Havana, December 19 (JIT) --Cuban Carlos Daniel Albornoz has more reasons to say goodbye to the year happily, after winning the XXXIII International Chess Tournament Carlos Torre in Memoriam 2023, held in the Mexican city of Merida.

The Chess Grandmaster from Camagüey, monarch in the 2018 and 2019 editions, scored seven points out of a possible nine, unreachable for the rest of the 84 players registered in the main group.

A draw in 31 moves of a Queen's Pawn Opening against Argentina's Leonardo Tristan marked the closing of a performance that included five wins and three other draws.

Albornoz had been on the verge of reaching 2,600 Elo points in the December update of the ranking, when he appeared with 2,599. His performance in the Aztec tournament gave him a gain of 1.5 units, so he will start 2024 with the challenge of surpassing the symbolic figure.

Although his name has been "sounding" for several seasons in national tournaments and away from home, the player from Agramontino will be only 23 years old next Monday and shows a talent capable of leading him to better results in the immediate future.

In the second position of the table anchored the Peruvian Jose Eduardo Martinez, king in 2022, with 6.5 rounded stripes with the division of honors against the American Kyron Griffith.

Colombian Jose Gabriel Cardoso signed a similar harvest after making peace with Cuban nationalized Mexican Leonel Figueredo, but the tiebreaker system led him to complete the podium.

The seventh and eighth places of Dylan Berdayes and Michel Alejandro Diaz, in that order, with 6.5 points each, also stood out among the results of the Cuban team.Yaniela Forgas, from Santiago, signed the best performance among women, with 5.5 points, valid for 22nd place in the ranking.The tournament, which since 1987 honors the well-known player from Yucatan, has had the participation of notable international figures such as the Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk, who reigned in three editions.It also usually marks the end of the competitive season for most of the top chess players in Latin America.