The Camagüey native has won three consecutive races. Murzin leads in the Elite group

Although most attention is focused on the actions in the Elite group, for Cuba the three victories of Ineymig Hernández from Camagüey in the Open segment of the International Capablanca in Memoriam Chess Tournament Varadero 2025 are the focus of all the attention.

A member of the women’s national pre-selection and ranked 52nd for her initial ranking of 2161 Elo points, Ineymig defeated Spain’s José Fernando Cuenca, number three in the pre-qualification of 119 players, on Monday.

Earlier she had celebrated smiles as the opponent of Cuba’s Elio Garcia and Kemel Gallo, and for the fourth round she will be sitting checkerboard to checkerboard with Colombia’s Santiago Avila, another who appears unblemished in the hall of the Hotel Melia Internacional in Varadero.

Also as part of that batch of those who go perfect are several of the favourites to fight for the prizes: the Cubans Dylan Berdayes and Omar Almeida, the Azeri Azer Mirzoev and the Canadian Alexandre Lesiege.

As for the Elite, the Russian Volodar Murzin has already «escaped» after defeating the Macedonian Evgeny Romanov in 76 moves of a French defence to remain the only one with two points out of a possible three among the quintet of entertainers.

With a draw in just 25 moves of a Queen’s Pawn opening, Russia’s Arseniy Nesterov and Denmark’s Jonas Bujh-Bjerre resolved their dispute at the other table. Cuba’s Carlos Daniel Albornoz had the day off.

After these results, Murzin was followed by Denmark’s Bjerre with 1.5 points, Albornoz and Nesterov with one each and Romanov with 0.5 points. It is worth clarifying that except for Bjerre and Murzin, all the others enjoyed the individual rest day in this first of the two rounds scheduled for the group.

Tuesday’s clashes will be at the expense of Albornoz-Murzin and Romanov-Nesterov. Bjerre will watch the action from the sidelines.