The National Library of Cuba José Martí (BNCJM), the Superior Latin American Chess Institute (ISLA), the Technological University of Havana (CUJAE), the Matanzas Provincial Sports Authority and the Villa Capablanca Local Development Project are convening the 8th edition of the Paul Morphy in Memoriam Friendship Tournament scheduled for Saturday , March 25, 2023, as part of the planned actions in the socio-cultural space “Open Library”.

This team match will be attended by players who represented the team of the National Library. José Marti, and young promising Cuban chess players who defended the ISLA Infantil 1 and ISLA Infantil 2 teams at the XIV Chess Festival of the Ibero-American Universities AJEDUNI 2022. a select presentation of the Matanzas chess school, CUJAE computer engineering students and students of the Villa Capablanca project.

As with previous releases of Topes by Teams, M.Sc. Amado Rene del Pino, BNJM Cuban Room Specialist; WGM Vivian Ramon, the first Ibero-American chess champion and Vice President of the Cuban Chess Federation; while CM Michel Iglesias Herrera and FM Dennis Orduñez Ecarte will be captains of their respective teams. The competition will be served by AF Merquiades Quintana Mesoner. The results of each round will be published in real time on chess-results.com. Newsworthy details related to Tope will also be published at www.bnjm.cult.cu.

Four teams, consisting of four starting boards and two substitutes – called ISLA, BNJM, CUJAE and Matanzas – will compete in the tournament. In the morning, an all-against-all phase (rounds 1, 2 and 3) is expected to be played, which will result in a rating from 1 to 4 depending on the points scored (two for a win, one for a draw). and not a single loss). In the afternoon, the 1st and 2nd places of the preliminary stage will fight for the first place in the competition, while the 3rd and 4th places will face each other to take the podium. The cadence of the game will be 20 minutes + 10 bonus seconds per game.

Individual results will be calculated for the International Chess Federation’s ELO Rapid ranking.

The first three editions of Topes Paul Morphy were run under the Scheveningen system, which was won by teams from BNJM (1st edition) and ISLA (2nd and 3rd edition). In the fourth and fifth competitions, the final format 4 was adopted, and in both cases the Matanzas team won, defeating their peers from ISLA and Villa Capablanca respectively. In the 6th edition, the BNJM team resumed their triumphant path by defeating the ISLA 1 team in the final. And in the last competition, which took place on February 18, 2023, the BNJM 1 team had to be content with falling to 2nd place in the final against CUJAE 1.

This tournament was first convened in May 2022 to pay tribute to the American master Paul Morphy (1837-1884), who is considered the first modern chess player and the first child prodigy in the history of chess. 2022 marked the 185th anniversary of his birth (New Orleans, June 22, 1837) and the 160th anniversary of his first visit to Cuba (October 17, 1862), which constituted the greatest milestone in the history of Cuban chess so far . . The figure of Morphy was also the central motif of El Pablo Morphy (1891-1892), published by the journalist Andrés Clemente Vasquez, the most important Cuban chess publication in the 19th century.

The mentioned competitive events are intended to create a permanent place for chess in future editions of the Open Library, as well as to strengthen the institutional ties between the BNCJM, the Cuban Chess Federation and the Sports University.