The American Continental Championship took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia
from May 06th to May 15th. The tournament was especially important not only
because of the presence of almost every top Latin American grandmaster,
but also because the top four places qualified for the upcoming World Cup
in Tromso, Norway that will start in August.
Cochabamba is located in central Bolivia, and it derives
its name from the Quechuan words qucha which means "lake" and pampa
which means "open plain". The city is known as the City of Eternal Spring
as the average temperatures are very stable and pleasant throughout the
year.
The Waca Waca (NOT Shakira's version),
one of Bolivia's traditional dances, is a parody of Spanish bullfights.
In the picture is another Bolivian dance, the "Tinku"
Performers dressed in typical Bolivian
attire...
...and dazzling the players with their
moves.
Women's long dresses are known as polleras.
The tournament favourite was definitely Lazaro Bruzon, from Cuba, with
an imposing 2707 and almost 50 points ahead of his nearest rival. However
there was a significant presence of Latin American grandmasters as well
as one American grandmaster, Alexandr Lenderman, who had to decline his
participation in the concurrent American Championship due to personal
reasons.
The Cuban team enjoying a meal with
the beautiful rain forest in the background.
Despite a draw on this game against
Costa Rican IM Bernal Gonzalez,
Bruzon kept performing well throughout the first half.
The tournament saw relatively few surprises through the first half. Bruzon,
Granda, Iturrizaga and Ortiz Suarez remained solidly on top and it seemed
unlikely that anyone out of the starting top six players would make it
to the qualifying spots.
GM Osvaldo Zambrana, Bolivia's best
chess player,
came half a point shy of the World Cup qualification.
Iturrizaga vs. Ortiz Suarez was a draw
on round nine, and it seemed that they would
both cruise towards the finish line
However things took a dramatic change in the final round. Bruzon was
white against the much lower rated Jorge Cori and only needed a draw to
qualify. The Peruvian would not let this happen as he took the game and
the qualification spot for himself! Even more surprisingly, Jorge's sister
Deisy was playing on board four against Iturrizaga, a GM 200 points ahead
of her. The Peruvian spirit was strong that day as she also won her game
and not only knocked out Iturrizaga from the top honors, but she herself
qualified for the World Cup.
Deisy Cori's (above) claim to fame is her 2011 victory in the Women's
Junior World Championship. Now she is one of two girls qualified for the
Tromso World Cup, the other being Anna Ushenina who qualified by being
the Women's World Champion.
As if that wasn't enough for the Peruvians, on board one Granda, who
would have emerged victorious from the tournament with just a draw, won
with black against Axel Bachmann and took first place a full point ahead
of the field.
Granda showed his usual fighting chess
and annihilated the opposition, earning him a cool USD $5000
Note that both Coris qualified despite finishing fourth and fifth because
Granda had already qualified from the 2012 edition of this tournament.
Third place went to Diego Flores. Both Bruzon and Iturrizaga will have
a final opportunity to qualify for Tromso in their Zonal championship,
which was supposed to be held last month.
Final Ranking after 11 Rounds
