Cuban Leinier Dominguez Wins in Dortmund and Enters the Top Ten of the World Rankings

Leinier Domínguez’s return to classical chess, after two years of inactivity, could not have gone better. (@STLChessClub)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, July 22, 2019 – Cuban Grand Master Leinier Domínguez was crowned champion Sunday at the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting of Dortmund, in Germany. His performance in this European event led him to rise the number ten position in the world rankings.

He greeted his followers this morning on his Facebook account and said he was “very happy to have won such a strong and prestigious event in the world of chess”

“Without a doubt [it’s] one of the best results of my career,” he added. Dominguez pointed out that the victory was not his alone and thanked his family and his wife for being the pillars of his life. “Now I will take a break and soon I will be competing again in St Louis Rapid/Blitz from August 8 to 15,” the chess player announced.

After dividing the center with the black pieces against the Polish Radoslaw Wojtaszek, the “Idol of Güines”, who now plays for the United States, finished the tournament with 4.5 out of 7 possible points. At the end of the competition he accumulated two wins, five draws and not a single defeat, as reported by ChessBase.

In this 47th edition of the event in Dortmund, eight chess players played in a round robin competition, with a time limit of 140 minutes for the first forty moves.

The Cuban was ranked second among the players at the tournamanent, surpassed only by the Russian Nepomniachtchi, who was defending his title but in the end took fifth place, with four points.

As a result of his victory this Sunday, Dominguez added three points to his ELO chess ranking that placed him in the top ten of the live chess ratings.

Other players who participated in the chess tournament were the Azerian Teimour Radjabov, Radoslaw Wojtaszek from Poland and the Hungarian Richard Rapport.

Since returning to chess, Dominguez has participated in three classic game tournaments, where he has won nine times, with 17 draws and only one defeat in 27 games, ten of those against chess players exceeding 2,700 ELO ranking points.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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