Omar Almeida Ibero-American Chess Championship

Havana, February 18 (RHC)-- Cuban Omar Almeida faces the eighth round of the Ibero-American Chess Championship in ninth place, but only half a point behind the leaders: Spain's Jaime Santos, Argentina's Sandro Mareco and Paraguay's Guillermo Vazquez.

Almeida won the day before against the host Sion Radamantys Galaviz and reached 5.5 points, in a tournament hosted by the Los Pinos Cultural Complex, in the Mexican capital, and in which he will now be the opponent of Lance Henderson, from Andorra.

The member of the Cuban elite pre-selection accumulates four wins and three draws, and although by tiebreaker he is ninth in the standings, a win-based closing perhaps ensures him a place among the top five.

Santos and Mareco agreed a draw during the seventh date and that was taken advantage of by Vázquez to reach them in points: six. The latter defeated Brazilian Alexandr Fier and will meet Mareco in Round 8, while Santos will face Uruguayan Georg Meier (5.5 points).

Other players with 5.5 points and following the leaders -just like Almeida and his opponent Henderson- are Peru's Jorge Cori and Emilio Cordova, Uruguay's Andres Rodriguez and Juan Carlos Obregon from Cuba representing Mexico.

Signing his second consecutive draws cost Cuban Carlos Daniel Albornoz to remain discreet, just five points and 19th place, far from his intentions of approaching or improving the subtitle achieved in 2019.

In the most recent draw, his opponent was also Cuban Michel Alejandro Diaz, while for the eighth game he will face another fellow Cuban, Jony Wilson Leon.

Although there are still a couple of duels to close, the prize for the best woman has a strong candidate in the Cuban Zenia Corrales, who plays under the Aztec flag and with five points climbed to 22nd place among the 167 contestants. Source/ACN