Cuban Chess Players Advance in World Olympiad

HAVANA TIMES — The Cuba’s male and female chess teams swept to victory on Tuesday during the 40th World Chess Olympiad being held in the Turkish city of Istanbul. They won all of their matches on the first day, reported the Prensa Latina news agency.

The female squad, with Grand Masters Lisandra Ordaz (with 2,344 accumulated ELO points), Sulennis Pina (2,345), Oleiny Linares (2,355) and Maritza Arribas (2,326) dominated the entire match against Finland, which strengthened the Cuban team’s aspiration to repeat its historic fourth place showing two years ago.

The Cuban male team swept Japan 4-0 thanks to the work of grand masters Leinier Dominguez (2,725), Lazaro Bruzon (2,711), Yunieski Quesada (2,626), and International Master Yusnel Bacallao (2,583).

Yesterday the island’s chess players faced an international team composed of Czech player Milan Orsag, Serbia’s Vladimir Klasan, Sergei Salov of Germany, and Hungarian master Ferenc Frink, all members of associations whose chess players are deaf.