Caribbean players participating in the current competition, so his good performance is not surprising. For Monday he has scheduled a match with black figures against Venezuelan Edgar Rivas, another player with three consecutive wins and who is in 17th place by tiebreaker.

The other Sunday victory for a Cuban was scored by Raul Leonardo Lavigne over the French Anouk Toulemont, in a complicated duel with sacrifices included in search of the attack. Now it shows two units and its next rival will be the Indian Marimuthu.

Karla Marrero's draw with Ecuadorian Andres Nevarez completed the positive results of the day, in which five setbacks were conceded.

"Mathematically it was not a good day, but the level of the opponents is starting to rise, something that happens in the Swiss system, because players of similar rating are facing each other", commented Rodney and assured that the mood of the group is still very good.

This time Idalis Batista, Elio Eddys García, Alberto Interián, Mario Pallerols and Lorenzo Alexis Simón suffered defeats.

The most unfortunate of them was that of Idalis, whose internet connection failed at a key moment of the game in which she had a favorable position, and when she recovered it, she was left with very little time to find the best moves.

So far 18 contestants appear with a perfect performance in three rounds, one of them the defending champion and Polish Grandmaster Marcin Tazbir.

After three editions held in person, this is the first event to be held remotely, through the game platform of the website www.tornelo.com and with a registration of 249 players from 44 nations.