Chess Olympiad Budapest 2024

Havana, Sept 16 (JIT) - The Cuban team, with Maritza Arribas as a key figure, defeated this Sunday its Egyptian counterpart 3.5-0.5 and reached eight points out of a possible 10, in the women's segment of the Chess Olympiad of Budapest 2024, in Hungary.

The experienced player from Santiago signed one of the three victories in a day in which only the draw agreed by her fellow countrywoman Oleiny Linares in the first board prevented a perfect performance, after the successes of Yerisbel Miranda and Yaniela Forgas.

Maritza defeated Shahenda Wafa on the second board by moving white pieces during 31 moves of a Sicilian defense, in which she obtained a comfortable position in the center of the board, with pressure on weak points on the exposed king of her rival.

From the headquarters, coach Rodney Perez praised the good moment of the most veteran member of the Cuban team, who will arrive at Monday's game with an accumulated 3.5 units in four games.

The good performances of Yerisbel against Joy Romany and Yaniela against Yara Allam also contributed to the victory, while the division of Oleiny took place against Shrook Wafa.

For the time being, the Cuban team is in 21st place in the ranking headed by the teams of India, Armenia and Mongolia, the only ones that have managed to come out on top in their five matches.

In the open segment, the Cuban team lost 1-3 to the Netherlands, a result that matched the predictions considering the high level of the Europeans.

However, Carlos Daniel Albornoz agreed a meritorious draw with Anish Giri -one of the best in the world ranking- and Dylan Berdayes negotiated the same result in his duel with Max Warmerdam.

The same fate did not befall Luis Ernesto Quesada and Elier Miranda at the other tables, as they were defeated by Jorden van Foreest and Erwin L'ami, respectively.

It was the second defeat for the Cuban team in this section, an outcome that made them fall to the 51st step of the ranking, waiting to recover ground with a good result against the Japanese in the next round.

For now, Albornoz is playing the most outstanding role in the lineup, taking the lead in four of the five matches, in which he has achieved two successes and an equal number of draws.

The representations of India, China, Vietnam and Hungary completed their fifth victories and are in first place in that order, thanks to the tiebreaker system.