Cuba beats Colombia and ties with Spain in Chess Olympiad

Havana, August 4 (JIT) - The Cuban women defeated Colombia, while the men tied with Spain and remained among the top 10 teams in the Open segment of the Chennai Chess Olympiad, which has already covered six of its 11 rounds and this Thursday has a rest day.

With a score of 2.5-1.5 the Cubans beat the Colombians thanks to successes by Yerisbel Miranda and Yaniela Forgas.

Defending the first board Lisandra Ordaz agreed a draw with Melissa Castrillon, but debutant Ineymig Hernandez conceded the only setback to Paula Andrea Rodriguez on the fourth board.

The Cubans improved ten places and now occupy 20th place with nine points, in a ranking that has at the top the top team of India with a perfect performance of 12 points, after beating Georgia 3-1 on the day.

For the men, the 2-2 draw came after four draws. Yasser Quesada made peace with Alexei Shirov, born in Latvia, but naturalized Spanish for more than two decades, while on the second board Carlos Daniel Albornoz divided with David Anton.

In the sum as teams, the Cubans accumulate nine points and occupy eighth place, while individually they have only conceded two defeats, one by Yasser and the other by Luis Ernesto.

On Friday, the action will resume, with the Cubans taking on the India 2 squad in the gender-neutral competition, and the girls challenging the Mongolian team.

At the top of the standings is Armenia, with 12 points after beating India 2, 2.5-1.5.