After the perfect pace in the initial round, four Cubans will try to maintain that pace today in the Absolute Continental Chess Championship of the Americas 2024, in the Colombian city of Medellín.
Easy victories were signed by Luis Ernesto Quesada, Omar Almeida, Lelys Martínez and Daniel Hidalgo to be part of the 182 players who will take on the double Saturday round at the forefront of the tournament, which brings together more than 300 applicants for the four places available for the upcoming Copal world.
Such a situation is common in the tournaments with wide participation and agreed upon by the Swiss system, with more demanding duels reserved for the final stretch of the calendar.
Luis Ernesto, current monarch of the Island, defeated the host Nicolás Cuellar and as his next opponent appears the also local Jesús David Ojeda.
The coffee grower Sebastián Ortiz ended up as the first victim of Almeida, who will now face the Peruvian Fabián Reyes on the same date that Lelys will be in the middle with the local Germán Rodríguez and Hidalgo will imitate him against Jorge Emilio Torres, another representative of the house.
Lelys defeated Schmidt Marín in their debut and Hidalgo defeated Diego Tascón, both representatives of Colombia.
Favorites such as the American Jeffery Xiong, the Uruguayan Georg Meier and the Chilean Cristóbal Henríquez also fulfilled their roles with initial victories and will surely repeat without many setbacks in the two games that await them.
According to the competition program, 11 rounds will be played and there will also be disputes in the form of quick games and Blitz.
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