Havana, March 29 (JIT) - Cuban Lennis Martinez won twice on Thursday and thanks to his better tiebreaker leads the 50th International Chess Tournament of La Roda 2024, in Spain.

The international master from Guantanamo defeated Victor Fernandez in his first duel of the day and then repeated the dose to Francisco Romero, both hosts. 

In this way, he kept a perfect pace and in the fourth round he will face the Indian grandmaster Chithambaram Vr. Aravindh, fifth among the 16 players who were successful in all their presentations.

Cuban international master Jorge Roberto Elías is also in that group, after defeating Austrian Elizabeth Halapa and local Carlos Tudela, both Fide masters.

The host Jose Ponce will be Elias' next opponent, when Cuban grandmaster Carlos Daniel Albornoz will face Polish Kacper Jarzebowski, with no international title on his record.

The Camagüey native, one of the favorites to fight for the throne, could not go beyond a draw in his encounter with Colombian Felipe Hurtado. In order not to lose sight of the leaders, he then managed to beat Spain's Gavril Draghici, so he advances with half a point behind in 22nd place.

A jump to the leading positions will depend on what he can do in the remaining six rounds of the tournament, governed by the Swiss System.

Albornoz will be one of the two Cuban exponents in the main section of the 57th International Chess Tournament Capablanca in Memoriam 2024, with category 15 of the International Federation, scheduled from May 2 to 12.

On the other hand, Cuban Yaniela Forgas defeated Spanish Javier Cinza on Thursday, rounded up five points and is in tenth place in the San Sebastian Chess Open 2024, after seven rounds.

His teammate Lelys Martinez was left on 4.5 units, after conceding a costly setback to India's Nutakki Priyanka. He fell to 16th place in the ranking, dominated by host Daniel Alcina with six.