Qualifying Tournament Announced for Santo Domingo 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games

Chess will be featured for the second time at the Central American and Caribbean Games, and countries wishing to send teams to Santo Domingo in 2026 now have an official announcement for the qualifying tournament.

Hybrid Format to Award 15 Spots per Gender

The event is scheduled for the upcoming January 17 and 18. Thirty-one nations from the region are invited, and according to information released by FIDE America, the tournament will award 15 spots for each gender. The competition will be an 11-round Swiss-system hybrid event, with games set at 10 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move starting from the first move.

The hybrid nature means the matches will be played online, this time on the digital Tornelo platform. However, all team members from each nation must gather in a single room with a live-streaming camera, and the presence of an official arbiter is mandatory. This same format was debuted for the qualifiers to the San Salvador 2023 edition, with the Cuban team playing from the Hotel Habana Libre under the required conditions.

Cuban Representatives Yet to Be Fully Determined

A venue for the Cuban team has not yet been defined. Furthermore, the female representation has not been finalized; the two women who will play for Cuba will be determined at a qualifying event scheduled for December 2 in the city of Pinar del Río.

The women's tournament is expected to mirror the men's format, featuring rapid and Blitz duels. According to confirmations from the national commission, members of the national preselection team and three top-performing junior players from the current season—Jinela de la Caridad Rodríguez, Gretel Caballero, and Lorena Beatriz Montejo—are invited. The men's team has already held its qualifying tournament, with spots secured by the current national runner-up, Dylan Berdayes, and junior player Daniel Hidalgo.