Villa Clara general manager Elier Miranda wants to join the Cuban Olympic team. Author: newspaper now

Something very curious happened this year in the finals of the National Chess Championship for both sexes. Although new monarchs were crowned at both fairs, the tiaras remained in the same provinces that have been resting since 2022. In the women’s competition, Yaniela Forgas from Santiago was unable to repeat her performance at the previous edition and passed the title to her compromising Oleiny Linares, and a few days before that, Yasser Quesada from Villa Clara, who did not participate in the competition, passed the scepter to Caibarién, home of the defending champion islands among men Elier Miranda.

Miranda’s first place was, from an individual point of view, the best performance of a 30-year-old grandmaster, and we’ll talk about that shortly. But when viewed from a general perspective, it confirms what many chess fans in Cuba are promoting for a variety of reasons: Villa Clara is a legitimate force in the sport. Not only in these times, since its power spans several decades.

After taking first place in Miranda, the central province showcases 15 scepters in the domestic men’s competition, distributed among seven chess players, according to data published by specialist Osmani Pedraza.

The most recent heading spoke to rebellious youth and he said that it is a great pride to belong to this list, which includes such great players as the late Guillermo Garcia and Jesus Nogueiras, from whom he was inspired. There are also brothers Yasser and Yunieski Quesada, his friends for many years.

“I think the key to Villa Clara’s success in today’s chess is in the coaches. Since I have been in this sport, I have always seen very good coaches. In my municipality there was Roman Lugones, from whom I learned a lot. In Santa Clara, it’s fair to talk about Osmani Pedraza or Eric Fernandez. Mention Miriam Martinez, for me the best commissioner in history, always supporting every athlete. In other words, behind these excellent results there is serious work that extends to all categories, ”he says.

Returning to the crown obtained by the man from Caibarién in Holguin, he established it by adding eight units and beating his closest pursuers by half a point, Lelis Martinez of Santiago, Carlos Daniel Albornoz of Camagüey and Luis Ernesto Quesada of Avila. His route left him with six wins, four draws, and a single loss to runner-up Martinez in the second round, adding 26 points to his live Elo ratio.

He admitted that he was not among the favorites to win the national final, a condition that members of the last Olympic team met, but he had a feeling that it would be a very close competition, since almost all participants had a chance to fight for first place. Every time a player from Villa Clara participates in a tournament, he strives to get the best possible position, and in the position that is in Holguin territory, he has kept it, but rather focused on showing his smartest game in every game , and if circumstances arise, such as happened, the fight is right for the scepter.

He started by defeating his compatriot Jerzy Jesus Pérez, and in the next match he lost to Lelis, a setback that hardly affected him, because it was clear to him that in the fight against eight grandmasters, failure could happen at any moment.

His next goal was to pull himself together, and he achieved it thanks to four truces and the same number of smiles before the farewell fight against Omar Almeida of Havana, whom he had to defeat in order to have a good chance of starting his first absolute reign. He admitted it was a tense game, but played it solidly and with some calmness, a tactic his coaches had advised him when it was a decisive match, and thus celebrated the victory over Almeida and the fulfillment of another dream.

Although defeating Omar, a strong, experienced chess player who had played on several Olympic teams and was accustomed to participating in national finals, definitely put him in first place, he considered the duel with Isan Ortiz from Holguin to be the key to his title. He explained that he was wrong, most of the time he was at a disadvantage, but Ortiz’s inaccuracy helped him channel his luck into the equalizing path. After that, he realized that he had a chance to lead the tournament, coming out unscathed from the most critical and difficult match he had ever experienced.

Elier’s criteria matched those of several experts when he claimed that the latest edition was among the most competitive in recent times. As a model, he pointed out that there were about six players with the same score at the top, three or four rounds left and a high percentage of decisions.

In one part of the conversation, the name of his father, Eduardo Miranda, who died in 2018, came up. He admitted that after confirming his title, the only person who came to mind was his father. There are many memories with him. He was the man who supported him and followed him to numerous tournaments in the country. He completely dedicated the greatest performance of his career to the memory of Eduardo and is sure that wherever he is, he is very happy and proud of his son.

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A participant in the Antilles selection, the national champion of two Pioneer Games, one school and two youth championships, considers Mexico a special country in his life. In sports, it had a very favorable effect on his progress, giving him the opportunity to compete in many competitions and win some of them, and on a more personal level, it gave him the opportunity to meet his wife Giovanna. For these reasons, it spends one season here and another there every year.

In the land of the Aztecs, he played his first competition abroad, during a version of the prestigious Carlos Torre Repetto International Tournament. in mind. At that time, he scored seven points out of nine possible, took the first places and confirmed his second grandmaster norm.

“For me, this tournament, which takes place in Mérida every December, is of great importance. In addition to reaching my second standard, it was there that I scored 2500 Elo points for the first time, which allowed me to complete the title of Grand Master. I’ve been playing this edition since 2499, I was only missing one unit, but there was always pressure to achieve a very important goal.

“Year after year I try to play it, I feel very good in this city, there are good conditions and pleasant attention to the athletes. In general I had positive performances, but in 2022 it was the only time I lost Elo points, in the last rounds everything did not go as expected, ”he said.

As he explained, it was in Mexico that he fulfilled the final requirement to become a grandmaster, which he considers to be the greatest dream of every chess player, since this aspiration has persisted since he started playing.

In his case, when he reached it, he felt a sort of relief, as in every fight he was under pressure to get the remaining points to reach or exceed the 2500 figure. With the title, gradually better opportunities in terms of contests and new invitations come up. from the organizers, added Miranda.

Elier confirmed that since he started his sports career, he has achieved several goals, the latest being the national scepter, and he appreciated that chess is a longevity-related discipline that helps him achieve other goals such as improving his Elo. , today at 25:17 and hone your game. However, the short-term illusion that excites him most is to secure a spot on the Cuban Olympic team. Let’s see if he will represent our country next year according to Budapest, Hungary.

Source: Juventud Rebelde