Havana.- THE UKRAINIAN Ruslan Ponomariov scored the only victory of the fifth round in the elite group of the 57th Capablanca in Memoriam 2024 International Chess Tournament, to face the final stretch towards the throne with greater advantage.
This Tuesday, Ponomariov moved the white pieces against the Dane Mads Andersen during 62 sets of a Catalan opening, which he sealed with his third success in the tournament. Thus he brought his total to four units, for the moment unattainable by the rest of his rivals.
Specialists gathered at the central Habana Libre hotel agreed to point out the changing course of actions on the board. At times the advantages changed from one side to the other, but when the duel was on its way to equality, the former world champion found the formula for success.
At the other two tables peace reigned, but not before seeing some skirmishes that could define a winner. In one, Carlos Daniel Albornoz from Camagüey shared honors with the Norwegian Evgeny Romanov after 35 moves of another Catalan opening, to settle in third place with 2.5 points.
«The game was very attractive. Albornoz always looked for interesting plays to maintain balance and achieving that at this level with the black pieces can be considered a good result,” he commented to HIT coach Rodney Pérez.
He considered the equality between Luis Ernesto Quesada from Ciego de Avila and Indian Aryan Chopra to be very beneficial, especially from a psychological point of view, in 35 touches of a Double Queen Pawn opening.
«It was a more “busy” game, perhaps with a slight advantage at some point for the Indian, but nothing significant. In the end, the repetition of the position that led to a draw was logical,” said the coach.
The current monarch of the Island had suffered two consecutive defeats, so saving half a unit against an opponent like Chopra can help him improve his performance during the second half of the contest.
After Ponomariov in the order, Chopra remained with three points. Then Albornoz (2.5) appears, followed by Luis Ernesto (2) and Andersen (2), while Romanov (1.5) closes the table.
THE OPEN WAS COMPLICATED AGAIN
Three wins in the open group of Capablanca 2024 combined with the equality agreed between the until then leaders in their particular confrontation to cause a multiple tie at the forefront.
Between the Cubans Ermes Espinosa and Dylan Berdayes the expected peace reigned and they remained at 4.5 points, a figure that is now also exhibited by the Frenchman Gabriel Flom and the locals Omar Almeida and Jorge Roberto Elías.
Flom defeated the Spanish José Fernando Cuenca, Almeida the host Rider Díaz and Elías the Colombian Sergio Barrientos.
SENIORS IN ACTION
With five leaders, led by Cuban Reinaldo Vera, they closed the first two dates of the section for players over 50 years of age, corresponding to the senior continental competition.
The multi-time national champion Maritza Arribas had a good start, achieving a victory and a tie to keep pace with the leaders with an accumulated score of 1.5 points.
Among those over 65 years of age, the summit appears more crowded, although none of the occupants managed to escape the two incursions successfully. The group of leaders is made up of 11 players with a harvest of 1.5 units, but the American Javier Torres appears as a reference thanks to the tiebreaker system.
