Chess

Cuban Chess player Leinier Dominguez devided the point with Russian Evgeny Tomashevsky in round eight of the FIDE Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia on Friday.

The Cuban chess player had beaten Peter Svidler in 38 moves of a Spanish opening on round seven on Thursday.

Two other wins for white in round seven included American Hikaru Nakamura and Dutch Anish Giri. None of the three winner players could catch up to Italian Fabiano Caruana with 5 points.

The leader of the last rounds Italian Fabiano Caruana lost for the first time and now shares the lead with Leinier Dominguez and Hikaru Nakamura with 5 out of 8 points after eight rounds.

Cuba Domadores qualify for WSB Final after first leg victory over Mexico Guerreros

A dominant 5-0 victory in Havana on Thursday from Cuba Domadores over Mexico Guerreros extended their undefeated run in Season V of the World Series of Boxing (WSB) to 15 matches, and qualified the Caribbean team into the WSB Finals for the second year in a row.

The Sport Campus writes that only four matches were able to take place in the second leg due to Light heavyweight (81 kg) Carlos Mina being unable to weigh-in and compete, which made Cuba’s five match lead impossible to overhaul.

From the opening seconds of action Cuba displayed the skill and speed that has personified their boxing style for decades, while Mexico impressed despite fielding an inexperienced team which included three boxers making their season debut.

This was Cuba’s ninth whitewash victory of the season, and defeating them in the Final will be a hugely difficult task for either Astana Arlans of Kazakhstan or the Russian Boxing Team.

 Cuba, U.S. wrestlers tussle in Times Square

World class wrestlers from Cuba and the United States celebrated the improving relations between the countries on Thursday with an outdoor exhibition amid the hubbub of Times Square.

Billed as "Salsa in the Square," the event opened at rush hour and ended at nightfall with Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs registering the only pin of the showdown, taking down Luis Esteban Quintana Martinez in a bout lit only by the massive electronic screens that dominate the area.

The U.S. team of Olympians and world championship wrestlers won nine of the 13 bouts against their Cuban counterparts, but the event went well beyond bragging rights.

"This is an excellent tournament, an excellent opportunity," Cuban team leader Eduardo Perez told Reuters news agency.

"We appreciate the invitation. This is something that we hope to build on, to come back again and it will make the United States and Cuba strong.

MLB Plans For Cuba Exhibition Next Spring

Major League Baseball hopes to move ahead with plans for an exhibition game in Cuba next year, The Associated Press reports.

This was announced as Havana and Washington are finalizing talks to restore diplomatic ties.

U.S. teams played spring training games in Cuba before the 1959 revolution, but none appeared there from March 1959 until the Baltimore Orioles played Cuba’s national team in Havana in March 1999. The U.S. Major League Baseball has not returned since.

“I’d like to say that we would do something in Cuba in the spring,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said on Thursday. “I still remain optimistic about that.”