# Asela de Armas: farewell to a queen

**Date:** 07/12/2021

Asela de Armas Pérez won many games in the seventies and eighties of the last century, but unfortunately last Wednesday, July 7, she could not overcome the inevitable match, the opponent that no one can defeat.

But there are people who depart physically, after having fulfilled well the work of life, as the Master said, and they leave us a legacy like that of the International Master from Santa Clara, born on December 6, 1954.

Asela was a kind of trailblazer in women's chess in our country. Along with Ana Luisa Carvajal, she was among the first players to obtain the title of International Master, in 1978, after the triumph of the Revolution, since before 1959, María Teresa Mora had achieved the coveted distinction.

Asela was part of the first female Olympic team of the Greater Antilles, in Lucerne, 1982. She participated in these events on four occasions. During her period of greatest splendor, she coincided at first with Nora Laya, Ana Luisa Carvajal and later with the Grand Masters Zirka Frómeta, Vivian Ramón and Maritza Arribas, who, of course, at that time still did not possess the maximum distinction granted by FIDE.

She held the crown of national chess on nine occasions, a record figure, until the Santiago native Arribas surpassed her. Furthermore, she was one of the first women to participate in the Capablanca in Memóriam tournaments.