Leinier Domínguez shared 6th and 7th places in the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX

September 15, 2020

After a day in which he managed only a draw in three games, Grandmaster Leinier Domínguez fell in the standings of the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX and ended up sharing sixth and seventh place.

The Cuban-American, who had an inaugural dream day, lost in separate matches with black pieces against Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and American Fabiano Caruana, and split the point playing white pieces against world champion Magnus Carlsen, of Norway.

Thus, Leinier concluded the tournament with four points just like the French chess player and two points behind the top places shared by American Hikaru Nakamura and Carlsen himself.

In third place, Caruana and Armenian Levon Aronian finished tied, half a point from the top, and next was fellow American representative Wesley So, with five points.

The bottom of the standings was shared by now-Croatian Garry Kasparov (3.5), Russian Peter Svidler (3), and Iranian Alireza Firouzja (2.5).

In the end, the Idol of Güines received 8,750 dollars as a prize, while Carlsen and Nakamura each deserved 31,250.

Chess 960 is a variant created by former world champion Bobby Fischer in which the initial position of the pieces is determined randomly, although this process is subject to certain restrictions.