Cuba will face the fortieth edition of the 2012 Istanbul World Chess Olympiad with its elite team that include two players whose ELO is over 2700 for the first time in its participation in these events.
Grand Masters Leinier Dominguez and Lazaro Bruzón lead the Cuban squad to the tournament in Turkey, backed by their 2725 and 2711coefficients, respectively, which places them in the 23 and 36 places of the world ranking.
"My goal is not to stay undefeated, I consider most important to risk and win. I will try to get a win as many times as possible to contribute more to the team, "said Dominguez, who will play in the important first board for the Cuban squad and will rival superstars like Armenian Levon Aronian (2816), Russian Vladimir Kramnik (2797) or Azeri Teymur Radjabov (2788).
Leinier and Bruzón (youth world champion in Yerevan 2000) will compete alongside the GMs Yuniesky Quesada (2626) and Isam Ortiz (2569), in addition to the International Master (IM) Yusnel Bacallao (2583).
The goal of this team is to improve the historical greatest performances of Cuba in these events that took place in the World Olympics held in Novi Sad (1990) and Calvia (2004), when they finished in the seventh place among over 100 countries.
Individually, the five exponents dream to get gold medals in their respective boards to emulate the superb, exceptional and unmatched José Raúl Capablanca (former world champion) and also with Reynaldo Vera.
Capablanca, best Cuban chess player of all time and one of the most players in the history of this "sport-science", won a stunning gold medal on board one of the 1939Buenos Aires Olympiad, a feat repeated by Vera in 1998 Elista, but as a defender of the third board.
The Cuban team will attend the meeting in Istanbul, 2012, scheduled from August 27 through September 10, located in the world’s 17th place, with 2603 ELO points, distant from the leaders and favourite Russians (2745), and their escorts the defending champions Ukraine (2700), and France (2659).
Using some army jargon we can assure the Cubans are carrying state-of-art explosives to Istanbul, with two players above 2700, but the arsenal of the most powerful adversaries include all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, despite the absence of Indian Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Russian Alexander Morozevich or Azeri Vugar Gashimov.
Among the ladies, Cuba will have the GMs Lisandra Ordaz (2344), Oleiny Linares (2355), Sulennis Piña (2345), Maritza Arribas (2296) and Lisandra Llaudy MI (2264), the current national champion.
This squadron achieved its best historical performance two years ago in Khanty Mansiysk, when they finished fourth among 115 teams, standing out especially the golden medal won in the third board by GM Yaniet Marrero, absent without explanation in this new Cuban women’s chess adventure.
In the upcoming 40 World Chess Olympiad players will compete with 11 rounds in the Swiss system, with four boards for men and women.
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