Yusnel Bacallao and Lisandra Ordaz Will Not Participate in the National Chess Tournament

Participants in the 53rd edition of the Capablanca Memorial International Chess Tournament in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 22 January 2019 – Cuban Grandmaster (GM) Yuniesky Quesada Perez shared on his Facebook account information from journalist Osmany Pedraza on the decision of Matanzas GM Yusnel Bacallao and Pinar del Río GM (absolute International Master) Lisandra Ordaz to not participate in the final stage of the national chess championships.

Automatically eligible, the two chess players, members of the national teams who participated in the last Olympiad of the scientific game in Batumi, Georgia, neither one has stated the reasons why they will not attend the domestic tournament.

As in the prior cases, once again it was Carlos Rivero González, president of the Cuban Chess Federation, who stated that they declined to participate due to personal reasons.

The information mentions that the women’s tournament begins in Holguin on January 28, while the men will begin to move the chess pieces on February 2 in Santa Clara.

Yuleisy Hernandez from the capital city will also not participate, although nothing has been said about this.

In the case of the Grand Master from Pinar del Rio, Lisandra Ordaz, many experts consider her among the three best Cuban chess players of the current century. Although she has never won a national tournament, she was the first to surpass the 2,400 ELO classification points hurdle and became the first Cuban to be recognized as an International Master, regardless of sex.

Bacallao, on the other hand, was called to occupy a greater leading role after the departures of Leinier Domínguez, Yuniesky Quesada and Lázaro Bruzón. The first days of January brought him a second place in the Zicosur 2019 chess tournament, which was won in Antofagasta, Chile, by the Peruvian José Eduardo Martínez.

Lisandra Ordaz is listed in 67th place among the first 100 women in the world rankings and is the first Latin American on the Elo list updated on January 1st.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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