The Cuban-American Leinier Domínguez says goodbye to the Chess World Cup

July 20, 2021

The Uzbek Jakhongir Vakhidov eliminated the stellar Cuban-American Leinier Domínguez from the Chess World Cup, who paid dearly for his year and a half of inactivity in official tournaments.

After drawing in the two classical games corresponding to the second round of the tournament held in the Russian city of Sochi, both contenders faced off last Saturday in a series of rapid duels that, to many people's surprise, favored Vakhidov.

The Uzbek, number 523 in the world rankings with an ELO of 2534, triumphed with the white pieces in the opening match after 44 moves of an English Opening, where the Guinean committed a gross error that cost him the loss of material.

Later, forced to win, Domínguez (thirteenth in the ranking with a coefficient of 2758) went all out with the white pieces but was defeated again, this time in 59 moves of a Sicilian Defense.

In this way Cuba was left without representatives at the event, as Yasser Quesada, Lisandra Ordaz and now-Paraguayan Neuris Delgado had said goodbye yesterday, while in the first round Carlos Daniel Albornoz and Yerisbel Miranda had been eliminated.